Nikita VAnlane Mov Now Arrivaling Part One 2 This book has given me sadness and joy, an impressive feat considering the text is very short leaving. | fee! like the author is able to successfully capture this in such a small picture / book, because of his attention to detail. This attention to detail is what we notice and what |_, believe supports each page as being significant amongst the story as a whole. For example, we can see the authors attention to detail when he links the first image of Ch. IV back to the first“ image of Ch. In this example, we see that the family’s journey has truly been successful as he ‘compares their new life vs their old life by contrasting the worn out items from the beginning With the items in Ch IV. I find that the detail and connectivity achieves in winning the audience over in terms of developing our relationship with the characters and sparks genuine excitement _from the auaience asthe story progresses My favorite scene in the text is as the boat first arrives to the new land carrying all the travelers who look out in awe at the city. This scene resonated with me, because when | first saw this scene | immediately thought about the intense emotions of each of these individuals. Certain questions arose for me: What are they feeling? No doubt anxiousness and exhaustion from the journey, but through their body language | could also see: excitement, relief, disbelief, and immense joy that they have made it. Everything in this image resonates with me including the flying letters. When I see the letters flying off to their recipients it makes me incredibly interested to know what these people had to say, I can only imagine the emotions they” conveyed to their loved ones. 4 3. My least favorite scene is the page with the soldier in crutches limping through the gory battlefield. It is my least favorite, because itis a contrast to the happiness that we feel for the ‘main character, just as he is beginning to get a lay of this new land. This contrast is very abrupt as the author depicts the violent/gory imagery to affirm the theme of the destructiveness of - war, with the solemnness curiosity that precedes it. This image also gives me an unsettling feeling, because it not only shows that the soldiers in war suffer (he is missing his leg), but the desolate village shows us how the innocent citizens also pay a great price for war. 4. Yes, the different color tones used helps me view the story differently. One color tone that | could see the author takes to using is the implementation of black and white on certain images This implementation is a cue for me that the image before me is of a memory/past. Knowing this lam able to follow the story without being thrown off by the shift when I see an image that has little connection to the previous page. 5. linitially believed that the images where true observations, but after reflecting on the text | ‘am reminded that we are outsiders just like the travelers. The author does this by showing us, an abstract world, with a language that not only the travelers don’t recognize, but we as outside viewer's looking in don’t recognize. This brought me to the conclusion that it is more accurate to view this new world as memories created into abstract then real ty6. | believe that the lack of words makes this work very unique, it allows us to not follow this work as a guideline like we would, which in that case we would be only experiencing the text as the author personally intended, in this book however, we each experience the novel differently. We bring our own life experiences and perspectives, and depending on our creativity and what ‘we put into noticing the subtleties that the author introduces in each page, we produce our, ‘own unique story in a way. | also think that this lack of words goes back to what the author was trying to do that is put us into the perspective of the travelers, as ourselves being the foreigners in this land by introducing architecture, language etc. that we as the audience are unfamiliar with, he wants us to see what these people see when they entered this land. Following this / knowledge then, it would be counterintuitive to add words that we can recognize to this text, because it would be an indication of our familiarity with this world. 7. In part, | believe | can relate to the traveler in this story. As an immigrant | have made the Journey from home to a foreign land. In contrast to this however, | made this journey with my family. | remember this time as being very tough emotionally for me as | left behind all the years of experience and friends that | made. If | did not have the support of my family to assist ‘me | believe | would be unable to make the journey. It would be to hard making the journey alone, but believe i am faced with poverty or death like the traveler in the story | supposé would have to put my best forward and embrace the change. 8, The piece that! want to relate my own lfe to is the part where we are fist introduced to the sky city. | relate my life to this, because I have had a similar experience just recently. | recently 7 moved to USA from Canada. Although, at frst glance this might not seem like a big difference | / considered itso. limmediately noticed a difference; the food, the architecture, the layout, the people. Although the two countries are neighbors they could not be more different on what they have to offer. Due to this difference | am much like the traveler observing all the exotic 7 things being offered, and trying to assimilate the best I can. so br 1o 20Woven es Low et firmly believe it is important to expose students to radically different texts than wha! might be used to, | believe this, because as we examine similar literature we tend to develop certain habits of approaching the work and this results in a single pattern of 7 thinking, ultimately closing off the rest of our imagination/exploration of the text. By studying Shakespeare for ex. | would often be given literary tools to look out for like: themes, personification, foreshadowing, alliteration etc. In my personal experience, this, prescribed method of examining text results in narrowing of creativity, and focusing on only a small portion. Instead we must expand our minds and imagination, and | believe” “The Arrival” does just that. Not only are we using the tried and true methods of analyzing text that we have learned, but we are applying our own personal experiences and creativity into this work. {believe there is immense value in exposing readers to a book without words. A book without words allows us as viewer's to observe it with our own unique perspectives. This practice of not including words invites us to open our minds, in the end it us up to us to define the experience. Based on the subtleties we pick up through the text, and our own personal biases, each of us as the audience gets a unique take on the text.” | found the idea of creating an abstract world; a world that we have never seen in books or in movies; is a very clever and a noteworthy idea on the part of the author. | believe this, because the practice solidifies the fact that we are just as much of an outsider as. the travelers is. Ifthe author did not mask this land with abstract imagery, and reveal _// this city as an actual place that we our familiar with, our relationship and understanding ‘of what the main traveler is going through would be lost. This isso, because maybe we ‘are from New York City or USA in general for that matter, we would therefore not be // able to relate to the travelers, because it would be home to us. To avoid this the author keeps us close to the main character, we discover the world as he is discovers it, we become accustomed to it, just as he is become accustomed to it. ‘My opinion of the text is that itis a work of utter brilliance. I believe that the mixing of realism and abstractness is a novel way of putting a new spin on the cliché immigrant ~~ tale. This realism and abstractness comes together brilliantly in the image when they _/ arrive by boat. The real images of the normal looking city in the distance (looks like New York City) blending with the abstract elements (statues holding hands, flying letters etc.) feel that I have learned a great deal from this novel in terms of how it teachesme about tackling the unknown. Dire circumstances have led the traveler to embark on his journey, a journey that he did not know the outcome to. Fortunately, for him and his family he was able to make success of the possibility, we can clearly see that the family is much happier and successful by the end. Ifthe traveler had not embarked on this journey, they would stil ikely be in danger and in poverty. To me the traveler is _/ achieving the American Dream, as an audience member | believe what I can take from this is to carry on despite obstacles in the way. Just like the traveler seek the advice of others who will support and aid you, you too will stumble on success by personal // perseverance and the aid of those important to you. We can also see this determination by the traveler in the part where he i looking for work and there is several image panels Reflection—