Week 1: The Arrival by Shaun Tan

The graphic narrative “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan tells a story about migration, all without using words. The story of an immigrant’s experience in a new country is successfully told through pictures, allowing the reader to have full control of the interpretation of the story. The author guides the reader through the narrative using a series of pictures that act almost like a silent film reel and show the reader the story, rather than just telling it. The decision to use pictures instead of words almost puts the reader in the same kind of experience as the immigrant; he is as new to the world as we are to this story. It is up to the reader to figure out the story through the pictures, rather than through already written words. The story contains very surrealist images as well as strange creatures that really show the reader how different and unfamiliar this new place is to him. One of my favorite parts of this narrative is how the author is able to communicate to the viewer the struggle the immigrant went through in being in a place where he is not able to speak the same language as everyone else. The immigrant uses drawings and other signs in order to communicate with others, which is demonstrated to the author even with the absence of language itself. This graphic narrative is very successful in showing how powerful images can be and truly illustrates the famous saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”