A Word on Wordless Comics

 The Arrival, by Shaun Tan, is a brilliant example of a very effective wordless comic. Tan's decisions regarding how to make use of a strictly visual narrative pull the reader inexorably into the protagonist's mindset. The lack of text serves as a language barrier for the audience as much as for the main character. As readers, we are left to depend upon very general symbols and gestures to understand what is going on in the character's alien surroundings. As he searches for basic human necessities (like food, shelter, and the work that will allow him to pay for the aforementioned things), he is forced to pantomime and draw what he's inquiring about in the overwhelming setting of the new city. To further the narrative, we're given changing cloud formations and growing, blooming, and withering flowers to show the passage of time, as well as subtle changes in the limited color palette to indicate the flashbacks of various characters, but there is never even the mention of a calendar or other apparatus designed specifically to measure days gone by; nor does there need to be one, as Tan is able to make do without these things. On a deeper level, the wordlessness of The Arrival speaks to human relationships. The hundreds of thousands of citizens of the new country to which the protagonist immigrates appear to be unreachable and incomprehensible. Upon his arrival, these people seem rather unsympathetic, or at least rushed in their attempts to help him. However, after being taken into someone’s home for dinner, or working on an assembly line, we see flashbacks illustrating the strikingly similar stories of several people, all of whom, we learn, are immigrants like our main character. Shaun Tan’s great abilities as a storyteller make The Arrival a masterful wordless comic.