The Surreal images in The Arrival greatly contributed to portray the life of an immigrant in a new world. One particular image that I’d like to reflect on is described by the food vendor. After the main character meets the vender and his son, he describes what was happening in his hometown. The vendor relates to his experience which was illustrated showing three giant masked figures walking over a town and sucking up people with some kind of vacuum. The imagery shows the vulnerability of the people in that town. In the image, people are running away in hopes of escaping the vacuum. We can see that the vendor feels removed from his hometown by force. The streets of the town are light in color while the vacuum is pitch black, demonstrating the vendors feelings towards his world and the vacuum. Moreover, the size of the people in comparison to the giants holding the vacuums shows how inferior the people felt compared to the other force. The following sequence of images shows the vendor and his wife hiding in manhole and it ends in them holding each other surrounded by tall buildings in a dark scene. The sequence of images is effective in portraying the the gloom of the scene because it starts off focusing on the vendor and his wife, but the last image zooms out and shows their surroundings and how small they are compared to what is going on around them. I also took note of how the sequence started out in a lighter color but as the couple was hiding in the manhole see images turn black and white and all the color from the images is gone. The change in color is attributed to the change in the mood of the scene. The use of color and imagery in the arrival was very effective in conveying the reality of the immigrant struggle.
