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The Arrival by Shaun Tan (3 Points)

This beautiful piece captures the uncertainty of those who've experienced immigration face, while not being entirely negative. It shows the humanity others are capable of giving despite there being a language barrier. It gives hope to those who are going into personally uncharted territory that there will always be kindess.

We follow a man leaving behind his wife and child to move to a foreign place in hopes of a better future for his family. Along the way we meet some characters that help our main hero through his transition into a foreign land. In the end, his family is finally reunited with him and they are able to be together in this new place.

What I loved about this piece is that it was abstracting a very real subject. Even in the beginning of the book where the dedications go, it says "for my parents." You can tell just from the drawings that there was a lot of love put into this piece. It was personal, but abstracted enough so that anyone could understand and apply the underlying analogy to themselves. It was incredible to see this alien world littered with cute creatures that rival Earth's own birds, cats, and dogs. A world with almost science-fantasy scenery. Not only was the scenery different, but the way people went about their days was also fantastical. Our main character arrived in a elevator that came from the sky. That's so cool?? 

I think it's the interactions between the characters though that make this such a beautiful story. Each person our protagonist meets has their own story to tell. Through the abstraction Tan uses, we can tell that the giants overrunning and burning one of the side character's countries is perhaps alluding to tyranny of the government they were facing in real life. But even after these characters share their backstories, they're always willing to help out our protagonist. This world is rich with love that humanity has stored in each in every one of us, and it's gorgeous.

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