School is meant to be a place of learning, which can propel its students to do greater things in life.  It provides people with the opportunity to get a job, become a more educated individual, and ultimately a more contributive member of society.  School tries to prepare you for success in the real world, but can never perfectly simulate what it will actually be like.  Upon graduation, every student realizes the harsh reality that is the real world.  Getting a job and being completely independent is quite a scary thought to a young person who has been under the influence and helping hand of others since birth.  Despite never actually graduating from college, Kanye West perfectly encapsulates the experience through his album cover.  Kanye’s “Graduation” album cover, created by Takashi Murakami, is a visual metaphor for life after graduation.

When I look at this album cover, the first thing I see is a massive cannon literally shooting out a bear that is meant to be Kanye West himself.  As well as it being the focal point of the piece, I think it is also the focus of what Kanye is trying to get across through his artistic metaphor.  Having not graduated college yet still becoming incredibly successful, Kanye probably sees college as not being for everybody.  Through his album cover he is criticizing a students state after receiving a degree.  After graduation, a student is shot into the real world to get a job and support his/herself.  The cannon itself symbolizes a harsh reality due to its spiky black teeth and non-sympathetic eyes.  The contrast in attitudes between the bear and his friends shows how quickly ones life changes after graduation.  The friends of the bear are happily still celebrating their graduation, however, the bear whom has just been thrusted into a new life has a blank stare exemplifying his new serious attitude.  The bear is still wearing his varsity jacket from the university, probably signifying that he has not yet completely let go of his college life and might not even be prepared for what is next.  His eyes look onward to an unknown destination.  The coloring where he is headed is dark purple possibly foreshadowing a rough start to independent life.  All of these are examples of how the cannon shooting out the bear is a metaphor for post-graduation life. In addition to the cannon, other elements in the cover also add to the symbolism.        

The background of the album is also a metaphor for life after graduation.  There is a beautiful fade of colors from orange into purple which looks like a sunset.  The sunset suggests that the bear is leaving the comfort and euphoria of college to enter a dark night.  The fact that he is entering into a dark future could foreshadow either a harsh beginning or an unprepared start to life without a structure given to him.  The area that the bear is heading towards is not only a darker purple color, but it also begins to form clouds.  The clouds could mean one of two things that share a commonly negative outcome: shade or storms.  With shade comes darkness, which only adds to the darkness that the bear is approaching in the dark purple background.  This could foreshadow a catastrophic event in the bears’ life or maybe even a depression from the new life that the student will lead.  Storms are a common tool used by authors and artists to symbolize and foreshadow rough times.  The bear may have rough times coming in his new life involving his new job or career search. The background as a whole adds to the metaphor that is a students’ hard life after graduation.  Taking a step back while analyzing this album cover brings another element into the comparison.   

The medium with which the cover is crafted also adds into the multiple examples of how Kanye’s album sums up a students’ post-graduation life.  As mentioned earlier, school is a place that can prepare a student to achieve his/her dreams.  The album cover is a very unrealistic cartoon, which can bring up a comparison to a dream.  This dreamy feeling that the artwork gives off symbolizes the dreams of the bear and his hopes of achieving those.  The fact that most inklings around the bear hold a negative connotation indicates that he may not achieve those dreams.  Based on the examples previously stated it seems relatively safe to say that in this one case, school did not properly service this student.  This makes sense seeing that the bear is meant to represent Kanye, who did not graduate.  From his point of view if he were to complete his schooling it would not have aided him in achieving his dreams and could have possibly held him back.  The cartoonish and dreamy nature of the cover represents students’ dreams and personally symbolizes Kanye’s private view on how a degree would have suited him. 

Through all of these examples, Kanye’s intentions through his album cover can be uncovered.  Students’ post graduation troubles as well as Kanye’s thoughts on how a full education would have prepared him are examined in the piece.  Although school and higher education can be a very useful tool for some, this may not be the case for others.  There are so many examples of extremely successful individuals, such as Kanye, who have not used society’s approved path to success, which is college.  School is not the only place where you can develop your mind and though most of us still need college, we can still learn from this advice given in the album cover.       

 