Chosen Set Text: The Arrival by Shaun Tan
Tan, S. (2007). The arrival. New York, New York Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.
Shaun Tan’s The Arrival is a wordless graphic novel, telling the story of a migrant who leaves his family in search of a better life in a mysterious country. He finds himself in an incomprehensible metropolis, mystified by the alien customs, people, strange animals, and indecipherable language. Equipped only with a few of his personal belongings, he establishes himself in the city by learning the basics, organising living arrangements, and finding employment, with the sympathetic assistance of locals who also bare an undeclared history. This annotated bibliography will explore the works that influenced this story, and those it has influenced.
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Work influencing The Arrival: The Great Hall seen from the west balcony Sherman, A. F. (1916). The Great Hall seen from the west balcony [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/2008/12/ellis-island-gateway-to-america.html This work is a photograph taken by Augustus F.
Sherman, working as a registry clerk at The Great Hall, on Ellis Island. As migrants sought America as their new homeland, in order for them to be let into the country legally, it was required that they first be processed on Ellis Island. One of many steps in this ‘processing’ was being registered in The Great Hall. The photograph was taken on a very active day in the registry room, and heavily influenced not only the visual storytelling of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, but also the underlying concept of ‘the unknown’. This is most evident on page 21 of The Arrival where you can clearly see the resemblance between images. In Sherman’s photograph, the American flag hung at the end of the hall is clearly visible in the center of the frame. Tan thinks from the perspective of the migrants, and changes the identity of the flag to something indecipherable with heightened fictional imagery, which highlights the principal of the intimidating aspect of new and unknown worlds. The change in signage and language is a notable reoccurring technique used by Tan in this Graphic Novel, which enhances its thematic ideas and grounds the graphic novel in
context. 2. Work influencing The Arrival: The Snowman Briggs, R. (1978). The snowman. New York: Random House. This wordless graphic novel by Raymond Briggs tells the story of a young boy who makes a snowman, which then comes to life, and is introduced to a dreamlike indoor world – the boys home. In return, the snowman takes the boy on a journey into the nighttime world, and introduces him to the wonders of snow, wind, and flight. The concept of the snowman and the boy being short-term migrants in each other’s respective worlds, and discovering the usual wonders of those worlds, can be seen as a direct influence on The Arrival. It is evident that migration is a principle theme, and that discovery of the unfamiliar is a large property of migrating to incomprehensible places. The Snowman also influenced the way in which The Arrival is conveyed. As a nonverbal graphic novel, it highlighted the strength of non-verbal communication. Similarly, The Arrival relies on the reader considering each specific detail in the illustration, as there are no words to guide them. This also allows each reader to approach the story in many different ways, thinking from different perspectives. 3. Work influencing The Arrival: Wong Chu And The Queen’s Letterbox Hungerford, T. A. G. (1977). Wong Chu and the queen's letterbox: the first collection of stories. Fremantle, W.A: Fremantle Arts Centre Press. This is a short story, which draws on the authors early childhood memories of growing up in South Perth. He speaks of an outlandish group of misunderstood men who humbly worked in the suburbs of Australia, and considers their tragic separation from their families back in China. This story influenced The Arrival in providing contextual insight into how the Chinese in Western Australia related to the white Australian community around them. The Arrival draws on this as a broad interpretation of how one interacts with people of a different culture. Hungerford writes of his personal interactions with Wong Chu – a friendly China man who grows vegetables in his neighbourhood. Direct links can be drawn between Wong Chu and The Arrival’s protagonist as they both share the similarities of being migrants in a world that is not of their own understanding. Moments shared between Wong and the author exchanging gifts, and simple conversation, delivers influential backing to the story of The Arrival. The sympathetic interaction between the protagonist and citizens of the new metropolis is evident as a theme in the graphic novel by Tan. 4. Work influenced by The Arrival: Urban Tilhil Santino, W. (2013). Urban Tilhil. [Illustration] Retrieved from http://www.willsantino.com/#!about/zoom/c1p5/i1722my This is an illustration of an urban city called Tilhil, which has been directly influenced by The Arrival. The most notable aspect of the influence is in the strange cityscape and sepia toned drawing, which alludes to a pattern of heightened imagery in the two works. The illustrator has implemented a concept used by Tan in the creation of The Arrival, which is inventing a world that is difficult for the reader to comprehend, with illustrations of unfathomable, amplified fictional imagery of cityscapes. This is done to bring awareness to readers, as to what it is like for someone to migrate to an unknown metropolis of different qualities. For example, the signs in the illustration are written in a fictional language, which is impossible for the reader to interpret, thus forcing perspective. 5. Work influenced by The Arrival: The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend Santat, D. (2014). The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend. New York, Boston. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. This picture book tells the story of a strange, imaginary friend called Beekle, who lives in a cheerful, separate world with all of the other imaginary friends, who are yet to be ‘dreamed up’ by children. When children dream them up, they are transported to the real world to be united with their child. Unfortunatly, Beekle is never dreamt up, and becomes sad. Fed up with waiting, he leaves the imaginary world and embarks on a jouney to the real world in order to find his companion child. Beekle finds himself in the gloomy world of reality, and feels like an outcast struggling to make sense of the city. Finally, a girl as strange as beekle finds him in a tree and they become what is most desired by beekle – best friends. There is a reoccuring story pattern of leaving old worlds in search of new, made evident in this picture book. Beekle dreams of his companion in the made-up world, much like the protagonist in The Arrival dreams of his new home for him and his family. They both take the initiative to make a journey full of uncertainty, doubt, and fear, in order to find something better. Santat’s picture book was directly influenced by the story of hardship and endurance present in The Arrival. It also reflects the significant idea of a new and better life, made possible through taking a leap into the unknown.
Throughout time, many people feel as if they have lost their connection to their cultural from outside influences and numerous disruptions. Disruptions to one’s cultural can be seen in the Picture book The Rabbits by john Marsden and Shaun tan which is an an allegory of the invasion of Australia. Another example is the film avatar by James Cameron. The creators of these works are expressing the effect of man on nature and disruption it brings upon the cultural of the indigenous people who are the traditional owners of the land.
Morrison, Toni. Introduction. Birth of a Nation'hood. Ed. Toni Morrison and Claudia Brodsky Lacour. New York: Pantheon Books, 1997. 7-28.
This nation was relatively stable in the eyes of immigrants though under constant political and economic change. Immigration soon became an outlet by which this nation could thrive yet there was difficulty in the task on conformity. Ethnic groups including Mexicans and Chinese were judged by notions of race, cultural adaptations and neighborhood. Mary Lui’s “The Chinatown Trunk Mystery” and Michael Innis-Jimenez’s “Steel Barrio”, provides a basis by which one may trace the importance of a neighborhood in the immigrant experience explaining the way in which neighborhoods were created, how these lines were crossed and notions of race factored into separating these
This book talks about the immigrants in the early 1900’s. The book describes how they live their daily lives in New York City. It helped me a lot on Riis photographs and his writings on to better understand the book and the harsh reality this people lived. This comes to show us that life is not that easy and it will cost us work to succeed.
Immigrants were held for long periods of time before they could get into America. People who had to send here were Steerages, a lower class, they had been “named” by the medical exams “E” for eye trouble, “K” for hernia, “L” for lameness, “X for mental defects, “H” for heart disease, Mary Gordon, 1987. In the other hand, Angel Island and Ellis Island had many differences between them. Ellis Island was in the East coast, Upper New York Bay. In additional, Ellis Island was a castle garden, and it was used for immigrants from Europe. “Immigrants could pass through Ellis Island in mere hours, though for some the process took days”, May Gordon, 1987. The immigrants who passed Ellis Island had been treated by terrible things such as “stolen their names and chalked their weaknesses in public on their clothing” Marry Gordon, 1987. Immigrants who had to go to the Angel Island was treated worse. They would be separated men from women and children at the moment they had arrived. Then they had to do the medical exams which required undressing in front of strangers. If they fail the test for various diseases they would be deported immediately. After all of the examinations, the immigrants did not pass through yet, they would wait in a detention dormitory and a bunk until the interrogation process, and this process took a few days to months. In conclusion, I rather to live in Ellis Island and
Stein, Karen F. "Amy Tan." Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition (2001): 1-3. Literary Reference Center Plus. EBSCO. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.
American Literature. 6th Edition. Vol. A. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 2003. 783-791
A mother sees her children off to school at the school bus stop; however, they would never see each other again. The mother’s trip to the immigration check-in has caused a dramatic change in both her’s and her family’s lives. A story such as this, one where a parent is taken away and deported, is far too common in the U.S.A. An unsympathetic system of deportation has torn many families apart and has thrown away all the effort that immigrants have put into coming to America. Throughout the novel Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, a young boy named Enrique struggles to immigrate to the U.S. and faces many obstacles that infringe on his right to immigrate. The right to immigrate is threatened both in the U.S. and around the world by corrupt dysfunctional
Nava, Alex. Wonder and Exile in the New World. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2013.
The film The Visitor, offers a significant insight of Tarek immigration experience. The film also offers a unique glimpse into the United States immigration detention system and the people it affects. Tarek was in the train station, when he let Walter use his metro card, and is himself entangled in the turnstile. The policemen’s accused Tarek of jumping the turnstile and gets arrested. At his arrest, is learned that he is an illegal immigrant and taken to a detention center in Queens. This film offers an insight on the injustice and discrimination of the immigration system in the United States.
Long, Robert Emmet.Immigration. Dublin: H. W. Wilson, 1996. Purcell, L. Edward. Immigration. Phoenix: Oryx, 1995.
Portes, Alejandro, and Ruben G. Rumbaut. Immigrant America: A Portrait. N.p.: University of California Press, 2006.
The image uses labels to show how different people view immigrants. Groups like average citizens, workmen, and health officers viewed migrants as menaces, labor threats, and disease ridden. While politicians, contractors and Uncle Sam himself see these newcomers as sources of votes, cheap labor and strength. We see whiteness in “The Immigrant” as American society is more willing to consider accepting white European immigrants into American society, while simultaneously refusing to allow chinese immigrants into the country. Migrants of white decent were also allowed U.S. citizenship after remaining in the country for only two years and showing good moral character. This led to an increasing white population which promoted the idea of Americanness and whiteness being nearly interchangeable. When looking at both images side by side we see the biases of white and