A six-by-six grid of images showing a folded-paper bird, antique clock, fedora on a wall, cooking pot and spoon, child's drawing of a three-person family, teapot, chipped tea mug and travel brochures, packed trunk, portrait of a man, woman, and little girl.
The first set of illustrations in the book shows a collection of objects that represent the protagonist's life with his wife and daughter. Together, the images speak of a modest, happy life. However, the crack in the teapot and cup signal a lack of prosperity. There is also a sense of drabness in the images. The last row of images includes the travel brochures and packed trunk, hinting that someone is about to take a trip.
Full-page illustration of the man walking with his wife and daughter along their deserted, undecorated street. Above them looms the shadow of a giant appendage. It looks like a dragon tail, or a massive tentacle.
In this illustration, a sense of somberness descends on the family as they see the man off before his voyage. The deserted streetscape suggests that many people have already left the community for whatever reason. After several pages of photorealistic illustrations, the tentacle-tail shadow is the novel's first instance of the fantastical entering the story. Without words to explain why the man is leaving, Tan relies on the symbolic tentacle-tail shadow to suggest that the man is escaping whatever oppression the menacing appendage represents, whether that is poverty, despotism, or some other force beyond the family's control.
The arrival hall at the immigrant processing point. A high-ceilinged, arched room featuring banners that display the local culture's invented language. Smokestack-like objects stand in the background, surrounded by clouds and white spheres. The bottom of the image shows a sea of darkly clothed arrivals divided into rows.
After disembarking their ship, the new arrivals must go through an immigrant processing procedure. They are packed into a large, intimidating space that evokes historical images of Ellis Island, New York, through which millions of immigrants to the United States passed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In his artist's note at the end of the book, Tan acknowledges the allusion. By having an illustration that evokes for many readers an actual immigrant processing center while simultaneously contrasting the real-life elements of the drawing with invented designs, Tan creates a distinct aesthetic combining the familiar and foreign, the old-fashion and futuristic. The effect is that the reader is immersed in the man's perspective as he makes sense of a world that in some ways resembles one he recognizes and in other ways is completely unexpected.
Page of three-by-four thumbnail images showing the man looking up and explaining himself to an immigrant processing official. The man progresses from confused, to irritated, to pleading, to exasperated, to despairing. On his coat are several pieces of paper indicating he has passed previous assessments of his health and literacy.
The sequence of images depicts the man's attempt to communicate across a language barrier to an immigration official. The fact he is looking up suggests the official is sitting on a platform that raises him above the man and confirms his authority and puts the man at a disadvantage. The distress on the man's face as he tries to explain that he has come to set up a new life for his family shows how vulnerable and desperate he is to be granted his immigration paper.
Several panels show the man leaving his balloon-box transport container in the center of an elaborately decorated settlement, a boy selling papers, a tattooed woman with a cat-like pet, a man with lizard pets selling something from a steaming cart, a couple loading basketball-sized eggs into crates, a boy being shaved on the street, two men playing peculiar instruments, several women sitting and discussing the inscrutable text they are reading, and the man standing on the street, his hand to his chin.
After a long journey on the sea, the man reaches the new land. Three illustrations in succession present a strange country with gigantic buildings made of curling organic shapes, fantastic creatures prowling the streets, and markings resembling runes covering every inch of the pavement. These phantasmagorical images, contrasted with the man's lost expression as he takes the sights in, suggest the alienation the man feels upon arrival.
Full-page image of the man's daughter pointing out a direction for a new arrival who holds a map. At their feet are the woman's suitcase and the man's pet. The girl is smiling confidently.
In the book's last illustration, Tan ends on an optimistic note. While much of the book has been dedicated to the man's experience of adapting to an unfamiliar culture, the final image shows how he and his family have assimilated. Just as he received help with directions from a local on the day he arrived, the man's daughter pays forward that help by showing a woman where she needs to go. The image suggests that the girl has become integrated into the local culture so well that she will likely grow up with few memories of the place the family left. The image suggests that the man's efforts at establishing a safer and more prosperous life for his family have been worth it.
