In this essay I am going to be discussing the arrival book. The arrival book has no writing so the readers have to imagine what is happening in the book, rather than the author (Shaun Tan) telling us readers the information. Shaun Tan was born in Fremantle,Australia in 1974 and has won many awards such as: the academy award for the best short picture book,AACTA for best short animation,Hugo award for best professional artist,world fantasy award for best artist and Ditmar award for best artwork. Shaun Tan drew this book because he was inspired by people who came into Ellis Island,America. The pictures that he drew looked very similar to the pictures from Ellis Island.
In my opinion, Shaun Tan’s created this book so that he can inspire readers to believe that migration is common and why migration is useful. So far in the book, I saw a drawing of a typical working man, probably getting himself ready to go to work. This man then arrives at a boat with his family who is then left behind as he gets into to the boat without his family. When this man arrives at his destination, he see’s a statue of two people greeting each other. In my opinion Shaun Tan drew these two people greeting each other to reflect a new migrant entering the country. Shaun Tan might have also used this picture to tell readers that migrants who arrive at Ellis island are welcome, this is because they see the statue of liberty which makes a traveller feel relieved as they are accepted to a new country after a long journey. This relates to migration because theres a man who’s leaving the country and it shows it when the man packs his clothes to leave the country.
Shaun Tan shows us migration when the man had to go to have a medical check up to see if he had any illness before he enters the country. He then has to show his passport so they can mark it in saying he came into the country legally. Then they have to say there reason why there getting into the country and the mans trying to explain that he left family behind but the man he’s trying to explain to probably doesn’t get what he’s trying to say because the mans hands is on his face. I think the message Shaun Tan is trying to send us is that people leave there country for a certain reason and that migration is normal.
Shaun Tan wants people to be inspired by him from the book arrival. Shaun Tan himself was inspired to write this book after pictures he saw of people entering Ellis Island. These people were very exited to get into America and were welcomed when they saw the statue of liberty. So Shaun Tan drew pictures of the man leaving home and in a boat ready to enter a new country. He also drew a statue of two people greeting each other which could have meant when people enter the country and see the statue then they’d want to build there life there.
In conclusion Shaun tan is a great author and was inspired by the people who came into Ellis island. I found the book very interesting because Shaun tan didn’t tell us what was happening but we have to see what’s going on as use our imaginations. He has won many awards and I enjoy his books and would want to read more of them.
May 3, 2016 at 3:41 pm
Pedro,
This is a good piece of writing, but I need it to be a bit more refined in order for me to give you the analysis badge.
You need to do the following things, please:
1) Using the snipping tool, add the pictures you are talking about
2) Each paragraph should focus on one picture. There should be four pictures in total
3) In each paragraph, you need to talk about
a) how the picture relates to migration
b) how Shaun Tan shows us this
Do this, please!