While reading Tan’s novel, I began to develop the idea that this work could be viewed through a number of different lenses. The primary one of course, being literature, as the work is a “graphic novel.” In this sense, Tan acts as other innovating novelists, such as Foer have. The novel includes no words, forcing the reader to understand the elements of literature through the graphics included within the work. In this medium, Tan reveals the basic plot, an immigrant leaving his family to start a new life in some sort of metropolis. It is never explicitly stated to be New York, but the “Ellis Island” like scene implies that the protagonist has left for New York City.

However, more importantly than plot, Tan uses many of the graphics to convey powerful messages about not only the great change that occurs as a person moves, but also the motivation behind immigration. As an immigrant himself, (http://www.shauntan.net/about.html) Tan provides a unique perspective on this experience. The image of the dragon struck me particularly strongly, because, many times the motivation for leaving one’s home country comes from plague, lack of work, or in order to escape an oppressive regime. In the protagonist’s journey, he comes to meet many individuals who have faced these issues. The dragon’s constant overshadowing within the country could be something as literal as looming danger, or financial woes facing the family. Either way, its size implies that this danger is something that the protagonist must escape. The symbol of the dragon, along with many others, allows the work to be analyzed as a literary work, however, this remains yet one sphere through which the work can be viewed.

In the case of history, this book has a number of references to historical events, real or partially fictionalized. The protagonist’s encounters with individuals who have experienced similar strife indicate significant world events leading to immigration. For example, the experience of the protagonist’s fellow factory worker demonstrate some form of Eastern European military operation forcing him to leave his home. A historian could take this same work and analyze it according to the historical events which it represents.

Furthermore, and most relevant to this class is the novel’s application to New York City. One of the most interesting parts of this work is the use of language, but a foreign or invented language. Many times, it is easy to look upon signs in Brighton Beach or Chinatown written in foreign languages and be confused. This “multicultural experience” as many people like to call it can also be seen as a singular experience. Despite being in a location where so many cultures converge, we still only view the world through our own eyes. Exposure does not always come with understanding. This novel embraces that idea in the foreign language, which New York City appears in. To be surrounded by a completely foreign language and group of people is unfathomable to many of us. This work forces the reader to confront their own view on the city around. This portion of the novel’s construction is of the most interest to me, and I hope we will discuss this in class.

What is the United States? To those living in the U.S., it is our home: a place where we go about with our prosaic and mundane lives. To those living outside the U.S., however, this is a dream world, a land of opportunity. Streets paved of gold, cash overflowing from pockets, and faucets which pour out beer instead of water are among the few conceptions that most foreigners have of America. As such, people will do virtually anything to come to this heaven.

However, Shaun Tan brings into light a different kind of America: an America that torments you if you don’t work hard, an America that destroys you if you don’t have the right papers, and an America that murders you if you don’t grab every opportunity you see. Such a cynical America is non-existent in the minds of anyone living outside of America. This America is a brutal, cold-blooded, and blood–thirsty monster that will suck the life-blood out of you if you cease to work hard. After witnessing this reality, most immigrants are often placed in a state of utter confusion. They can’t go back to wherever they came from, but neither can they rest and relax, for if they do, they’ll lead lives worse than those they lead back home. When a situation like this presents itself, one can do nothing but blankly stare and attempt to choose the choice that might be better in the long-run.

The previous paragraphs are my justification to why all the pictures in the book appear gloomy, monotonous, and depressing. When I first opened the book, the first thing that came to my mind was that this is a very depressing theme. After looking at a few images, especially the one with the woman crying after giving a hug to a man, I realized that this book’s theme acquiesced completely with the way immigrants felt after they came into the U.S – gloomy, monotonous, and depressed.

After “reading” Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, I decided that I wanted to begin my blog with a quote. I searched endlessly for the perfect one, but had no luck. Then I came across an excerpt from “The New Colossus,” a sonnet written by poet Emma Lazarus.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she                                              With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,                                                     Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free                                                     The wretched refuse of your teeming shore                                                           Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,                                                      I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The poem, written in 1883, was a result of the inspiration that Lazarus received from the Statue of Liberty. In her opinion, the statue was “The New Colossus” (The Old Colossus is the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and a statue of the Greek Titan Helios that stood at the entrance of the harbor of the island Rhodes). She saw Lady Liberty as a motherly figure that welcomed the immigrants – those who were tired and poor – to the New World. As they entered in the hopes of finding a better life filled with more opportunities, Lazarus says that the Statue of Liberty lifted her torch to guide them and reassure them that the world they left behind is nothing compared to what lies ahead.

I couldn’t help but notice a similarity in the Colossus of Rhodes and “The New Colossus” to Tan’s illustration of the immigrants reaching the harbor that I have appropriately named “The Newer Colossus.” In the picture, there is a structure at the entrance to the city of what appears to be two men leaning in to greet each other with a handshake. They have different hats on, are holding different animals, and are carrying different structures in the boats that they are on, but they have still managed to come together to shake each others hand. This brotherhood and togetherness is what made that new city so appealing to the man in The Arrival, and what makes America so appealing to immigrants from all over the world. In the story, the man has trouble at first with understanding the new world that he has been thrown into. Fortunately, with the help of the young girl, the family, and the elderly man that he meets, he is able to adjust and learn more about the city’s way of life. They all had their own unique stories to tell, just like Americans who come from different backgrounds, but those differences did not and still do not affect the ability to unite and help each other. It is this constant dependency on each other to succeed and be protected that makes the immigration process to America and the New World in The Arrival unlike any other. For what would life be without our brothers and sisters?

The Arrival reminded me of many different things. The pictures, at first, startled me but then as I began analyzing them, they made more sense. The drawing of the dragon tails at the beginning of the book symbolizes the darkness and dangerous area that the family lives in. They are surrounded by these dragons and need to escape as soon as possible. Even though there were no words, I could feel the emotion of the characters through the pictures. When the mother wiped her tears, I could feel her sadness in the main “crying” picture and by those surrounding it. I even felt a sense of compassion when the father took the suitcase as the daughter tried lifting it.

When the father gets to the city, he goes through a “security check”. In the one picture of the man opening his mouth wide, I can also hear the “AHH” sound that he might have made. In the city, everything around the father is new. The pictures of the city are very weird and unusual. The language used in the pictures is foreign and seem unable to decipher. Even the animals look weird. This must have been how the father felt when he came to America. He did not know English and everything he saw was different than that in his homeland. The way the author portrayed the girl working in the factories was interesting. I like the way he showed her anguish, sadness, and frightfulness as she was put to work, began to work, and ran away. The playful nature between the old man and the young boy could be seen as they ate and passed the food to each other and to the father.

By portraying the story of this book by pictures, the author has succeeded in capturing what many authors cannot through their writing. Usually we use our imaginations and try to form a picture in our mind of what is happening in a book. Here, however, we are given the picture and our minds have the full freedom to write the story. Though the book will always contain the same pictures, the stories can change from reading the book the first time to reading the book the second time. Finally, it can also change from reader to reader because each reader will bring his or her own personal experience or opinion into the story.

I love how unique the style of Shaun Tan’s graphic novel “The Arrival” is even when the ideas about the immigration process are so common. I like the way some of the pages look like part of an old, tattered photo album. It makes me feel like the book could have belonged to my great grandparents and it is now a family heirloom.

Part I of “The Arrival” was saddening because the main character had to leave his wife and daughter behind. There are many objects of sentimental value being shown. The drawing the daughter made touched me especially. I remember how I used to draw a lot when I was little and my drawings are still on my refrigerator.

In Part II, clouds lurk in the distance to foreshadow the hardships that come with immigrating to a new country. Giant statues in boats seem to be welcoming the incoming immigrants. Once the boat docks, screening ensues. Everything seems frustrating and he seems to be incapable of processing most of the things they tell him. In the end, he leaves in a cubicle lifted by a giant balloon. I think this represents how the modes of transportation are unfamiliar and strange. There are signs everywhere but one cannot understand what they’re saying. This implies that he is lost and doesn’t understand the language. In order to find places, he needs to draw pictures of them in order to convey what he wants. Once sheltered, he is homesick and looks into his suitcase and imagines what his family would be doing at that moment.

In the middle of the story, I start wondering about what all the animals are supposed to represent. They look adorable and remind me of the origami he makes, but I don’t understand why everyone seems to have a pet. I’m not even sure how he got his. It just showed up. I also want to know what Tan was trying to say with the dragon hovering over the city and the men sucking people away.

In part V, the man sends a crane and money home. After a year, the man receives a letter from his wife and little girl. They tell him of their arrival to New York. He is overjoyed. In part VI, the family is together again. The man’s wife and daughter have apparently adapted to this new way of life. The man’s daughter helps another immigrant find her way and the cycle starts all over again. I think that’s a great way to end the story because people are always immigrating. In New York, there are always new people who need help with directions. It’s also a comforting ending because it’s saying that everything will work out in the end.

When I first started reading Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, I found myself completely lost at times. The narrative was fairly straightforward, but the absence of text and the foreign sights really threw me off a bit as I tried to follow the story. I tried to find symbolism in certain objects, and there were some where I certainly did, but at times I felt hung up on things that I didn’t understand.

But then I realized something. That was the point. The story was one of immigration; being thrown into a world you know little to nothing about and trying to understand as you go along. There were no words because when you’re an immigrant in a new country, you don’t know any words. As an immigrant, you start Tabula rasa: a mind inexperienced to the new culture; a blank slate. You have no common ground other than your humanity and needs. Once I learned to sit back and accept that I wasn’t going to understand everything right away, the story became much more enjoyable.

I soon realized that Tan’s story was just so universally relatable; it pushed past cultural boundaries. No one reader –or, rather, onlooker– really had more of an understanding than the other, because every onlooker, no matter what their ethnicity, started from that same blank slate. As an onlooker, you were learning as the main character was learning. It created a whole new level of investment for the audience as brought us one level closer to the story, and that’s what was so great about it.

From children to adults, immigrants to natives, The Arrival brings a universally accessible story that is applicable to anyone who has felt like they’ve entered a new world. Which, as a college freshman, feels pretty familiar; you might have an idea of what you’re getting yourself into, but you can never comprehend the full picture until you’re immersed.

-Jon Farrell