Week 1: The Graphic Narrative

Shaun Tan's The Arrival is truly captivating. There were no words in this graphic novel. No dialogs, no written sentences, nothing. But as I realized throughout my read, they weren't needed. The mesmerizing art was enough. Never have I read such a graphic novel before without the use of words with all the emotion in the illustrations! The story was poignant and I loved how realistically it portrayed immigrants and how metaphorically and fantastically the author drew the world-building and settings.

A man says goodbye to his wife and daughter, and sets out, taking only a suitcase containing a precious photograph of his family. He leaves a dark and ominous city for a journey across the sea. Days pass, each depicted by a drawing of the sky. The ship enters the harbor and a strange new world is revealed. The man is examined, catalogued, and labeled. Then he ventures forth into an amazing city. He is bombarded by new sights and sounds; everywhere he looks there is something he's never seen before. Even the food is strange. He doesn't speak the language and must draw pictures of what he needs.

Aside for the graphics and settings, what I loved the most was the fact that, not only we could see the main character's experience at traveling and changing completely of surrounding, but also the people that he meets on his way and that gave him some support. It was breathtakingly captivating. My only complaint is that I felt was too short. It could have been longer, because every scene lasted less than two minutes or so. That did give some unrealism to the story - not including the settings which I like to consider well-fitting. It would also have been interesting to get to know his wife and child better, with some more scenes including them.

Adults will appreciate the simple story of a stranger in a foreign land, while children will be enraptured by the amazing drawings of fantastical creatures that populate this magical world. This is just a wonderful book to be looked at again and again, and a powerful reminder that we are all immigrants here.