Shaun Tan's, The Arrival

Shaun Tan's, The Arrival

Shaun Tan’s tale, The Arrival, though wordless, packs all the punch it needs through the story’s visual imagery. Tan’s decision to make the story without dialogue was a large risk in itself, but he lets his illustrations shine and tells the story for him. The most important thing in his situation is to make sure the audience understands what’s happening to the character without knowing what they’re saying, so for the audience to understand a character’s feelings or motivation Tan exaggerates the character’s body language and overall expression. Tan spends multiple frames focusing only on the main character’s changing expressions, such as when the main character is talking to one of the immigration authorities. The scene focuses on the main man explaining to immigration officer why he is immigrating to a different country, the man pulls out a picture of his family and follows the explanation with hand gestures, though the action has no dialogue the audience can obviously tell what the main character is trying to explain. Tan also creates strong imagery by the tones he uses in his illustrations, though the whole story is black and white, the only difference being some backgrounds are slightly more sepia than others to show flashbacks, but the way he uses tone to set the mood of an environment is enticing and tells the audience exactly what they need to know about this new space. When the reader takes their first look into the immigrant woman’s past, the audience gets to see the conditions she was working in, a dark, smokey, hot factory. In Tan’s illustration of the factory he utilizes dark tones to create a sad and desolate feeling, only to catch a glimpse of what cruelties that truly lie within that factory.