The Arrival - Shaun Tan

Signs Preceding the End of the World is an insider’s look at the mind and journey of an illegal immigrant. A Mexican young woman crossing the border story is what challenges the ethics of readers. The main character in Signs Preceding the End of the World is Makina. “Makina is in charge of a small Mexican town’s telephone. A reliable, messenger, she knows how to keep a secret and when to keep her mouth shut. She is dangerous when threatened, quick to defend herself against lecherous fools, and unafraid of speaking truth to power” (Long). Makina is just like an ordinary person. She is no different from an average American. Makina has a job and harmless when not threatened. Americans act as if immigrants are so beneath them. Immigrants are hard workers, just like Americans. Immigrants want better lives for themselves and their families, just like Americans. Americans and immigrants are not the only ones who want these things. People all around the world want what is best for everyone they know. Most people will do whatever it takes to get to what they need; even if it is in life threatening conditions. Signs Preceding the End of the World challenges our ethics by placing the reader in the mind of an illegal immigrant, allowing the reader to know the true feelings and experience of the immigrant.

Tan goes on to explain what sociological impacts she experienced based on her upbringing. She concludes that her mother should not be judged based on her “watered down” English, and that people should be more accepting to those who cannot express their feelings in English.

On the other hand the main focus on Tan’s story is to show the beautiful and passionate side of her mother that people can't see. Tan describes how all of the English’s that she grew up with, normal English and "mother tongue" English, has shaped her first outlook of life. She writes, "But to me, my mother's

5. One of the effects that her mother’s limited English has had on Tan’s life is the fact that, that was the language that helped shape the way she saw things, expressed things, and

She wants the audience to know right away that even though she is about to tell you the story of a difficult childhood, she did reach her goal in the end. After making this statement, Tan dives into her past and how she came to be where she is today. Her mother is the next most important point of discussion. Her mother influenced her writing style as well as her beliefs about her culture and heritage. ?Just last week, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I again found myself conscious of the English I was using, the English I do use with her? (Tan, 2002, p. 36). The broken up English her mother uses is the next issue Tan focuses on. ??everything is limited, including people?s perceptions of the limited English speaker? (Tan, 2002, p. 36). Lastly, she talks about her education and the role it had on her deciding what she wanted to do with her life. ?Fortunately, I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions made about me? (Tan, 2002, p. 39). By structuring the essay in order of importance, Tan reinforces her message that you can be anything you desire even with a different culture than the norm.

English is an invisible gate. Immigrants are the outsiders. And native speakers are the gatekeepers. Whether the gate is wide open to welcome the broken English speakers depends on their perceptions. Sadly, most of the times, the gate is shut tight, like the case of Tan’s mother as she discusses in her essay, "the mother tongue." People treat her mother with attitudes because of her improper English before they get to know her. Tan sympathizes for her mother as well as other immigrants. Tan, once embarrassed by her mother, now begins her writing journal through a brand-new kaleidoscope. She sees the beauty behind the "broken" English, even though it is different. Tan combines repetition, cause and effect, and exemplification to emphasize

Shaun Tan is an Australian author and illustrator of the “silent” graphic novel, The Arrival. It is an illustrated story depicting the shared moods of refugees when they take the plunge and move from their home because of a dangerous factor. It is a story of every migrant, refugee and displaced person. Tan has created this silent graphic novel using certain techniques to captivate his audience. These techniques include; Symbolism, Prominence of visual elements and the use of colors and shades. The two pages which display these techniques are 111 and 112.

Discoveries form different perceptions of society or develop a new understanding of themselves as they continue to search and find facts about the people and the world. The Red Tree by Shaun Tan is a picture book that revolves around the journey of a child who faces many obstacles in an attempt to discover herself and the world. A major obstacle that prevents the child’s true discovery is her severe mental health. The depression and sadness alters her attitude to life and inevitably leads to unique perceptions of the world with the incorporation of dark elements. For instance, pages 8 to 9 illustrate her spiritual and intellectual discovery of the world as she misunderstands life in regards to society and its people. The page contains a quote,

Unconsciously, we all speak different languages; we categorize the way we speak by the environment and people at which we are speaking too. Whenever a character enters an unfamiliar environment, they experiment with language to find themselves and understand reality. For immigrants, language is a means to retain one’s identity; however, as they become more assimilated in their new communities their language no longer reflects that of their identity but of their new cultural surroundings. When an immigrant, immigrates to a new country they become marginalized, they’re alienated from common cultural practices, social ritual, and scripted behavior. It’s not without intercultural communication and negotiation

As an adult, Tan understands that her mother’s English is the language of intimacy. She now understands that her “mother’s expressive command belies how much she actually understands” Her mother reads “The Wall street Journal” and converses with their stockbroker on matters Tan doesn’t comprehend. It becomes evident that her initial

By applying the formalist lens to the novel, The Illegal, the deeper meaning of struggle and hardships faced by refugees in unknown and neighboring lands is depicted. Formalism is the analysis of literature itself through its literacy devices, themes and structure. There is no outside information used to understand the text, such as the authors personal life and the history of the era in which the book is written in. All characters in the novel are dealing with their own struggles which ties in with Keita, the protagonist’s story. Viola, uses Keita’s refugee and illegal immigrant status to discover private information about Zantoroland and its relations to Freedom State. Similarly, John benefits from Keita’s fame and respect, while Anton gains money. The author, Lawrence Hill, uses literary devices such as metaphors, irony and imagery to shape the novel's theme of survival and struggle. To survive is not to live life, but just continuing to exist despite struggling through obstacles.

In his 2006 graphic novel ,”The Arrival ” , author Shaun Tan uses different unique shaded images to illustrate the movement of one unnamed immigrant who traveled from his hometown to another land, where he deals with new creatures, languages and culture, which in turn is used to show the hardships and unusual events immigrants face from immigrating to unknown places. Instead of using words,Tan uses images that fully illustrates the feelings of sorrow that the immigrant is facing when he is leaving his family behind to settle in a new country.Beautiful visuals of the sky display the days passing and show us the movement of time. To convey the change of the character’s feelings , we see a fluctuation of colors of dark to bright as the book

Among all of the novels that were presented for a novel study, When Everything Feels Like The Movies stuck out in my mind. I was quite intrigued by the language used; the utilization of unique ideas and comical speech was heavily raunchy and in-your-face! Many of the other novels displayed were based on serious topics and seemingly slow moving, whereas Raziel Reid displayed a book that failed to follow the common construct of award-winning novels. Additionally, I am fairly tired of reading novels with deep meanings! Since I acknowledge that this course will be delving into the classics and novels that require heavy inference, I chose this novel based on the fact that the story would offer a nice and refreshing break from the

When these fascinating newcomers arrived, we had no idea where to place ourselves, even though this place was where we had always been. They were so dissimilar from us with their bizarre clothes and pale skin. It was perplexing, nothing made sense at the moment, but we tried to communicate despite not speaking the same language.

For a subset of migrant writers, translation gains additional importance outside of its parallels to the migrant condition. For migrant authors writing in an adopted language, there is a linguistic uprooting which lends itself to translation. Transitioning between languages adds another dimension to the task of mediating between cultures. For the migrant writer, translation can occur in many ways. It can occur through translation by other entities translators. This translation is external both in agent and location of the process. The migrant author writes in their mother tongue, producing a work that exists externally of the author. An individual who has a different relationship to migration is tasked with conveying the migrant author’s work to the adopting nation, engaging in interpretative work. Translations can be constructed by the migrant author after the initial production of a text. This translation is external in the location of the process. However, it does not involve an external agent. Personal translation allows the author to grapple with the appropriate method for conveying their text and relationship to the natives of their adopted nation. Lastly, translation may occur in the process of writing in a second language . In this process, the translation occurs internally in terms of the agent and location of the process. Again the author retains a degree of autonomy in defining the way in which the adopting nation’s audience receives the text. In each process