The Arrival

The Arrival is a graphic novel about an immigrant trying to make money and send for his family.  There are multiple reasons why this graphic novel is very well written and strongly admired by many.

First, there are no words in this novel.  The only "written words" are symbols which I believe represent a foreign language.  Most of the symbols are shown on signs and on the license, and you can tell it's a license because of how the artist decided to lay out the paper (Image on the top left, and symbols representing name, DOB, place of residence, etc...).

The next big thing I noticed in this novel is the idea of creatures living with the citizens.  This can be interpreted in multiple ways, but for me I believe it gave a feeling of unique characteristics of a foreign city (building, monuments, etc..), and he shows that it's foreign to the main character by showing normal citizens of the city walking by the creatures without a second thought, whereas the main character and the others traveling to the city making a big deal out of it.

Another great aspect of this, is the emotion detailed by the artist.  It's relatable to a lot of people, because most people have gone to a new city, state or country, and because of that, the way the main character is shown, it gives a sense of the character guessing himself, trying to communicate with the locals and even getting a new place to live.  It also shows gigantic human-like creatures that are sucking up the residents, which makes me feel like they're a part of either a military group or some sort of police force.  Showing the characters being sucked up, the main character running, the artist portrays the feeling in the drawing of the faces, the contrast in the boxes drawn and the motion the characters are drawn.

Overall, I really enjoyed Shaun Tan's "The Arrival".  It really threw me off because it was the first time I've read a wordless graphic novel, but it's very well drawn and I got a lot out of it even though nothing is explained and it's wordless.