The Arrival - 3pts

 In The Arrival by Shaun Tan, the graphic style is incredibly exciting and hard to ignore. My experience while reading left me completely captivated by the story and how it was expressed in the drawings. While reading I couldn't help but make a connection to the protagonist and what it must be like to come to a new country as a refugee. He needed help understanding the language, heard war stories told by others, and worked while waiting to be able to be with his family again. The way the war stories were depicted were incredibly unique and rendered the victims as defenseless to these adversaries. The dark tentacles wrapping around his home, or the place he came from, appeared incredibly threatening and spooky. Although the new place he inhabits is strange and unfamiliar to him it appears safe, warm, and welcoming. To help enhance that feeling is his little animal guide, which is for sure strange but gives off a gentle personality. A scene that captures this completely is when the protagonist is alarmed by this cat-like creature that resembles the tentacles from his home. He is scared by it but is quickly reassured that his is safe in this new place and there is nothing like that here. When his family finally arrives, the same way he did, they are reunited and he is overjoyed. Then he is able to teach his daughter the ways of their new home. I enjoy the ending where his daughter is showing what seems to be another foreigner where to go and giving her directions. The feel good ending was uplifting and fulfilling to me as a reader. I find that this story was very realistic in its message even though the perspective was whimsical. 

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