Shaun Tan The Arrival Analysis

Written during the year 2000, Virgil Suárez’s poem, “Isla” compares the creature Godzilla to the immigrant experience. The speaker provides a descriptive comparison of himself as an immigrant while comparing immigrants to Godzilla, a monster of Tokyo (Suárez, 2000). Throughout this poem, Suárez’s use of imagery and descriptive phrases elicit sympathy to its readers.

This characterization gives a bigger meaning to the dangerous journey taken by immigrants to cross these socially constructed borders and brings meaning to immigrants as people, and not just as objects. The film shows the landscape of Honduras, people working in the fields, how children learn in school, soccer playing as a pastime and other visual occurrences that expose the viewer to the daily life of a Honduran citizen. The personification of Yohan being from Honduras, being father of three kids, a husband, a son, and a worker in his community, shows that his identity does not just amount to one negative connotation that is perceived out of ignorance and xenophobic principles. With Yohan as a real-life example, it motivates individuals to see that migrants expose themselves to dangers because of their family and goals. Yohan is not just a number or a name, but a person with a dream and a background—which provides a further representation of immigrants as people. This depiction gives immigrants a contextual background, gives them an identity through their “homeland.”

The understandings and diversities of each immigrant and their experiences underlies in a range of issues they encounter such as rights, freedoms, beliefs, power, entrapment etc… All of which are a common understanding when used in comparison towards the migrants lives using the poignant aspect of imagery and journey’s within the poem “Immigrants at Central Station, 1951”. The experiences and perceptive in this poem help perceive an understanding of the immigrants experiences towards the new world of which displays the integrity, emotion and suffering towards the new world and we as the readers are engaged into these aspects of life through trains, time, control and journeys.

The poem “Finding Home” written by Carolina Hospital tells the story of how Mexicans who come to America try to find their heritage in the United States. Like many who migrate to America, the immigrants miss their country and are concerned about losing their culture. In contrast to Harvey Gomez, this poem shows that many Mexicans in America appreciate their heritage. “I have travelled north again,/to these gray skies/and empty doorways,” (Hospital 101). This shows that they miss their native country and are concerned about forgetting their heritage. Perhaps Harvey’s grandparents thought the same thing when they first came to America from Mexico. Regardless of their arrival in America, they want to return to Mexico someday. “I must travel again soon” (Hospital 102). Despite leaving their native land they have respect for Mexico and will visit again. After the experience that Harvey had in discovering his heritage, I am sure that he will visit Mexico again.

Sonia Nazario wrote Enrique’s Journey in order to shed light on the social issues involved with immigration. With the knowledge that these issues are a touchy subject, especially with the United States’ current political status, and that many people are quick to disregard any thought of allowing people of non-native descent to enter America, Nazario had to find a means to get her story across without immediately being dismissed. So, to create a novel that ensures not only a person with empathy towards immigrants will mourn with Enrique but also people with an opposing political agenda, Nazario uses ethos through following Enrique on his journey and pathos through an emotional connection to the logos statics she includes.

In the story “Four Stations in His Circle”, Austin Clarke reveals the negative influences that immigration can have on people through characterization of the main character, symbols such as the house that Jefferson dreams to buy and the time and place where the story takes place. The author demonstrates how immigration can transform someone to the point that they abandon their old culture, family and friends and remain only with their loneliness and selfishness.

Throughout history we have seen many people leaving their old lives behind for the new opportunities in America but are let down by the harshness of our culture. In the story, Arrival: 1960 by Pablo Medina, we learn about a young Cuban family who make a big move to the United States, more specifically New York City. The main character begins the story high spirited and excited for their new home for it would be packed with new experiences. As the story continues he begins to see the reality within the city and at his school. He discovers that his new environment is not at all what he expected and on top of that he is faced with a culture that is abstract to his previous beliefs of identification. His high expectations were greatly reduced to the shocking experiences he went through in this forbidding environment.

The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz-Gonzalez and the photograph Migration by Jose Hernandez-Claire share the same subject, migration. The author and the artist use a lot of the same techniques to expose the subject of migration, but they also use many different techniques. They also express the way they feel about the results of migration. There are several differences between the excerpt and the photo, but these are some similarities that can be found between the techniques used. One technique that can be found in the picture and the text is the topic, the topic shared is migration…

A Place to Belong “Sometimes to get what you want the most, you have to do what you want the least” -Jodi Picoult. Lonely, sad, depressed, alone and isolated, we all have felt that way before. The character’s condition might be the most depressing state we can be in, being away from your family, friends and home. In The Arrival the author showed us how colors can be a universal language , they may express the message quietly but they convey it strongly. Shaun Tan did not only want us to empathize with the characters, but he also wanted us to understand the character’s emotions through facial expression and colors.

The border between the United States of America and Mexico always had been always a theme for a lot of discussions. And, in the book “Sunshine/Noir II” Juanita Lopez and Michael Cheno described, through texts, their point of view about the topic. Both authors represent that the control of the border has become way more restrict and militarized. In that sense, Michael Wickert presents his idea in a poem form, text named “The border Is a Fight”, that describes the dramas of a Mexican family that has to cross the border every day in a hope to get a better future. Whereas, Juanita Lopez demonstrates it through an essay that uses personal narratives of the author’s relatives to illustrate her point of view. Therefore, the both authors exploit their point of views using different text forms, and figurative images, like metaphors and personification, for delivering their ideas in the way they do.

The immigrants in Pico Layer’s travel essay “ Where World Collide,” view America as a dream come true. The immigrants are coming to America for the first time. As the immigrants disembark from their flights, “ They come out, dazed, disoriented, head still partly in the clouds, bodies still several time zones- or centuries- away, and the step into the Promised Land. My personal experience is that when i went to my first funeral last year I didn’t know how to react. Immigrants that first arrived to America they feel like it's a dream come true and they are in a Promised Land coming into America because they are experiencing it for the first time.

Literature is a vehicle for personal growth that can produce learning, ethnic validation, and empathy, which encourages solidarity among different communities (Vasquez 2005). Despite the growing amount of research on migration, few studies focus on their sociocultural wealth and creative production of migrants (Simich et al 2009; Litwick 2010; Chavez 2013). Conscious of this trend, I study the representation of identity formation of migrants in both fictional and nonfictional works as represented by two Latinas and transnational authors, whose identities are deeply rooted in the story of migration between Mexico and the U.S. In addition, Humanities has traditionally studied immigrants’ identities from the concept of assimilation, when assimilation does not reflect the diversity and complexities of migrant groups. To reach a more comprehensive understanding of the subjectivity of migrants’ identities of and of their identity formation, I applied the anthropological theoretical framework of liminality.

In the short story “Two Kinds” written by Amy Tan the author offers a chance for readers to interpret the underlying message of the plot themselves. Amy Tan writes a narrative diary of a grown women describing her point of view during the struggles of her childhood with her mother. By having the story in the child’s perspective that offers the reader an insight to the narrator’s frustration from failing to meet her mother’s high expectations due to her immigration experience. A large conflict between the narrator and the mother arises throughout the story although they both feel that they are correct. Amy Tan clearly illustrates the power and difficulty that immigration can place on the average Chinese American family struggling to adapt and

He walked over to the shore and reflected on the surrounding. He was observing the faces of the people that will travel with him to an unknown destination. He was hoping it would be Italy but any country, in his illegal situation, is a promise for a better life. The immigrants were only middle aged men. However, their faces didn’t reflect their youth.

A wind weaves it's way through the tall redwood trees of northern california, making it's way, rapid speed, flourishing through an open window. The sun pours into the room, lacing it's rays on every object in it, reflecting warm shades of yellow from the white hospital bed. It's August fourth, 2002, and a new life has been brought into these small suburbs. It depends on her if her life were to be black or white, if her life were to be colorful. Indescribable by simple contrast. As an artist, her culture was very dynamic. She’d soon begin to be influenced by anything, and everything, which would make it harder for her to find her culture. The principles her culture will always follow.