Excerpt from "Comments on The Arrival"

In an essay, Shaun Tan reflects on his inspirations and images in his wordless graphic novel that depicts a man's journey to and arrival in a new country.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 12 Unit 5's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: The New Colossus, Refugee in America, Comments on The Arrival
15 words 150 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. penchant
    a strong liking or preference
    This of course is where my penchant for 'strange lands' took flight, as I had some early notions of a place where birds are merely 'bird-like' and trees 'tree-like'; where people dress strangely, apartment fixtures are confounding and ordinary street activities are very peculiar.
  2. fanciful
    not based on fact; unreal
    I'm always interested in striking the right balance between everyday objects, animals and people, and their much more fanciful alternatives.
  3. saturate
    infuse or fill completely
    In the case of "The Arrival," I drew heavily on my own memories of travelling to foreign countries, that feeling of having basic but imprecise notions of things around me, an awareness of environments saturated with hidden meanings: all very strange yet utterly convincing.
  4. peculiar
    beyond or deviating from the usual or expected
    In my own nameless country, peculiar creatures emerge from pots and bowls, floating lights drift inquisitively along streets, doors and cupboards conceal their contents, and all around are notices that beckon, invite or warn in loud, indecipherable alphabets.
  5. underlying
    in the nature of something though not readily apparent
    A lot of my 'inspirational images' blu-tacked to the walls of my studio were old photographs of immigrant processing at Ellis Island, visual notes that provided underlying concepts, mood and atmosphere behind many scenes that appear in the book.
  6. depict
    show in, or as in, a picture
    Other images I collected depicted street scenes in European, Asian and Middle Eastern cities, old-fashioned vehicles, random plants and animals, shopfront signs and posters, apartment interiors, photos of people working, eating, talking and playing, all of them chosen as much for their ordinariness as their possible strangeness.
  7. colossal
    so great in size or force or extent as to elicit awe
    A colossal sculpture in the middle of a city harbor, the first strange sight that greets arriving migrants, suggests some sisterhood with the Statue of Liberty.
  8. regeneration
    the act of forming again; renewing and reconstituting
    A scene of immigrants travelling in a cloud of white balloons was inspired by pictures of migrants boarding trains as well as the night-time spawning of coral polyps, two ideas associated by common underlying themes--dispersal and regeneration.
  9. infestation
    the state of being invaded or overrun by parasites
    I realized that these could be read a number of ways: literally, as an infestation of monsters, or more figuratively, as some kind of oppressive threat.
  10. resonance
    the ability to create understanding or an emotional response
    I'm more attracted to a kind of intuitive resonance or poetry we can enjoy when looking at pictures, and 'understanding' what we see without necessarily being able to articulate it.
  11. intent
    giving or marked by complete attention to
    One key character in my story is a creature that looks something like a walking tadpole, as big as a cat and intent on forming an uninvited friendship with the main protagonist.
  12. impression
    a vague idea in which some confidence is placed
    I have my own impressions as to what this is about, again something to do with learning about acceptance and belonging, but I would have a lot of trouble trying to express this fully in words.
  13. interpretation
    an explanation of something that is not immediately obvious
    I am often searching in each image for things that are odd enough to invite a high degree of personal interpretation, and still maintain a ring of truth.
  14. critical
    characterized by careful evaluation and judgment
    The experience of many immigrants actually draws an interesting parallel with the creative and critical way of looking I try to follow as an artist.
  15. opaque
    not clearly understood or expressed
    There is a similar kind of search for meaning, sense and identity in an environment that can be alternately transparent and opaque, sensible and confounding, but always open to re-assessment.
Created on Sat Mar 07 20:18:42 EST 2015 (updated Sat Mar 07 21:21:14 EST 2015)

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