The Arrival, Shaun Tan

Reading through The Arrival again after many years, brought back memories of the stories told about my Mother’s side of the family who immigrated fairly recently. I’m a third generation American on that side.  I like that in the comic there are small stories of the people the character meets on how and why they immigrated. Overall they had some type of hardship to go through and had to leave a bad place.

My great grandparents did the same, my great grandmother’s family escaped from fascist Italy, in the early 1900s. My great grandfather’s family escaped from Ireland due to the escalation of the British occupation.  Not much really is known about the Irish side they popped out of nowhere. Rumors persist they were part of the IRA but we still don’t know. But the Italian can trace itself back, and many hardships were dealt to my great grandmother and her two sisters and little brother. They lost their father to a carriage accident and their mother was left lame. So they took up property in Durango, Colorado and the three sisters farmed. Some of the locals that have been there since the family landed; know of The Tale of the Three Sisters. So when reading this comic it brings up memories of being told about the three sisters how the grew up, how they survived, and learned about American culture.

That to me is what always struck me about this comic is that I think for anyone who has had family immigrate here to bring up memories and an understanding of what its like; a feeling of being united and not alone.  And its what makes the comic truly universal.