Aug. 24 "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan

     The Arrival by Shaun Tan is the perfect example, to me, of a visual narrative. Looking back on what I know I know a visual narrative is a story that is told primarily through the use of visual media. It can be told using media such as still photography, illustration, or video, and can be enhanced with graphics, music, and voice. They can also be combined together to create something beautiful. I noticed that in every image, on each page of the story, has a specific color, tone, and style that helps to resonate certain memories or experiences. For example, the sepia brown-gold tone you can clearly see helps to identify the scenery with day or afternoon, a calm and peaceful, happy atmosphere whereas the gray-blue-black tone resonates more with a feeling of uneasiness, worry, and trouble brewing. I even started to feel worried, I become concerned as I knew something happened, something bad. Each image also has a direct action, continuous or transitional, from one scene to the next, which helps me to identify what objects are important, what is the current situation, and who are these characters? Going back into the comic we see that the said man has a family he needs to provide for so he decides to go to this foreign land where he hopes he can find a decent job to support his family. His house as we can also see is very little, a little messy, and rundown. The family is financially unstable, given the context in the images, and the dad is an immigrant traveling to a foreign land. What the lesson here is that these said scenes only crop in or out on what the author wants you to focus on, what is most important to understand the story. It is kind of like playing a movie in your head! Each image hints in on certain things and we take each of those pieces together to create a whole story! No words are needed in The Arrival because the detail and action is already there, the mood is already set and all we need is our imagination and creativity to make the story come to life.