Shaun Tan The Arrival Analysis

Through the perspective of a migrant, life becomes considerably bizarre and chaotic. Migrants who moved to a dissimilar place often felt as though they do not belong, they came to lack sense of belonging.Within the book, The Arrival by Shaun Tan, the audience is positioned to catch a glimpse of a migrant's world. Tan purposely left out text in order to slow down the story development giving the audience a rather realistic plot.Tan depicts the migrants' journeys through various visual conventions to show their sacrifice and challenges such as language barrier, vulnerability and war they had to overcome for a better chance of survival. The graphic novel expressed the emotions migrants had felt and, most likely, still do.

Firstly throughout the text, language barrier is tangible by the use of body language.Language barrier, hence its name, create a barrier for connection between people.The absence of communication between people who speak different languages can make anyone feel distressed and dishearted. Since 1923, the use of the term 'language barrier' increase as people started to travel and many began to move to a different country either for future or freedom. Body language can signify authority, social status and can express ideas such as strength,
dominance, rebellion, independence, kindness and dependence. In the graphic novel, characters experienced new language and environment which quickly create difficulties in understanding the basic concept such as a conversation when

they arrived at what appear to be the immigration centre. An example of how body language was employed was when the main character faced with the language barrier as soon as he interacts with other people. His facial expression, which indicates confusion, was arranged in the frames to show excessive use of hand gestures and his gaze was varied.Facial expression is crucial to the graphic novel as well as in real life. Facial expressions are a set of symbols that everyone has learnt to read through our interactions with others to interpret their emotions. Even though we might not be able to speak a certain language, we can still read emotion through facial expression. The main character gaze also plays an important role to the language barrier. When the character was facing me, I can immediately tell that he is having trouble with something as his gaze is focused. This highlight the difference between people's cultures possibly having negative consequences on simplistic and necessary daily activity such as a conversation. As a reader who had face language barrier, the graphic book had captured the aspect flawlessly as language barrier is an ongoing problem. Without knowing the language, migrants lose many opportunities to connect with other people as well as finding a job or getting help in an emergency situation. This theme of the language barrier which was conveyed by body language positions me to be able to relate myself with the migrants in the story 'The Arrival' as it is still a reoccurring problem that is quite laborious to eliminate.

Secondly, the vulnerability of the meek is another theme that can undoubtedly be identified by the visual convention of symbolism.Migrants' lives are vulnerable in all aspect as the higher authorities have comprehensive control over them.

This factor caused numerous migrants to leave their homeland, to break free from the authorities' clutches. Generally, symbolism is an object representing another to give it a uniquely distinct meaning that is much profound and more significant.

While
symbols are culturally explicit, their meaning can also be altered by the context in which they were exhibited. An example of this is presented in chapter one. In one page, the dragon-like silhouette can be seen against the buildings. The page that follows shows the enormous body of the dragon which can compare to the family and the surrounded building. The dragon-like creature seems to have an endless body or perhaps the body belong to more than one of the dragon to represent the authorities.The body entangled itself with the surrounding buildings, taking control of what is weaker than it.Legends used dragons to symbolised villainous roles, depicting them as evil, selfish, disruptive and secretive creatures that noble warriors must destroy. In 'the Arrival', dragons- like creature were symbolised as a lurking evil force that will potentially cause harm or corruption of peace in the near future. This demonstrates that the main character and along with the rest of the people who were leaving on the train would have known of this danger. For this reason, they wanted to establish a new home for themselves and their family before the authorities, the dragon -like creature, can take control of them. As a reader who has not experienced this kind of horror, I was startled as I am merely reading but yet I felt worried about the family that was left behind, I can only imagine what migrants would have felt like. The theme of the vulnerability of the meek which was conveyed by symbolism positions me to condole with the migrants for their past experience which moulds their perspective on response to the world differently to when they were young.

Thirdly the theme of war was conveyed by the use of props in the graphic novel. The theme was protruded from the story as it is the main cause of why migrants become migrants. Warfare in the story can be easily linked to most case of immigration such as the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Philippines (war against Islamist militants) and Burma-Myanmar (war against rebel groups).Props can be actual items being told of in the story, or by symbols, physical metaphors used to indicate something different.The use of props is very concise in the story. Props can provide an extensive context, or background, for the story. For an example, in chapter 2 when the main character was confronted with an inspection, how would I have known that this was inspection if the otoscope was not used? An example of the use of props to illustrate the theme war was in chapter 4 when the flashback of an old man displayed. The use of military-like clothing indicate that he was going off to war since the clothing was still intact, I can predict that he was going to war not returning from war. The use of flower petals signifies happiness of the village. In the next few page, skeletons and pieces of unowned clothing create a Warfield setting for the story.Although it was not directly linked to the soldier, this scene foreshadows the future of the soldiers. The props in the Arrival is cleverly used and placed within the page. Even though no text was given to the reader, information can still be found withing the page from the choices of props and how it was displayed. The theme of war which was conveyed by the use of props positions me to engaged with the story as the story need to be reread for a deeper understanding.

Inconclusion, Tan's visual art used the visual conventions to conveyed the journeys of the migrants and their overcome challenges such as language barrier, the vulnerability of the meek and their past experienced war to position the reader, as myself, to endorse sympathetically with the characters and action of their stories.