No, this book has shown me that this is an extreme understatement. The pictures in Shaun Tan’s The Arrival hold so much power and emotion that words could never convey. I am lucky to be able to say I did not have to face the hardships that the main character of this graphic novel did. Nevertheless, as I “read” through the pages, I was overwhelmed with a feeling that I could somehow relate to him.
The images are frank and comprehensible. The emotions the characters displayed were blatant, but still moving to the point of sympathy. The minute details throughout the pages, like the scratches on a wooden table and the crinkle of a piece of paper, added to the realistic nature of the work. I was able to get lost in the story just as I would have for any movie or novel.
I guess its funny that I consider the drawings realistic, because the pictures of monsters and strange creatures and the peculiar depiction of the city surely are not realistic. Tan uses these motifs to add perspective to the story. For example, Tan uses distorted characters instead of real English letters to share with the reader a sensation of foreignness and unfamiliarity. Likewise, the odd city to us is what this new place was to the main character.
This story could not have been told better through any way other than images. We are not given words to be told the story the same way the main character did not have the language he needed as he lived through it. We, like the main character, desperately try to read lips and faces to be able to tell what is going on and what is to happen next. Tan brilliantly crafted these parallels in emotion, creating this remarkable piece.
