The Arrival

When I was sixteen years old my father took me to New York City. He wanted me to begin to see life through a different perspective. Our first day there he brought me to the top of the Empire State Building where we watched a short video highlighting all that NYC has to offer. This video, almost getting run over while crossing the street (New York drivers did not adhere to the same rules regarding pedestrians that I was used in Minneapolis), and a tour of Ellis Island are three of the strongest memories that I have from that trip.

My dad was a history major in college and passed his love of learning on to me. It was with a spirit of adventure and thirst for knowledge that we set off to Ellis Island on our third day of the trip. At the Ellis Island visitor center we rented the audio tour and began our exploration. To this day my visit to Ellis Island is one of the coolest museums that I have visited. (I have since learned about the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and am yearning to go.)

At the end of the Ellis Island tour is a memorial to all of the immigrants who passed through its doors. My dad and I were able to look up the names of my paternal grandparents and find their names on the memorial. I had always been aware that my grandparents immigrated to the United States from Russia, but until that time I never really thought about what it meant. Seeing their name and visiting Ellis Island helped me to envision what my grandparents went through when immigrating. I was fascinated with the experience and wanted to learn all that I could about it.

Reading The Arrival by Shaun Tan reminded me of my visit to Ellis Island. Through the use of pictures, and only pictures, Tan creates the journey of an immigrant to a new country and a new life. His use of sepia toned pictures immediately puts the reader in a foreign time period. It is clear that the man immigrating did so long ago when the world was a different place. The lack of words can at times make the book confusing to follow. This seems intentional to create a strong bond between the reader and the protagonist. The man immigrating in the story must have felt confused and overwhelmed as he started a new life in a new country. The reader can relate to these feelings as they struggle to put together the story without the aid of any words.

Tan continues to create the connection between the protagonist and the reader by his use of made up images. There is a written language that is present in the book, however it is unknown to both the reader and the immigrant. The protagonist must draw a picture of a bed next to his writing in order to convey his message. It is the picture that the reader understands, not the writing. Once he has found a place to sleep, the immigrant must then match the symbol on his key to the symbol on the door. This is the only way that he can find his way to the correct room.

Despite the level of un-comfort that Tan’s drawing create, he also adds just enough of the known to help guide the reader through the story. The protagonist opens his suitcase and is reminded of the life that he left in his native country. The protagonist must navigate his way through everyday tasks such as buying food. The protagonist must find a job, ending up working on a factory line. These are all situation to which the reader can relate.

Following the protagonist through the story is an unknown creature. This creature is a symbol of the protagonist’s journey into the unknown. The protagonist must learn to trust the creature just like he must learn to trust his new society and culture.