Shaun Tan The Arrival Essay

There are certain elements of migration that are universal for everyone, one of them being waves of complex emotions, but how can one express something something so powerful but intangible without words? Shaun Tan keeps symbols like hands representing human connection the same, but represents abstract elements like hope with a surrealist twist to keep the effect on the viewer relatable but still unique. In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud asks if emotions can be made visible. The art of comics allows the invisible world of the senses and emotions to be portrayed between or within panels to evoke an emotional response in the viewer. In The Arrival, Shaun Tan does this by manipulating recognizable objects to create a reality that’s relatable but
In the protagonists original house, nothing seems out of place, everything seems “normal”. The clocks have twelve hours, the kitchen appliances are recognizable, and the tea pot, although cracked, is functioning. The protagonist’s house is very simple but has homely atmosphere. To the viewer, everything seems okay. However, as soon as the protagonist steps outside, then the reader can see the monster that’s looming over the city. First introduced with just a shadow, the reader can’t completely understand how big the monster is. The next page is dark. Tan made the next transition an aspect-to-aspect transition just to zoom out and show the magnitude of the beast. The panel bleeds from one page to the next revealing the spiked tentacles which appear to be intertwined with the city. This monster can represent an some sort of threat that’s omnipresent. Had Tan chose not to represent this threat as a monster, the viewer might not be able to relate to whatever is the source of the protagonist’s fear. However, when asked what someone would do when face to face with a monster, most would admit to being scared and try to