The Arrival by Suan Tan (3 Pts.)
I think the story of "The Arrival" perfectly encapsulates the idea of a stranger in a strange land, or in this case, the experience of immigrants and refugees who have traveled from far and wide to make their new life in a distant country, far away from the familiarity of friends and family. I especially love how Tan is able to depict all of this without the use of words. In the first part we see a man packing a family portrait into a singular suitcase; one only big enough to fit the essentials of life that he will be taking with him on his long journey. As he says goodbye to his wife in child, we see looming in the sky dozens of dark, smokey tendrils of some ginormous unseen monster twisting and contorting around every street corner. Tan, without the use of words, has this abstract means by which he creates a sense of tension and danger. While the exact meaning of these black tendrils is loose -- Is it war? Famine? Disease? Poverty?-- there is an undeniable connotatio