The Arrival, is a wordless graphic novel that presents the story of immigration. Though it contains no words, Tan is able to create a story for his audience through subtle means of body expression, still shots, and the human experience.
In The Arrival, the audience journeys with the protagonist on a new adventure. We as the audience are able to discern this due to body language. Body language can show a lot of a characters emotions and feelings. Small gestures such as scratching the head, or resting hands on hips enable us to form an emotion onto the person. The beginning of the novel shows us frames of the protagonist packing. We can infer that the suitcase shown is due to travel. However, as the audience progresses through the story, the protagonist is seen interacting with other travelers. The protagonist shows signs of confusion, and nervousness.
The audience can also decipher the story by still shots. Human beings have this extraordinary skill of connecting and understanding still shots, or images in a line. This phenomena is still something that cannot be understood entirely. When two or more frames look alike, but with slight differences, our brains are able to understand that the frames somehow coincide with each other, and ultimately create a story. Even though this graphic novel is wordless, our brains can create the story from linking. Each page contains numerous smaller images lined up the page. As our eyes drag from one image to the next, we subconsciously remember what we just observed and connect it to the next image. Therefore, we as humans do not need words for our brains to interpret story. Visually, our eyes can sense the idea of a story
Wordless graphic novels utilize a different way of thinking and interpreting. The lack of words also shows the flexibility and malleability we humans have within our brains. Subconsciously we do not know that we can interpret experiences and emotions without words. The Arrival enables us to understand a little bit more about how we can interpret and understand the world around us.
In The Arrival, the audience journeys with the protagonist on a new adventure. We as the audience are able to discern this due to body language. Body language can show a lot of a characters emotions and feelings. Small gestures such as scratching the head, or resting hands on hips enable us to form an emotion onto the person. The beginning of the novel shows us frames of the protagonist packing. We can infer that the suitcase shown is due to travel. However, as the audience progresses through the story, the protagonist is seen interacting with other travelers. The protagonist shows signs of confusion, and nervousness.
The audience can also decipher the story by still shots. Human beings have this extraordinary skill of connecting and understanding still shots, or images in a line. This phenomena is still something that cannot be understood entirely. When two or more frames look alike, but with slight differences, our brains are able to understand that the frames somehow coincide with each other, and ultimately create a story. Even though this graphic novel is wordless, our brains can create the story from linking. Each page contains numerous smaller images lined up the page. As our eyes drag from one image to the next, we subconsciously remember what we just observed and connect it to the next image. Therefore, we as humans do not need words for our brains to interpret story. Visually, our eyes can sense the idea of a story
Wordless graphic novels utilize a different way of thinking and interpreting. The lack of words also shows the flexibility and malleability we humans have within our brains. Subconsciously we do not know that we can interpret experiences and emotions without words. The Arrival enables us to understand a little bit more about how we can interpret and understand the world around us.
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