Shaun Tan- author and
illustrator. The arrival. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-439-895293
Author website: http://www.shauntan.net/
Media: pencil
on paper
Genre: graphic
novel, steampunk, wordless graphic novel
Annotation
The Arrival, a wordless graphic novel, is the story of a
man leaving his home and family to establish a new life in a new unseen land
and the process of becoming familiarized with this strange and unfamiliar new
land.
My thoughts
The Arrival is an award winning tale that provides an allegorical
depiction of the emigrant experience. The protagonist of the story represents
the universal emigrant travelling to a strange and unfamiliar land and
experiencing new people, things, and places all at the same time. The man is
willing to lose everything to move to a land far away to find a new life for
his family.
By creating a
fictional imaginary world, one that is unfamiliar with all readers of all
different backgrounds, Shaun Tan lets the reader experience what it is like to
travel to a new country. Even the most basic details are strange. The
protagonist has to relearn and assimilate in order to make this his new home.
Even the most basic aspects of his life seem confusing at first. He attempts to
pour a glass of water from some odd highly complex mechanism and ends up
squirting water all over. He goes to the market and discovers that none of the
fruit is recognizable. These are all new species. The fruit sellers pantomime
that the fruit tastes good. He is in a predicament where he must trust people.
Light switches, running water, refrigeration, clothing, the weather, the
creatures, pets and wildlife … everything is different.
The protagonist is wordless in this new world. He cannot speak because he
doesn’t know the language. Shaun Tan decision to make this a wordless graphic
novel heightens this experience of not being able to communicate. The reader is
limited to looking and experiencing all of these strange beings, symbols, and
invented alphabet with the same level of knowledge as the protagonist. The
reader is required to really look at the images to see that there is a lot of
communication happening without words. The lack of words really slows the
reader down so that they have to focus on the visual details and think about
each small object or action.
Gestures and facial expressions effectively carry communication. The
emigrants are from all different lands but manage to communicate even through
huge cultural and linguistic differences. The lack of words and dependence on
the visual is mystifying experience and a very apt way to express this feeling
of being in a new land. This really catapults the reader into the immigrant’s
shoes.
In addition, because he uses images to tell the story it is interpreted
differently depending on where each person is coming from. Some people might
focus on the experience of the immigrant, while some people might focus more on
the imaginative realm that Tan has created, and others might see it as a
bizarre science fiction graphic novel. For me,
About multiculturalism, this new land is full of people like the main
character. The people are new and are also immigrants to this new land. They
are all on the same journey and all are trying to find their bearings.
The society is built on ideas of pluralism with multiculturalism in its
roots. There are so many different types of people in this society leaving
harmoniously together. (They are recognizable by things like different hats).
It is something that really can and should be appreciated.
This imaginative and magical realm is quite an experience and the
illustrations are amazing and fantastical. The sepia-toned illustrations give
the impression of an old photo album that can serve as reminders of the broader
context of migration that many share in their family histories. It adds a bit
of nostalgia.
At first, I paid more attention to the surreal illustrations and did not
think about the book as an experience. Now, after living in Taiwan for a while,
it is clear and the book has taken on new meaning for me. Shaun Tan definitely accomplished
something very interesting and special with this book.
Curricular
connections
Social Studies- Grade 7 and 8. Provides a good impetus for discussions
about multiculturalism, pluralism, and diversity in addition to developing
interpretation skills. The text offers opportunities to apply multiple critical
perspectives to a single text and engaging student discussions.
In addition, The Arrival can be used for high school creative writing and
senior English classes. The graphic
novel can help teach students how to identify formal literary devices, perspectives
(feminist, cultural, historical, Marxist, etc), analyzing themes, et cetera .
Simulates visual literacy. From Shaun Tan’s Essay “PICTURE BOOKS: Who Are
They For?”- “This is perhaps what reading and visual literacy are all about -
and what picture books are good for - continuing that playful inquiry we began
in childhood, of using imagination to find significance and meaning in those
ordinary, day-to-day experiences that might otherwise remain unnoticed. The
lessons we learn from studying pictures and stories are best applied to a
similar study of life in general - people, places, objects, emotions, ideas and
the relationships between them all. At it’s most successful, fiction offers us
devices for interpreting reality, and imagining how many such interpretations
might be possible.”
Lesson Plan
See 'Lesson Plan' page
Literary
devices
Use of
Symbolism: Shaun Tan uses
symbolism throughout the novel. Nonsensical symbols and an invented alphabet is
used to represent a foreign language. Being unable to understand the meaning of
these symbols, Tan places the reader in the same frustrating shoes as the
emigrant.
Symbolism also includes all of the archetypal imagery of the universal
migrants’ experience. Also the shadow of the dragon’s tail wrapping through the
migrant’s original city is a symbol/metaphor for oppression of some sort. The
impression is that the migrant is leaving a fascist or oppressed city to find a
new land for his family.
Birds are also symbols used through the book. The migrant lifts his hat
to show his family a paper origami crane on his head and then gives it to his
daughter. When in the new magical land, birds are all around.
Use of
Metaphor: provides
readers an insightful metaphor for the immigrant experience.
Reading level/ Interest Age
Grade 7 and up/
Ages 12 and up
(Some of the
imagery might by too ‘scary’ or too abstract for younger ages.)
Reviews and Awards
Booklist
Starred Review
School Library
Journal Starred Review
2007 Parents’
Choice Gold Award
2007 Booklist
Editor’s Choice
2007 School
Library Journal Best Book Selection
2007 Amazon.com
Best Teen Book
2008 ALA Top
Ten Books for Young Adults
2008 ALA Top
Ten Graphic Novels for Teens
2008 Boston
Globe / Horn Book Award
Hugo Award,
Nominated for Best Related Book for The Arrival
Hugo Award,
Nominated for Best Professional Artist (also in 2009 and 2010)
Angoulême
International Comics Festival Prize for Best Comic Book for Là où vont nos
pères, the French edition of The Arrival
World Fantasy
Award for Best Artist
New South Wales
Premier's Literary Awards, Community Relations Commission Award for The Arrival
The Children's
Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards: Picture Book of the Year for
'The Arrival'.2006
Premier's Prize
and Children's Books category winner in the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards
for 'The Arrival'
Peter Pan Award
2011 for the Swedish translation of The Arrival
Many other
positive reviews for The Arrival…
Shaun Tan also won
the Swedish Astrid Lindgren prize in 2011 (The World's richest children's
literature award), Academy awards Oscar for best animated short film for The
Lost Thing.
