I liked the emphasis on identity in The Arrival. Issues that immigrants face settling in a new country and communicating with people from different backgrounds are all challenges to one’s national and personal identity. There are multiple profiles of people from diverse ethnicities at the beginning and end of the book in order to provoke thinking about identity. Also, there are multiple profile-like pictures of the protagonist on his own in different moments, with different facial expressions, all of which in my opinion are for the purpose of establishing sympathy with the protagonist and provoking viewers to relate to his ordeals.
I find the large panels as useful and insightful as the small ones, for each size its own purpose: the large ones feature the scenes of the city or the station to introduce viewers to the place where the protagonist just arrived, and the small ones, or some of them, are like “close-ups” of moments in which viewers need are urged to study the scene meticulously.
