“The Arrival”, written by Shaun Tan, describes the life of
immigrants based on his father’s experience. The author wants the readers to
understand the life of immigrants in foreign countries and uses sequential drawings
like a film making process. Unlike ordinary graphic narratives, he never uses
words, only sequential images. It visualizes what is going on through the
movement of each scene. Human beings had utilized images as communicating
purposes and to store information. Images can be more easily and clearly
understood than words so they can be used to communicate regardless of language.
Stories that only use images also let the readers imagine
the story by themselves. Novels do not contain images that make people read and
imagine based on what they have read. Likewise, graphic novels without words, such
as “The Arrival”, can let the readers imagine the narratives by watching the
series of pictures. Everyone has different ideas, and makes their own
conclusion from what they read based on their experience, perspectives,
thoughts, and points of view. This type of method can have the audience think
and analyze the stories more deeply.
In wordless graphic novels, the audience can understand what
is going through the character’s actions, emotions, conflicts, and interaction
with other characters. “The Arrival” also has the same elements that have been
described in the previous sentence, and the combination style of
photo-realistic and abstract images clearly describes the story and contains
implicated messages. Only through the image is the audience able to comprehend
what the author wants to talk about and what he or she is feeling about the
subject in the graphic novel.
Images are very universal and can be created without using
any characters. The sequential images give the readers a continuity that allows
them to catch the ongoing events. “The Arrival” is the perfect example of this;
it specifically describes the story without writing any words but has readers
visually follow the journey of the characters in the book.
