The Arrival 3pts

 During my first read-through of The Arrival by Shaun Tan, I remember how lonely the woman and girl felt when holding hands after the man’s departure at the very beginning; therefore, their reunion at the end was very satisfying and moving, to the extent that I felt so much compassion and empathy for the characters that I actually cried. The way he called out to them while running and waving his arms before their embrace, deeply touching. After having spent maybe a year apart, while he struggled through his adjustments into this new place, missing them, he finally had them by his side again. Tan’s book had some of the most creative expressions of the passage of time that I have ever seen. I loved the pages with only clouds and flowers because they illustrated the length of time he spent apart from his loved ones while trying to learn about the new place in which he had arrived which added poignancy to their reuniting. When he first leaves, the hauntingly looming cloud daunts as an impending storm approaches. Then the variety of cloud shapes on the next page almost tells the reader about the passage of days without directly saying it or showing obvious signs like a sun to moon progression. Even the subtle variety in grayscale on the backgrounds behind the clouds imply different times of day, lighter for brighter like during noon and darker for the night. Then later we get a sense of changing seasons through the flower, and even though it does not appear like any real species it has enough reality for the reader to understand the meaning. The shriveling of the flower in the top row is like the wilting of leaves during Autumn, but then the flower in the second row explodes into bloom like a dandelion covered in its seed poof. Next, it looks like an actual flower, dropping seeds ready for pollination and reproduction, before finally disintegrating in what appears as snow.  It definitely looks like winter in the next scene, like snow covers everything and the air is cold and crisp. Tan does a great job of capturing feelings through his compositions and control over values. I loved seeing little touches of their togetherness at the end and how that made his new apartment feel like home: the scarf hanging by his hat, the little origami “Sharkie” creature like the bird he had in his old home, the girl’s family drawing similar to the one at the place they left. In the end, the story comes full circle by the girl helping out another new arrival, demonstrating just how the family has settled into their new routines, which also justified his experiences by reward. Seeing the stories of the other immigrants helped the man along his way because these kind strangers shared with him what they had learned themselves since moving to that city and made him feel less alone in his experiences. This timely narrative shows the humanity of all people and how common experiences happen all over and make us more empathetic toward each other, the kind of humility and kindness needed today, and also puts into perspective the journeys some have made in the real world.