Week 1: The Arrival by Shaun Tan

For this week, I read the graphic novel, The Arrival, by Shaun Tan. The Arrival talks about a man left his home and started living in a new place. This is the first time I’ve read a graphic novel. It’s interesting to see how the artist shows the changes in the man when he first arrived in the new place and gradually learned new stuff and met new friends from different places. Even though the graphic novel has no word, I could understand the story through the characters’ facial expressions. I could see curiosity and confusion when the man saw the weird stuff around him in the new place. I could tell how he missed his family when he took out his family picture. The other reason why this graphic novel can be easily understood is that the artist had drawn the story so detailed. He had almost shown every action of the character in the novel. And the transition is really smooth so that the reader can follow the character and understand what is going on in the story. The other interesting thing is how the artist used color in the novel. When the man arrived in the new land. The tone of the picture is much brighter compared with the tone when the man is on the way and when he was at home saying goodbye with his wife and daughter. When the character is depressed or showing an unhappy mood. The tone would be cooler and turned to dark gray. When the character is in a happy mood. The tone of color would be brighter and warmer.