The Man/Immigrant
The man is the nameless protagonist of The Arrival. Dressed formally in a dark suit and fedora, the man leaves his wife and daughter behind to establish a new life in another country. Along the way, he struggles to understand the unfamiliar culture and language, but soon makes friends with other immigrants who have settled there. Failing to find work anywhere else, he takes a job doing quality control in a factory. He often looks at a family portrait he has taken with him. The man eventually earns enough money to send for his wife and daughter, with whom he is elated to reunite.
The Man's Pet
The man's pet is a strange creature that looks like a cross between a tadpole and a dog. It is living in a crock in the man's rented room when the man moves in. Although the man seeks at first to fight the creature, the creature endears itself to him, following him like an obedient dog. By the end of the book, the creature is treated as a beloved pet by the man's entire family.
The Wife
The man's wife stays behind in the old country to look after the daughter until the man has earned enough money for them to emigrate. She wears a neckerchief over her head when out in public.
The Daughter
The man's daughter, like his wife, stays behind in the old country while he looks for work and gets established in the foreign land. The daughter is elementary-school-age and wears a wool hat with a pattern. After becoming used to life in the new country, she goes out alone with the family pet. She happily offers directions to a new immigrant holding a map.
The Food Seller
The food seller is a man who runs an outdoor food market. He keeps his products in many little drawers and cupboards covered in symbols. His food is peculiar looking to the man, as it all seems to be organic shapes that blur the line between vegetable and animal. The food seller is happy to give the man samples, and invites him to have dinner with him, his wife, and his son. The happy family escaped extermination in the place they are from. The food seller explains that giant men with vacuums walked over the city, sucking up the tiny humans at their feet. The food seller and his wife hid in a sewer hole then escaped by rowboat.
The Woman at the Station
The woman at the station is a fellow immigrant who helps the man access the flying boat public transit system. While they ride together, she explains that she was enslaved as a girl, made to shovel coal into a furnace. She gained freedom by prying open a door with her shovel and stowing away on a train. She seems happy and well-adjusted to life in the new country.
The Old Man
The old man is a fellow employee at the factory. He befriends the man by offering what seems to be alcohol. He falls into a reverie in which he recalls how, when younger, he was a bright-eyed soldier. He marched into war in a group, eventually becoming the only one left in a devastated landscape piled with skeletons. After work, the old man introduces the protagonist to a game resembling lawn bowling.
