Shaun Tan's "The Arrival"

Shaun Tan’s “The Arrival” uses its art to push its narrative without any dialogue, achieved by shot composition and storytelling. Various camera angles add an additional narrative layer through its execution. Reading through all six chapters three times, each in one sitting, it was noticeable how each panel was presented as finished storyboards. This style of storytelling is complemented through various camera angles, providing each scene with its own importance. Each panel comes together with a steady pace, letting the audience experience a new foreign world vicariously through the exploration of the main character.

The main character’s expedition through this foreign world leads to observing the inhabitants, various lifestyles, and their overall daily life. Throughout interactions from various people, the main character gains a better understanding of the quirks and culture of this new world, going from one odd job to another. When getting to know other people, their backstories show conflict through symbolism and how each character came to this foreign land as a means of refuge. Interactions have interesting interpretations with clearly defined body language and a wide spectrum of facial expressions. This leads to believable situations by how realistic the art is executed and how well indirect characterization is portrayed.

The biggest advantage for the extent Shaun Tan goes to make everybody as realistic as possible is how surreal he can make the world. Everything feels natural and lived in, with predominantly geometric shapes inside bigger shapes. The relative style of design shared between environments, food, technology, and creatures make everything feel related and thus a more fleshed-out world. By use of foreshortening, perspective, spatial depth, and rhythm, every panel feels like a photograph. This is complemented by the use of shading, lighting, and faded edges accompanied by cracks and folds to give that aged aesthetic.