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The Arrival by Shaun Tan

 

The Arrival is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images that might seem to come from a long forgotten time. A man leaves his wife and child in an impoverished town, seeking better prospects in an unknown country on the other side of a vast ocean. He eventually finds himself in a bewildering city of foreign customs, peculiar animals, curious floating objects and indecipherable languages. With nothing more than a suitcase and a handful of currency, the immigrant must find a place to live, food to eat and some kind of gainful employment. He is helped along the way by sympathetic strangers, each carrying their own unspoken history: stories of struggle and survival in a world of incomprehensible violence, upheaval and hope. - from Shaun Tan

 

 

Critical insights for English Language Learners:

  • immigration

  • culture shock

  • language

  • translation

  • family

 

 

Watch Shaun Tan discuss migration and multiculturalism in The Arrival:

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