Response to The Arrival By Shaun Tan

An illustration holds the ability to tell a story without words. Shaun Tan is able to depict a narrative without dialogue in his book “The Arrival”, and uses subtle clues in his story to inform the reader about the events. At first glance, my first notion of the story was that a man was in a dream. My reasonings behind this idea was because of the odd and random images. These images included giant tentacles swarming a city, funny shaped animals and other-worldly architectural designs. However, the further I looked into this book, the more pieces I was able to put together about the possible main idea behind the illustrated story. At first glance, I thought the main character was in a dream. However, it all added up to him being an immigrant in another country. If I were to only look at one of these images without the knowledge of the previous ones I wouldn’t have been able to come up with the answer that this was an immigration story. From the beginning, there is an image of a boat with multiple travelers. From there it continues by following a man as he journeys throughout a new world. These images look strange and different because for some people it is a strange and different experience coming to a new country. This story captures that idea in a captivating way. It allows the reader to see a nation through the eyes of an immigrant. Growing up in the same country all my life, everything around me seemed normal. The food, the entertainment and even the language we speak here in America is usually nothing out of the ordinary for us. At the age of 8, I traveled to Mexico on a cruise and discovered a different part of the world. The designs of the buildings, modes of transportation and most of all the language of Mexico intrigued me as a child. It was odd and mysterious yet captivating all the same. Shaun Tan wanted his readers to see a story through the eyes of a man seeing a whole new world for the first time. He put us in the travelers shoes and allowed us to experience his journey through a new perspective.