THE ARRIVAL

Shaun Tan’s, The  Arrival, does a great job at demonstrating how a story can be told just visually, without any words. The story seems to be about migrants, a woman, man and their child, seeking a better life. However, the man goes off on his own first to take a look at the new place his is seeking for his family. Which seems to be in another country, since he undergoes the passport stamp process and enters what looks to be a completely new environment. Throughout this we see that the man has trouble adapting to this new environment, such as finding friends and employment. However, the artist’s use of shadows does an extraordinary job at storytelling as well. In which these shadows are used to represent threat and this world that is bigger than the man himself, and so he needs to find the light in these situations.