Book Review 1 - The Arrival

The Arrival is a graphic novel. An interesting one. This story is about a man who sets off for a new country , where he has to build a new life for himself and his family. Of course this man's journey is not always smooth and has met with many difficulties. There was a problem in communication. The man does not know how to speak and write in the language that was used in the new country so he had to communicate with the people using pictures.


Another problem that was faced was trying to adapt to the new enviroment. This story took place in a "fairytale" land, whereby ships in the story were able to float in air and pets looked like strange creatures. You can see examples on the picture on the right. Some of these things looked different from the country he came from. Such as how the food looked like in the new country. With the difficulty in trying to communicate with the people there and the much difference between the two countries, adaptation was made difficult.

The man also had to find a job to support himself. Like in the real world, job opportunities are hard to come by. The man went to several places but to no avail. He finally found a job which required him to put up posters. As he could not understand what was being writen on the poster, he put up every peice upside down. this made his employer angry and fired him. The next job he found was the job of a delivery man. Half way in his work, he met a horrifying creature. He dropped down the basket of food and ran for his life. At last he got a stable job at a factory .

In the new country, the man had gotten help from quite a lot of people. All these people had something in common. All of them had an unhappy past. The man got help from a women who once worked as a slave in small factory. She was one of the many girls that were forced to work as slaves. She was supposed to make sure that the fire does not go out. So she had to use a shovel and continue adding coal to the fire. When the woman can take it no longer, she took the shovel and secretly forced the door open and then hopped on to a train moving nearby. That is how she got to the new country and escaped hardship.

The story is also about family. At times, the man would take out the picture of his family and looked at it with sorrow in his eyes. This shows that the man misses his family very much.

There was a fairytale ending in this story.The man's wife and child reunited with him in the new country. There was a sense of happiness when they were united together. All of the three were smiling and hugged each other.

From this story, I learnt that the lives of immigrants are tough although the purpose of immigrating to another country is to be able to lead a better life. There are many obstacles in an immigrant's life and he has to be strong to overcome them. I also learnt the importance of family. Family manbers are the ones who are there when you need help. They are the ones who would stand by you and support you all the way no matter what situation you are in. So treasure their prescence!

Overall, I think that this book is worth 'reading' and is thought provoking. It strongly shows the struggles of an immigrant and importance of family. So do yourself a favour. Go and read this book!