Shaun Tan’s The Arrival uses whole pages to display visual media elements often seen in film, such as panning outward to expand the storyline of the main character to a whole generation of immigrants.
The opening sequence of Part II begins zoomed on a picture of the nameless protagonist’s family. The sequence continues with a frame by frame pan outwards. We see that the protagonist somberly sits in front of the picture while eating. As the image zooms outward, we realize that not only is our protagonist suffering this lonely journey, but also thousands of other immigrants have left behind their families to help them survive. In this sequence, Tan manages to enamor the reader with the personal story of the protagonist, while also connecting his story to the overarching history of immigration in the late-19th to early-20th Century. The outward pan sequence that begins Part II establishes the protagonist of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival as an Everyman in immigrant history.
