Week 1: The Arrival by Shaun Tan

The Arrival by Shaun Tan showcases a deep story without the use of any dialogue. The wordless comic provided me with both entertainment and imagined speeches. I believe this was done by using clear body language and other forms of non-verbal communication to express a point to the reader. This may be a demand, like pinching your fingers together in asking for money- or showing the reader a sequence of images that flow and are easily readable to the eye. The main character also displays different reactions to things in a very physical fashion that combine both facial expressions and hands.

Tan also utilizes transitions to tell the story. For example, the beginning of the book shows our protagonist sitting aboard a ship as he is leaving his family. This is suggested by him sitting alone in a room in front of a portrait of his family before he turns to look out the window, where it's shown he is traveling on an enormous boat. We then see the other passengers on the ship, those on top crowded and wrapped in blankets, huddling beside their luggage. This tells the reader that our protagonist is possibly migrating to someplace far and foreign.  

Another way the story is told/progresses is by utilizing flashbacks of minor characters while also seeing their different interactions with the protagonist and each other, as well as their different responsibilities. They serve as a compare and contrast- to what I believe the story to be about immigration and the (possibly idealized) concept of leaving behind your homeland to reach something safer and better for yourself and your family. We can infer that the family's move may have been incited by this eerie, pointed tail stretched all about their city. You as the reader can tell that this is meant to be something feared by the way other characters interact with its image- such as the protagonist panicking at the sight of the little boy's animal whose tail resembled the one from his homeland. All these are what help to make The Arrival a dynamic but wordless story.