In my essay I am going to write about a book called ‘The Arrival’ and the author of the book is called Shaun Tan. Shaun Tan based his novel about an event that happened in reality. This book is about migration and the thing Shaun Tan based the novel on happened in America when the first migrants were coming to a place called Ellis Island. I am going to talk about how the book shows how migration happens in reality. The book shows what troubles you go through and the many things you do just so you can enter the new country.

In the first picture there are lots of smaller pictures that show different people that are different races and probably different religions too. All of the smaller pictures show either females or males. Every single person are in scruffy uniform and the clothes they are wearing are dirty. Shaun Tan probably showed us many faces to show that migration is common around the world. The artist (Shaun Tan) also wanted to show that migration was a completely normal thing that people went through sometime in their life. The artist also shows that elderly people, adults, teenagers, children and even babies migrate so this means that you can migrate whenever you want if you could afford it.

In the second picture there are a few other smaller pictures that show things that the main character (The man) and his family have in there house. In the picture the objects are very well laid out and this suggests the man is leaving because the objects are probably going to be taken with the man so he wants them in good condition when he leaves his family. All the objects we see in the second picture are objects that would be in a house and this is how we know that the man is going to a different house in a different place. The second picture also shows a picture of himself, his wife and his daughter and this suggests that he will be leaving his family. There are only a few pictures that show specific things that mean a lot to him and this was made by Shaun Tan so we know that the man is going to leave.

In the third picture Shaun Tan’s picture of an immigration centre is closely related to the picture of an actual immigration centre when something happened in reality, migrants came to Ellis Island (In America) looking for jobs to help their families. Shaun Tan shows that immigration centres is always a really busy place with a lot of people lined up to enter the country and flags representing things like their country or government. The artist symbolizes an actual moment in time that happened in reality when migrants came to Ellis Island in America. The artist decided to compare his drawing to a photo of Ellis Island because he wanted other people to know that America is the heart of immigration. Shaun Tan also shows that if you are migrating you have to be extremely patient because just trying to get through the line for hours is really stressful.

In the fourth picture the immigrants are arriving the new city and there are loads of other new things around like new people, new vehicles and even a new hope. In the picture there is a gigantic boat full of immigrants that managed to save up enough money to go to this new city to earn money for their families to be safe. In the picture there are two statues that are shaking hands and this shows the people that there is hope. Shaun Tan shows there is hope in the new city by putting light colours in the picture. The people on the boat are all cheering and this shows that people feel achieved by using a load of money to get to this new city. One of the statues have a suitcase so you know that it is the immigrant and the other statue has different types of things that would be sold and that statue is greeting the other statue so the people think that this city is going to be better.

In the fifth picture the main character (the man) is standing in front of one of the offices explaining who he is and other things like his age, name and why he is coming to the new city. The man has pieces of paper one his clothes that probably say information about him like for example his age, his height, his gender and other things about him that the person at the desk wouldn’t know about. Shaun Tan shows that the man is a migrant and he is has been affected by the progress because the man doesn’t understand the person at the desk so that is how you would know he is a migrant because he doesn’t understand the people at all and in the last few pictures of the the fifth picture the man seems really confused, probably a bit stressed and kind of worried because the man doesn’t know what the person at the desk is saying so he wouldn’t really know what to do next.

In the sixth picture there is a man that seems to be printing out some sort of copy or sheet for the man to take with him to prove he has been checked on or if he was able to pass through and enter the city. The man at the desk seems to be printing something that could be a pass to enter the city or maybe even a fact file of all of the man’s (the main character) information. In my opinion we can’t see the man’s face (the man at the desk) because he is probably someone that we are going to see that same man later on in the story and then he is going to reveal himself (we will be able to see his face). In every three photos it looks like a different man for example the first three pictures in the sixth picture is the same man but that man is not the same as the rest of the pictures in the sixth picture.

In my conclusion the six pictures all show that migration is a good thing because in all of the pictures it shows that migration is a common and normal thing to go through in your life. Shaun Tan made the book to show how life would be if you were migrating to another country. In my opinion the artist has done a great job showing the life of a migrant and how it would be and feel to leave things you love behind but you do it for a good cause, to save those you love. This is my opinion on all of the six pictures.

By Jose De Caires Goncalves