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: