For those who are intrigued by the concept of visual novels or better known as graphic narratives, a story orchestrated by Shaun Tan was made in the perspective of leaving a life behind to adopt a new one, and the outlandishness of it all, followed by the acceptance and integration into a community who has gone through the same trials one way or another. The Arrival was essentially a silent story with no use of words whatsoever, and relied on the visual cues in the panels to portray and convey the story, character interactions and settings. Interestingly enough, we as readers learn that the world our main character goes to is incredibly strange, yet we aren't alone. The main character has to also come to terms with living in such a strange new world, and get to know it better and those that live within it. At the beginning, you see and understand the dire cause of the move to the new setting, and as the story goes on, you begin to learn that it is a safe haven from other, more destructive nations out in the world based upon the stories the main character hears from those around them when asking how they got here.
The attention to detail in the visuals is something to take notice of - primarily because of the facial and body language constantly being conveyed by both human and non-human characters. The hand motions, and the face emotions truly show when a character is unable to understand another, or perhaps show a sense of bewilderment or kindness. Essentially, the visuals alone can create the narrative and the actions the characters provide to move on with the story. Shaun Tan provided very lovely abstract world visuals to contrast the realistic human characters, yet their customs and interactions with the world around them is also prevalent. For instance, the same repetitive frames of someone picking up items off a conveyor belt and placing them in a tube shows that this person is working in a factory setting. You can already imagine the sounds of heavy machinery clunking away in the background, and loud noises being abundant. This is further confirmed when our character speaks to an older gentleman who puts his hand to his ear, and cringes his face to show he cannot hear our main character. When he speaks up, we see a sign of recognition on the older man's face, and we see how he turned up in the haven from his war-torn land.
There's a level of creativity and complexity in Shaun Tan's work. The specific facial emotions, character movement and actions can tell the story alone, in a form of charades. The mind merely fills in the blanks with assumed voices and sounds we try to affiliate with what we see, and from that our imaginations can provide a full story, with or without words and only clear actions. There is such a rich level of story telling in The Arrival, of loss, hardships, fear, and sad emotions from those who escaped their past nations to live in the haven, and how happy they are with their new lives, along with how they're coping and showing that the new changes are for the better. The story even had a plot twist at the end with the arrival of the wife and child. You can't help but feel what the characters feel and understand that despite such a wild and strange world, there's a level of understanding that is accomplished just by imagery. Even the main character relied on drawings from his sketchbook to communicate with those around him from time to time, such as him telling the story of what happened to the city he used to live in to the shop keeper and his son, or first arriving and trying to show that he was looking for a place to live by drawing a bed. There's the phrase, "Actions speak louder than words," and I feel that a statement like that holds more than a candle to this form of graphic novel.
