The Arrival (Graphic Novel) Essay Questions

What role does the concept of companionship play in The Arrival?

As one of the novel's major themes, companionship plays a significant role in The Arrival. Tan explores the theme most explicitly through his depictions of the man's relationship with his tadpole-dog creature and the man's encounters with other immigrants. The fellowship the man feels when spending time with other people he can relate to or with a pet toward whom he can be affectionate functions as an antidote to the loneliness of his existence. Without his close-knit family nearby, the man must find companionship from the strangers who ease his transition to the new culture. Beyond the material help provided by the woman taking transit or the man selling food, they contribute to the man's emotional and mental well-being by providing the man with company. He also sees in these people a living example of what he wishes to achieve, as they are immigrants who have assimilated to the new land happily.

In what ways is The Arrival a book about aspiration?

The Arrival is a book about aspiration because it depicts a man who hopes to create a safer and more prosperous life for himself and his family. To achieve this goal, he must abandon the life he knows and put himself in the vulnerable position of having to establish himself from nothing in a foreign culture. While that new culture is intimidating in its unfamiliarity, it is nonetheless a land of opportunity. All around him, the man sees examples of other immigrants who have assimilated into the cosmopolitan culture of the new country. He soon overcomes his alienation through interactions with other people from diverse backgrounds, all of whom are generous and sympathetic to his situation because they were once in the same place themselves. Ultimately, the man achieves his aspiration by settling his family in their new homeland. His daughter becomes so familiar with the local culture that she can give directions to a recent arrival who cannot read a map.

What helps the man forge connections with people from other cultures?

Although their backstories differ, the man and the other immigrants he meets forge connections based on their shared goal of living somewhere better than the place they were born. Although everyone has a different reason for having left their homeland, each of them has sought to escape some form of oppression. For the man, oppression haunts his family life as poverty and a lack of community. For the woman taking transit, it was slavery. The food seller relates his story of escaping an invading group of giants who vacuumed his people off the streets while he hid underground. For the old man at the factory, he was the lone survivor of a genocide that wiped out his people and decimated the landscape he once knew. Ultimately, each person has found a safer and more peaceful life in the new land, and they relate to each other's experiences through empathy.