Tag: The Arrival

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.

Prior to the start of Shaun Tan’s graphic novel The Arrival, Tan includes a two- page section composed of sketches of immigrants, a publication page, and two title pages. These five pages all evoke the idea that Tan’s graphic novel can relate to all immigrants, instead of just one single immigrant. Tan’s sketches show the diversity of the immigrant pool by displaying people of different ages, sexes, and ethnicities. Tan continues this diversity on the first title page where the title of the graphic novel and Tan’s name is written in symbols, reflecting how foreign the country is to immigrants.

Similar to the immigrant sketches, Tan shows diversity through the documents that are imprinted on the first title page. The documents on the first title page are inspection cards, date of birth cards, and other cards that are printed in different languages and show varying types of handwriting. Including documents that are in more than one language emphasizes unity, since it shows how every immigrant experienced entering a foreign country in the same manner. Also, these documents show how all immigrants were almost subjected to being defined through various documents when they immigrated, which removed some differences between immigrants and unified them slightly.

The most noteworthy aspect of this whole section is found on the second title page. On the second title page, Tan includes a drawing of the main character. However, the drawing is a one-fourth profile of the man looking to his left in a suit and jacket. Not including the man’s face in the drawing is striking because it prevents the reader from having a bias against the main character. Instead, the reader just views the main character as a male immigrant rather than looking solely at his race or age. Also, because the man’s face is angled so that it is looking back, it shows that the man seems to be longing for something, such as his family or his home country. The angle of his face could also be included to allow the audience to understand how immigrants felt reserved and alone when coming to a different country.

Essentially, the picture ties the whole motif Tan is evoking throughout the first few pages. It shows how the feelings and homesickness of the man are shared between all immigrants, and they all experience the same examinations and struggles when entering the United States. Instead of focusing on a single man, Tan wanted to show how immigration is the same for everyone; thus, evoking a motif of oneness between all immigrants.

Shaun Tan’s graphic “novel,” The Arrival, has amazing detail and thought put into every page, and the title and publication pages are no exception. Before readers even start to view the story, they are greeted by sepia tinted and worn-out looking pages that bear the title, publication information, and various illustrations that tie into details found later in the book. The pages are meant to look like old, stained pieces of paper, similar to the state one would find a letter or photograph from their great-grandparents’ time. This choice in design is especially fitting, given that The Arrival is an immigrant story, and many immigrants’ most prized possessions hold personal memories, like letters from loved ones and family pictures.

The title page features the title, author, and publishing company name, along with a square photograph of the protagonist of this story. The man in the picture is facing away from the camera, but can be easily identified by his hat and suit as the protagonist. Those who have already read The Arrival recognize that this person in the photograph is the main character, but to others, it could just be an another immigrant. Tan’s decision to conceal the man’s face and give him anonymity reinforces his purpose of making sure that The Arrival is a story that all immigrants can relate to – the absence of names, locations, and in this case, a face, serve to make this story about the universal immigrant’s experience. Bordering the photograph are adhesive tape marks, which add to the aged and personalized feel of the page.

Written on the opposite side of the title page are the dedications and publication information. The publication information is cleverly formatted in rectangular boxes made to resemble travel document attachments. Details like the large “Inspection” tag written on the top, and in the corner, “Ships list,” and other illegible words imply that this was part of a travel ticket for someone emigrating by boat ride. On the inspection ticket, letters belonging to the strange language invented by Tan that are used throughout the novel are stamped on the side, and other stamps with this strange language accompany it on the right side of the page. These stamps contribute to the page’s resemblance of a travel document. Given these details and the square photograph on the opposite page, one can assume that these documents are what the protagonist used in his journey to a new country.

Shaun Tan’s use of his invented language in the publication page and throughout the novel is an ingenious way of making sure his story applied to all immigrants. Without distinguishable letterforms, the readers have no way of figuring out where the protagonist is from or what country he is settling in, and the science-fiction like drawings of his past home and his new home make sure that no specific setting is implied. The straightforward details of The Arrival are left ambiguous – readers never find out the main character’s name, where he is from, and where he immigrated to – but such a decision strengthens the plot, and strong emotions are still conveyed through illustration only.

Shaun Tan’s The Arrival documents the story of a man who immigrates to a new land by using visually striking illustrations. The protagonist encounters new and strange things in this new land as many immigrants did when they moved to a new place. It is unclear where the place the protagonist immigrates to due to the strange writings, animals, plants, food, and architecture.

The architecture of this new land is huge and expansive. Compared to the small worn down houses of the protagonist’s home land, the buildings of the new land seem updated and larger than life.  The tall and beautifully designed buildings of this advanced new world are accompanied by statues that depict people or animals in a rounded fashion. When the group of immigrants are first coming in on the boat, they first see the statue of two people shaking hands. Most of them have never seen a statue so grand and so welcoming. When I first saw this, it immediately reminded me of the Statue of Liberty that many of the immigrants who came to New York City first saw when they arrived to America. Just like how the Statue of Liberty is meant to welcome the immigrants to New York, I think this statue is meant to accept the immigrants into the new land.

Tan plays with the idea of the grandness of the architecture of this city versus the smallness of an immigrant who has just come to this city. In many instances, the people look like ants compared to the colossal towers. One instance is towards the beginning of the protagonist’s life in the new land where the thousands of people waiting to be documented in the immigration center is juxtaposed by the towering buildings with writing that no one understands on it. This allows the reader to understand how small the new immigrants must feel in a new culture. The protagonist struggles to talk to the people or read the new language so he resorts to a primitive way of communication like drawing and hand gestures. He is confused by everything that’s going on around him and struggles to find his true self in such a bustling city.

The surreal architecture in the protagonist’s new environment makes himself and the readers feel separate from the new society. Both are not used to this kind of city and as a result, makes them take more time to think about the hardships that an immigrant goes through when trying to better his life and his family’s life.

Lina Mohamed March 26, 2106

Professor Murphy

MHC Journal Entry-The Arrival : Shaun Tan

Prompt 2: Analyze one fantastic/surreal image or elements in the protagonist’s new environment.

Onto the New World…

The scenes that portray the protagonists’s new environment that I want to analyze are the few pages/images that came right after the protagonist went through the customs/ immigration process of the new environment. The moment when the protagonist stepped out of the enclosed box and into his new world was a significant moment in the novel because the contrast between what he sees now and what he left behind could not be more disparate. The protagonist’s new environment appears to be a thriving city that is going through a major industrialization period and other rapid changes as we see smoke coming out of buildings ( factories, or chimneys maybe). Also, all the people are out and about and everyone looks busy/occupied unlike in his past environment. The new environment was filled with hope, liveliness, and prosperity. This was a fantastic scene as it instigated a feeling of optimism in both the reader and the protagonist.

This, however was not the only reason that this scene was fantastic. Another reason this scene was a spectacular one was because it really showed how vacant, odd, and terrifying his old environment was. After the wife and daughter took the father to the train, we could see that the streets were completely deserted and there was an uneasy feeling. This feeling came from the shadows that lurked around the vacant streets.

Also, this scene juxtaposed the buildings in the father’s new environment because in his old environment, everything looked like it was the same. The buildings were all the same height, with chimneys and looked residential. This indicated that the old home/environment was not prospering and there were absolutely no signs of innovation or hope. There were not even residents other than the protagonist’s family.

The father was looking for a better life to be able to support his family because his old environment could not do that anymore and we feel this optimism along with the father as he enters this new world. Other than the obvious differences, the scene also portrayed that he was entering a foreign land as everything seemed to be written in a foreign language, the streets were different, even the building were completely new-looking to the protagonist.

Shaun Tan does a great job in portraying what entering a new world is like for an immigrant by showing us step by step the transition into a new world using just photos. The elements of this novel are excellently used to give the best story and allow the reader to feel exactly what this immigrant is feeling as he steps into this new foreign/strange land. The transition scene was by far a favorite for me and also a very momentous.