Discussion & Reflection

In section 3, there is a sequence of photos in which the protagonist is confused because he is having trouble finding foods that he is familiar with, like bread and milk. He is offered some odd looking foods by a man and his son, but is reluctant at first to try them.

I feel that this sequence of images is symbolic in a few ways. For one, it symbolizes the lack of familiarity that immigrants are faced with when they leave their home country and go to a place that they know very little about. Customs, practices, and most obviously food in this case, may not always be the same or similar to what the immigrant is used to, so they must assimilate to whatever the norm is in their new country.

This sequence is also symbolic of the cultural diffusion that occurs due to immigration and mixing of different kinds of people within a region, which is the good that comes out of the sort of “forced assimilation.” The man and his son were glad to show the protagonist how to eat the unfamiliar foods, and seemed to explain to him what they were so that he could become more comfortable and knowledgeable about them.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan, is a novel told through a series of illustrious black and white images. It depicts the journey of a man settling in a foreign country. The protagonist is leaving his country and his wife and daughter likely in hopes for a better future. The protagonist arrives at this new country and is an unfamiliar environment, barely able to communicate. The front cover symbolizes his bewilderment in the new environment as he stares at a strange animal baffled by it. This animal, which he meets once he finds an apartment, accompanies him throughout the novel. The protagonist’s inability to communicate is first shown in an amusing way when he is at customs and does not understand what he is being asked and gestures wildly with perplexing facial expressions.

The book shows many surreal things, such as the structure of the buildings, the animals, the language and the flying ships. These images stand to show the unfamiliarity immigrants often feel in a new country. The land itself seems odd. In this novel, Shaun Tan represents the story of many foreigners as they enter a new country when they are well acquainted with the language of and customs of the country. Everything seems new in a place unknown. To the protagonist, even the light bulb seems new as he lightly taps it not knowing what it is. Also, when he tries to put up a sign, he ends up putting it upside down as he is unable to read the words. This journey is not easy for him. However, with the kindness of strangers and other immigrants that he meets who have fled various difficult situations, he is able to get basic things such as food, and later on, a job.

The one thing that seems to keep the protagonist going even through his hardships is the remembrance of his family. Through the depiction of the man’s native country as being overshadowed by dragon tails, one can assume that the situation in his country is not safe. Therefore, even with the problems in his new country he continues to strive for better. He often looks at the portrait of his wife and daughter longingly and is visibly happy when they arrive. In the very end of the novel, the man’s daughter is shown giving directions to presumably a foreigner. This perfectly shows the cycle of a foreigner works: you enter the country as a foreigner and receive help from the natives of the country, settle down and become a native, and then serve as a guide to another foreigner.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan is a beautiful and moving book illustrating the trauma of immigration and all its loneliness and discovery. The book is a graphic novel and utilizes absolutely no written language. There are many peculiar elements  and fantastical images within this book that actually relate to the scary and frightening things real people go to that make them want to leave their homes.

The book starts out very realistic and straight forward, showing us a man leaving his family on a train to get to a new country. But right when this first chapter ends, Tan draws the man’s wife and daughter coming back home without him, and long shadows of the spiked tail of some kind of lizard-monster can be seen in the clouds above them. This is the first element of surrealism and for me it set a very ominous tone for the book. I began expecting more scary surreal elements, and I found them. But there are also magical things of beauty and innocence awaiting.

When the protagonist reaches his new city, he is bombarded with new symbols and people and buildings like he’s never seen before. The author created an interesting hieroglyphic written language for the text that makes no sense to either the protagonist or the reader. This was brilliant thinking. In making the book, his goal was really to have the reader feel the experience of being an immigrant in all its anxiety, fear and excitement. That partly why no one in the text speaks: he can’t read or understand anyone, and so neither can we. He draws objects in a notebook to try and communicate with the people he meets, and that is also how we understand what is going on. It is almost like we are the protagonist, since we can only understand what he understands, no more or less.

Because of this idea Tan sets up for us, I theorized that all the fantastic elements were also a device to illustrate things characters were feeling or experiencing. His wife and daughter, for example, were experiencing fear and loneliness after he left them, and we experience it with them because of the visual in the sky. The monster in the skies might represent that the country they are living in is colonized and is in a state of war- like being taken over by a dark beast. That would give them a reason to leave. Likewise, all the unusual food and objects and animals he comes across are to further illustrate how different his new environment is from his old one. In reality, the same kinds of fruit and vegetables and animals are found in many places in the world. It is funny to think that bread would look so drastically different from one place to another but thats how he experienced it being in a new place.

When the protagonist meets new people, he learns of their experiences. One man he meets, a grocer, tells him that he escaped his home country with his wife. In their homeland, giant beings in suits were sucking up his people with machines. My guess is this was supposed to symbolize the implementation of some kind of concentration or internment camp: people being forced to flee or they will be stolen away and put somewhere mysterious. These are a select few of such symbols and elements Tan uses in The Arrival to connote and demonstrate what immigrants go through.

Lucia Lopez

Before the 19 century, most Americans considered the path to success to be simple, consisting of hard work and integrity. These are the values that the novel Ragged Dick, written by Horatio Alger, is based on. This became one of the most influential books of the 19^th-century despite the fact that modernization and industrialization changed American society’s view on the formula for success .

Ragged Dick was actually the first book to depict New York City in a positive light, claiming that one could reach success through hard work and honesty. However, people living in the city knew the reality; unsafe working conditions, abusive bosses, and the increasing gap between the rich and the poor made New York City a symbol of exploitation and gloom. This darker version of New York was portrayed in the book Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane, where a young girl gets trapped in the city of despair because of her lack of wealth or support.  This negative view stemmed from the fact that although New York City became the center of finance and industry, immigrants in the city and those living in poverty did not see as much economic and social growth as the rich. This time would become known as the Gilded Age.

The late 19^th century saw the end of mastery and apprenticeship and welcomed the beginning of urban bossism. These men that followed the path to become archetypal robber barons, using their frugality and hard work to climb the economic ladder and create businesses, became “New York’s heroes.” Significantly wealthy businessmen such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie went on to form monopolies on businesses including petroleum, steel, and more. This caused two main outcomes: the first being that the role of government in the economy was being looked over, and the second being that due to initially weak regulations, trusts increased and became central to New York’s corporate-based economy.

Along with conceptual changes, the city saw physical symbols of what New York became. The Statue of Liberty replaced the Liberty Bell as the symbol of freedom, granting those who met it as they passed through Ellis Island a breath of fresh air away from poverty and sadness. The Brooklyn Bridge, opened in 1883, represented the connection between capital and labor in their pursuit of progress and success. When the 5 boroughs combined, New York became the second largest city in the world. Suddenly, the optimistic view that Alger held in the beginning seemed more true to life. However, now that New York City had accomplished so much, what would it do with its wealth and power?

The emergence of a new capitalistic economy came with the emergence of a new political system as well. This was best exemplified by Tammany Hall, where William M. Tweed connected the city’s conflicting interests from 1865 to 1871, albeit with a corrupt system. Although he was never mayor, he held just about every other position he could, ranging from school commissioner to congressman. His followers would also serve in government, forming what would be known as the Tweed Ring. Under him, schools were built, the Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park were constructed, and bills were passed to help the city’s disadvantaged. This did not all come out of good will, however; many new immigrants voted for him in exchange for naturalization and people who worked for him were rewarded with more governmental power. The only groups that did not like Tweed were blacks and advantaged Protestant reformers, the former because he used race to appeal to white people and the latter because he centralized power with his corrupt ways.

Tweed’s reign obviously did not last, and he was put in jail until his death at 55. His legacy, however, did, and corruption did not escape New York City’s government so quickly. This pushed peopled to fight against the “poison” affecting the city and made good government a national priority.

Still, there remained the issue of poverty and suffering of the lower class. Some believed the poor to be inferior, unable to get themselves out of their class, while others believed that they could be helped. Despite what sides they were on, people were concerned with the effects that the extreme levels of poverty could cause such as violence and social instability. Journalists played their part by exposing urban poverty, a significant piece being Jacob Riis’ “How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York.” In this book, Riis used photography and social science to expose the horrible conditions of tenements and the experiences of those living in them. Journalists like Riis inspired a movement of social reform, causing businesses to revisit their standards and working conditions. As society’s standard of living rose, the perceptions of those living in poverty changed.

This was also a part of the economic reform that took place during the Gilded Age. Because low wages and poor labor conditions meant unemployment and instability, reformers fought for change so that the progress and success of the economy would be reflected in the people who made it possible.  People would riot and mob the streets, demanding that employers change the way they treat their employees. Labor unions were created, and the American Federation of Labor came to fruition in 1886. The people’s fight against these problems changed the dynamic between bosses and employees as companies began to change policies and labor laws were created.

Although New York is not very old of a city, it remains one of the most important both economically and culturally. Its ways of addressing issues as the city grows is interesting and unique, proving that Horatio Alger’s positive view of the city may not be so unrealistic.

 

Memories, history, family… these are all the things that I thought of when I first opened the graphic novel The Arrival by Shaun Tan. The details in the artwork evoke these feelings. The artistry of the publication and title pages makes me think of an old family scrapbook. Let’s start with the actual pages: on the publication and title pages the artwork never ends. Unlike the pages in the rest of the book (except for the chapter pages) on these pages there is no border or edge it covers the entire page. The artist went to great lengths to make the pages appear to be yellowed, weathered, and frequently used. They look as if they had been bound in the pages of an old book.

The black and white image on the center of the title page appears to be a photograph taped to the page. It’s of a man with his back to the ‘camera’. By not sharing the man’s face on the cover page, Tan manages to make the book a part of everyone’s history. The man could be anyone, from any family, with any background. It makes the story instantly relatable. It’s the story of many people’s families… of mine, yours, your neighbors, etc. The detail in this part of the page is amazing. Tan even shows the tape in such a way that it appears weathered and old. The dedication, too, adds to the feelings of anonymity: “For my parents”. While we do know who the author is, the dedication to parents without names makes it also feel like it could be anyone’s family.

Tan introduces a history in just the publication and cover pages. The reader can tell the focus of the book by the title alone, but in keeping with the effect of the image it also helps this book represent everyone’s story. The title is: The Arrival, not The Arrival to __ or The Departure from ___. No specific location is mentioned. In keeping with this idea of immigration, the publication page includes an immigration inspection card with publication information on it. An inspection card is something that a family member might keep. What appears to be scraps of stamps, too, are included in the publication page with the scrap of another page that includes more publication information.

Shaun Tan’s artistry helps every reader relate and remember their families and histories.

Shaun Tan, the illustrator of The Arrival, documents the immigrant experience in his book through a series of hand-drawn images. The book follows a man who migrates alone to a new land and struggles to make a living. The man, initially lost and confused in the new world, finds a job and is able to bring his family over with him. He establishes a life in the new world with his family and new friends.

Shaun Tan doesn’t only share the man’s story, he gives the reader a way to share the man’s experience. Tan does this by incorporating realistic images in an imaginative world that is strange to both the protagonist and the reader. The illustrator puts e
asily recognizable and familiar human faces in a fictional environment. The protagonist is surrounded by strange creatures, buildings, modes of transportation and food, all of which make him feel lost and confused. However, the strangest thing that both the reader and the protagonist encounter in the book is the language. Shaun Tan uses language in his book to help the reader connect to the protagonist and share the protagonist’s feelings of fear, and helplessness in a new land.

The first glimpse of language serving as a barrier for the protagonist is when he arrives in the immigration center and seems to be doing an interview. The page shows the protagonist in a series of images with small pieces of paper containing symbols stuck on his clothing. The protagonist’s body language suggests that he is confused. He puts
his hand near his ear, shrugs, scratches and lowers his head, and then holds up a picture. The final image in the series shows the protagonist looking to the side and gripping his hat which suggests that he is worried. In these images, the protagonist is facing the reader directly and it’s almost as if the man is speaking with the reader and having trouble understanding what the reader is saying. The reader feels shares the man’s sense of confusion and uncertainty.

When the protagonist finally arrives in the city, he ends up drawing a picture of a bed to ask for housing and using pictures to find food. The buildings all around him are covered in the strange letters. The reader and the protagonist both have trouble knowing what to do next and it’s almost as if the reader figures it out with the protagonist. Because the language is strange to both parties, they both learn and experience the new world together. For example, when the protagonist gets a job putting up posters, the reader is happy for him and shares his sense of triumph. However, the reader also shares his sense of confusion and helplessness when his boss arrives and shows that all the posters are upside down.

Being able to connect with the protagonist on an emotional level allows the reader to really appreciate the immigrant experience. Through the strange language and letters, Shaun Tan is able to make any reader, immigrant or not, feel what it is like to be a person in a new and unfamiliar world.. In turn, this creates a bond of sympathy and understanding between the reader and the protagonist because the reader has a greater grasp of the struggles of an immigrant.

Shaun Tan’s The Arrival is, in essence, the framework for nearly every immigration story, from the melancholy departure, to the job search, to the bringing of the rest of the family to the new world. In the protagonist’s experiences in the foreign land he migrates to, a surprisingly essential element of the journey is the companionship by the “pet” he adopts upon moving into an apartment.

I find that the pet is an extension of the protagonist’s self in many ways—his instinctual self. It is the pet that encounters the girl that helps him decipher the map of the city, the pet that finds him food, and the pet that finds him his first job hanging up posters. The protagonist’s pet displays many of the same qualities as the protagonist such as his playfulness and youth-like curiosity, but it seems as though every person the protagonist encounters has a similar pet unique to him or herself. The pet is foreign yet familiar and is the protagonist’s only permanent sense of companionship in the foreign land he’s arrived at.

In general, the immigration narrative is often one of perseverance and survival, and the pet may be representative of the sense of self one must seek in retaining when immersed in a new world. Each character, no matter a recent immigrant or not, originated from somewhere and has a culture and background unique to him or herself that is embodied in that person’s pet. Even when the protagonist’s family arrives in the foreign land, they eagerly adopt the pet as an extension of the life the father has set up in this new world, but more so, the life he has preserved from the old.