8/29
Through the use of emotion invoking visual cues like facial expression, icons and the exaggeration of value, Shaun Tan's novel "The Arrival" successfully portrays the story of immigration. As humans growing up we learn certain emotions and how they are shown through facial expressions, so we are able to understand and sympathize with what emotions we are seeing in the imagery of the novel. If not for the emotion of the characters being portrayed so clearly, the reader would not be able to understand the thoughts of the characters or be able to feel how they feel. Like through every day conversation, if someone is sad your face and emotions will reflect their sadness naturally.
Through learned behavior, the reader can infer the emotions of situations based off of the emotions and body language the characters are showing. The use of value in the illustrations helps to create a stronger sense of emotion within scenes. It helps to transition you from panel to panel by creating a sort of new scene with each lighting shift. The change in lighting also helps create the illusion of the flow of time in order to make the story progress.
Symbols like the large statues shaking hands in the sea port, and the abundance of smokestacks and machinery give the reader clarity of what time period the story takes place in. The feeling of you being in a foreign world is created by the illustrations of the strange companion creature, the unclear hieroglyph like writing and the strange vehicles like those flying boats. The integration of those elements into the rest of a seemingly normal view of an industrialized city with normal human beings creates a sense of familiarity in the audience that gives a baseline understanding of what could be happening in the story.
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