the lost thing

An outsider I often a person who is perceived to be on the borders of society and it’s through their actions they outlook from the rest of the public. Being an outsider is often associated with segregation and disapproval, however in Shaun Tan’s short film the concept of outsider is celebrated. In ‘The lost Thing’ audience can see an outsider in the sterilized community and through Tan’s use of juxtaposition and narrative voice, we discover and follow the lost things voyage to be in the right place, belonging. Recall
Firstly the use of colour is a vibrant technique used by Shaun Tan to explore the role of the outsider in The Lost Thing. The lost thing has been found in the wrong ‘world’ and is noticeably out of place. This is revealed first and fore mostly through the use of colour which shows the lost thing to be frankly different to the world around him. While the sterilized and plain world of the boy is symbolized through dull colours and solid, harsh lines of the buildings and homes. The grey and black of the boy’s world is juxtaposed against the bright red and roundedness of the lost thing which in turn, clearly shows that the lost thing is the outsider in this world. This is obvious to the audience during the scene where the boy is taking the lost thing through the city and in the long-shot of the city street we see the bright red stand out against the greyness of the city streets as all the citizens move in one direction, dressed all alike in grey and black. In the meantime the lost thing moves brightly in the opposite direction posing the question to the viewers, is it a negative factor to be the outsider here in this dull and plain world?
Moreover an alternative technique that is used by Tan to discover the concept is recurring motif. A motif is a frequent/ repeated pattern or design in a work. For instance, in the concept of the outsider and referring back to the film ‘the lost thing’ we can see that tan had incorporated this technique of