Click on the "comment" button below to leave your blog post. I suggest you type your response first in a word document, and then copy and paste it into the comment box. Your blog post should be at least 500 words of original prose (do not duplicate anything other bloggers have already said here) in which you engage with the text for the week critically AND pose an original discussion question. Be sure to write your full name and word count at the bottom of your post. The cut-off time for this blog post is Wednesday, January 29 at midnight.Discussion Leaders: Alyssa, Amanda L., Amanda W., Chelcie, Liz, Rainy, Andrea
Shaun Tan’s The Arrival is not your average picture book. The only writing that can be found within this text is in the paratext, and occasionally through the use of symbols that only some of the characters can understand. For the reader, these symbols are useless. Instead, Tan tells his story through the very detailed illustrations on each page of this book. Tan admits that, “unwittingly, I had found myself working on a graphic novel rather than a picture book.” This graphic novel focuses on the events of a man leaving his family behind to immigrate to an unknown country. This new country is confusing. The man is surrounded by foods, animals, and sights he cannot understand, and everything is written in a language he does not understand. With the help of different people who each have unique immigrant stories as well, the man is able to get a job and survive, and later reunite in this new country with his family.
ReplyDeleteTan says that his inspiration came from several sources; his personal experiences growing up half-Chinese in Australia, his father’s immigration from Malaysia, as well as other stories of immigration that he had heard of growing up. For him, this graphic novel is about finding yourself in a land where you are considered “other”, and understanding who you are and how you identify. I believe this novel demonstrates that wonderfully with its unorthodox method of story-telling. The lack of verbal narration in this novel creates a feeling of confusion for the reader, and an experience in a world where you do not belong, just as the character is feeling throughout his adventures. The split in narration when different individuals tell their immigration stories is unique, and allows the stories to combine and create a beautiful and sometimes frightening account of the immigration process. Though this world and these situations are completely fictional, they hit on the experiences people in our world face as they leave their home to go to an unknown land to escape war, poverty, and to create a better life.
This method of storytelling is very unique, especially in children’s literature, and completely disregards the traditional method of children’s literature. The absence of words makes this story universal in different ways. It allows anyone who speaks any language to pick up the book and understand exactly what is happening, and it makes it more relatable as the characters do not have specific nationalities. The coloration and subject matter are not what we have come to expect from a children’s book. Some of the scenes are frightening, and the colors used throughout the book are a very dull combination of black, gray, white, and sepia. Events that the main character and the side narrations recount are very political in nature, and address issues in our world. What I loved about this story was feeling as a reader that you are discovering a new world just as the character is. I also loved that Tan is not afraid to approach a subject very much a part of our world and translate this into a fun way for children to understand.
Discussion questions: As I said, I feel as though this graphic novel is very unorthodox, but in a good way. Could this be a form of post-modernism? If so, what characteristics does it hold that we discussed in class? Also, is this book suitable for children? The other stories we have read so far have seemed geared towards younger children. Though the book is short and does not require reading at all, is this a book for younger or older children?
Alyssa Schramm
Word Count: 603
Work Cited:
Tan, Shaun. "The Arrival." www.shauntan.net. Ed. Shaun Tan. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.
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The Arrival by Shaun Tan is a story that strongly challenges the stereotypical “children’s book.” Most commonly the book would be referred to as a graphic novel, so for this reason some may not consider it as an appropriate book for young readers. However, there are many aspects of the book that could be very beneficial to children’s development. By not having a text to read and apply to the illustrations, how can a child know what’s going on in the story? The Arrival requires the reader to tap into their knowledge of body language and social cues. Facial expression plays a large role before the story even begins. 60 faces appear on the inside cover and first page of the book. Children will have the opportunity to observe the solemn faces that stare back at them and pick up on the story’s tone and overall mood, even if they are unaware of this realization. Most children will have encountered these expressions before, and the realism of the faces will add to their understanding. Realism is another aspect of the book that Tan upholds. A child may not receive the same message of the story if the main character were a cat or dog instead of a human. The everyday objects are elements that are drawn realistically as well, and provide a way for the reader to identify their importance. Such examples are the origami bird, the picture frame, and the father’s suitcase. What other objects, characters, or social interactions throughout the book would a child be able to identify?
ReplyDeleteRelation plays a key role in the depiction of the family because a child reader may be able to recognize the attitudes and emotions of the story that is translated through the characters. However, Tan’s inclusion of unrealistic elements such as the father’s pet, the dragon tail, the hybrid birds, and overall landscape of the new world supplies the reader with a magical essence. This could be beneficial to the young reader’s attention span and imagination. More so, the fantasy of the new world could be seen as more realistic to the young reader than to an adult. Children experience new ideas, words, places, and people more often than adults. If a child were to move from Florida to Michigan, and never having experienced snow before, may see it as a type of fantasy world. The fact that the father, an adult male, struggles to adapt sends a message to young readers that it is perfectly acceptable to be lost in a new environment. The father meets people along the way who help him learn and develop as a character. These people are of various ethnicities, which again teaches acceptance. What other lessons do you think The Arrival is able to teach young readers?
Lastly, the book has a very distinct tone that may cause a child to hesitate. The lack of color and frightening depictions of child labor and execution sets The Arrival aside from other stereotypical children’s literature as stated earlier. That being said, do you feel this story is at all appropriate for young readers in general?
Discussion Questions Re-cap:
1. What other objects, characters, or social interactions throughout the book would a child be able to identify?
2. What other lessons do you think The Arrival is able to teach young readers?
3. Do you feel this story is at all appropriate for young readers in general?
Word count: 574
Amanda Lentz
The Arrival by Shaun Tan.
ReplyDeleteOpening the cover of the book and seeing all of the different faces is very eye opening. Not one of the pictures is the same. It looks like there is a wide variety of race and ethnicity. It’s very interesting to see all the great detail that the artist put into these pictures and really sets the stage for the rest of the book.
After looking at the book all the way to the end, I realized that I didn’t even read the book because there were no words yet I felt that I understood the meaning. The pictures in the book were very detailed and were placed like a strip of film. This really helped when trying to interpret what was going on in the book. The sketches were easy to understand because they were sequenced in a specific order to tell a story. The fact that there were no words was powerful to me because if your arriving to a new country and you don’t speak the same language as everyone else, it’s really hard to understand what everyone else is saying. I thought the use of sketches only was a great representation of language barrier. In part 2 of the book, the main character drew a sketch of a bed to communicate what we has looking for to a man. The man understood what he drew in the sketch and pointed in the direction of an inn. I bet that happened a lot when immigrants moved to NYC from all over the world.
This book was divided into 6 parts or chapters. The para-text was interesting in the beginning of the book because it looked like it was on an old postcard. All the pages throughout the book looked like they had been in an old dirty journal that had been written in many times. This book is about a man who leaves his family in pursuit of a different life for him and his family. You can tell he loves his family very much and misses them as well when he pulls out their picture together that was shown in the beginning of the book. He makes friends along the way and even though they might not speak the same language they can still communicate through symbols and pictures. He finally gets established in this new land and sends for his family to come over to the new land.
The mood of the story changes from the beginning of the story to the end of the story. In the beginning I was very hesitant in reading this book. It is a book that you cannot start halfway through but from the very beginning to understand it. The way that Shaun Tan used the different sketches of the ship in the beginning made me feel like this ship he was on was so tiny compared to the water that it was sailing through. I felt bad for the main character as Shaun Tan made him look so small compared to the big world he was going out to venture in.
Overall, as I was reading this, I thought of how a child would feel reading this book. I think many might be confused unless they had some background knowledge first of what immigration was and where it happen. Immigration didn’t just happen here in America but it took place all over the world. This book does seem a little dark with the color usage and maybe a little bit frightening as Shaun Tan used fantasy and surrealistic imagery to really capture the essence of this new world that the main character journeys too. You could really have multiple meanings for this book as it showed the value of family and good friends. You see how helpful people were when this man traveled to a new and unfamiliar place. I think overall this would be great for children to read.
Questions:
1. How does the mood of the story change from the beginning to the end?
2. How does Shaun Tan use his sketches to evoke different emotions that you may feel throughout the book?
3. Why do you think Shaun Tan used only sketches and not pictures (b&w or colored) in his book?
Elizabeth Ruimveld
Word Count: 716
Shaun Tan's The Arrival
ReplyDeleteThe saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” really comes to life in Shaun Tan's The Arrival. It is a story about a man who must leave his family and find work in a land he's unfamiliar with and the people he interacts with along the way. This is all shown clearly, but with a lack of words and only strange writing and pictures to go by, the story drives home the fact that the protagonist does not understand the customs and language of the land he has gone to. It helps the reader feel his confusion and in trying to decipher the story, the reader can also feel his struggle.
What is amazing is the emotion that is conveyed behind each and every picture. It can be seen in the facial expressions or body movements of the characters, the shading, and the layout of the page. The illustrator plays a very important part in the story because there are no words, so being able to show people's struggles and emotions so clearly through drawings is a daunting task, though very well accomplished. The shading enhances certain moments in the story, such as the old man's struggle and loss of his leg. The pictures get progressively darker to help show his life worsening. Other pages that show this appear when a man and his wife are escaping giants that are destroying the city. The two of them appear tiny in the shadow of these giants and the shading on the page is dark to show their fear and despair. The layout of the page also enhances the story and emotions. Small pictures tend to show gradual, though intense, change, while the larger pictures show huge exciting or traumatic moments in a characters' life that happen quickly.
This story is made even better by the fact that it is not solely focused around one man's struggle and journey, but rather around multiple peoples'. Through traveling and interacting with others the protagonist (and by default, we) learn about the strife and experiences in other characters' lives like running from giant oppression, losing a leg, and being a slave.
One thing this story excels at is showing how small things can mean so much to a person. A simple picture helps the protagonist through each day he goes without his family; origami cranes are a connection to his family, so when birds appear throughout the story he watches them, reminded of his family and why he's in this foreign land in the first place; a child's help in finding the correct food for the protagonist leads to him having dinner with the kid's family, laughing and feasting, which helps him feel at home again even if it's for just one night. This story, though it has no words is a thoroughly deep and meaningful read. It brings to light that we are all connected in happiness and strife and through even small actions can help each other out.
Discussion Questions:
1.Besides highlighting emotions and experiences, what roles does the lack of color play in the story?
2.Animals/creatures appear on nearly every page in the book. What purpose do they serve?
3.Why do you think the author chose to create a book without words? Do you think the story would have been told better through words, or as is?
Amanda Willoughby
Word count: 568
“Reading” Shaun Tan’s The Arrival was quite a different experience than I’m accustomed too when reading, especially when reading a children’s book. From its outward appearance, to having no words, it was confusing. From the moment I picked it up and flipped through the pages, I realized it didn’t look like something I had ever seen before. The layout looked strange and uncommon for what I am used to reading. The borders and color schemes differ throughout the book, too, which made it somewhat difficult for me to follow at first. Because it had no text throughout its entire narrative, it was kind of scary to start. I actually showed it to my roommate before I went through it with the attitude of “how am I ever going to get through this, and blog 500 words about it?” I thought there was no way I’d understand.
ReplyDeleteIn come the pictures! Yes they say that pictures say 1,000 words. But when you can’t make sense of the pictures, what do they say? At the beginning of the book, I was confused. I wasn’t able to make sense of much else, other than the family of three existed and the father-figure was leaving. These pictures were speaking to me in a different language. The images are bold and busy—overwhelming at times. It was hard to tell where one story started and another began. Are there multiple story lines? I couldn’t tell. But as I looked on, I began to notice the protagonist father-figure becoming more and more frequent in the images. These images are the tale of his voyage and experiences.
When viewing the images I immediately felt confused and misled, overwhelmed and barraged by foreign objects and concepts that didn’t make sense. As I continued on, a light bulb suddenly turned on. The way I feel is the way the man in the book must feel too! He is the foreigner traveling abroad, alone and unsure of his surroundings. I am merely the reader, viewing his experiences. The things in the pictures had some small hint of familiarity, yet they just didn’t match up with the connection my brain wanted to make with the things I know well. For instance, he had first arrived to his new place he went through some sort of a confusing process that seemed to resemble immigration. The documents were perplexing to me and the symbols alien. I understood the end-goal, but was stumped by the process and mannerisms. When navigating the new place, the man was surrounded by towering structures that seemed like a tidal wave of concrete crashing down around him. Yet, for some reason, I knew: those are buildings.
These are only two examples of the confusing inferences I made throughout the book. When I reached the last page and began to reflect on what I had seen, I realized the intentions the author had for the way he constructed every aspect of this book. He wanted to he reader—no matter whom it was—to have similar feeling and reactions to his story. His is the story of an immigrant. The reader can voyage through this trip and realize that no matter who you are or where you’re from, everything looks strange that is different. And there is a light at the end of the tunnel. If you’re around some strange experience long enough and put in the effort, it will eventually seem less strange and more familiar.
P.S. One of the reasons this story is so awesome is because it is relatable for many immigrant trips, rather than being limited the experiences of one culture or time period.
Discussion Questions:
1. How do the characters’ moods change from section I to section VI? If there was text, what would it say?
2. What do you think the author intended by arranging some pages a spread of images verses others where one image filled the page? Was one easier to follow/understand?
3. What images were you able to relate to and why?
Andrea Fitzpatrick
Word Count: 675
I believe the use of the book’s use of people from different cultures interacting and working with one another creates a great message to the child. Three characters share stories with the main character who sets out for a new life for his family. With the interactions with these three characters come sympathy for the hardships they have all endured in their past lives before setting out to the “New World.”
ReplyDeleteA sharing between characters such as the family of farmers in the third chapter share their food with the main character creates compassion. This is a book full of emotion as the focus of the book is on images conveying a poetic meaning in which the reader deeply relates to. It is in comparison to cave drawings in which there is a dire need to communicate one’s feelings, one’s own thoughts so the are heard by others and acknowledged. This is the human experience, the need of being acknowledged and not alone. Joy is seen between the farmers as they are active in participating in each other’s company and later in performing musical entertainment that enlightens one’s soul. The humane act of exchanging gifts between peoples seals up the gratification for each other’s company. In this sense, the picture book can be seen as more of a guide on morality through examples of every culture’s basic essentials of what it is meant to be human through the expression of these images.
The musical instruments are an example of cultural transcendence. Just as one of any language may pick up the book and understand the meaning, one may relate to the musical instruments that are played at the dinner table. These abnormal looking instruments are complex but help one of any nationality see these as harmless, uncultured objects that are relatable. These objects do not have too great of a distinction to make them look ethnic which reduces the amount of prejudice one may have in judging the detail of the instrument. One may be able to tell what kind of instrument it is but what style it represent one cannot tell. This helps create unification.
As in the movie Persepolis, the director chose to create the movie as an animation in black and white. This was because she did not want to make the film a cultural film because cultural films tends to scare away the audience. The audience sees details of ethnic features and dress that is not familiar, therefore many people flee away from viewing it. It is in the use of cartoonish faces and simplistic color and dress that makes the film more relatable. This unifies audiences from different cultures together and focus on the message and not so much what the message is portraying.
The story board of each panel reflects similar to a film. As earlier in the book, the main character contemplates on his loneliness from being away from family. Emotion is emphasized here as the “camera” or panel zooms out to show how deep his loneliness is and how loneliness he is in a world full of strangers in his apartment.
A great exchange in dialogue is seen as the main character explains why he jumped when he saw the tail of the pet inside the boy’s basket. The main character’s features beg to be understood and are at a loss for the reason for his escape from his home. He “draws” for us a picture to see and we the audience understand his turmoil. The farmer understands as well and relates by sharing that human touch and hands raised up in terror that cuts to being seen in his eyes in the next two shots. His story is then explained.
-Do you think the book’s use of transcending the language barrier can help a child comprehend the world in a more critical way?
Chelcie Ziegler
Word 619