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The China Coin By Allan Baillie And The Arrival By Shaun Tan

758 Words4 Pages

Rabih Alameddine once said, “I believe one has to escape oneself to discover oneself.” Discovery is about leaving the comfort zone to gain new understands and renewed perceptions of ourselves. Discover can lead us to new worlds and new values, and enables us to explore the possibilities in the future. Discover also encourages us to find new things that we have never found or thought. Life is a lesson in discovery and literature provides us with a vehicle to explore life's experiences. The ideas of exploring strange new worlds, to seek out new life are presented in both texts, The China Coin by Allan Baillie and The Arrival by Shaun Tan. The main character from The China Coin Leah went to China to discover the secret of the half coin while the …show more content…

In The China Coin Leah was strongly rejected her Chinese identity at the beginning when she said “couldn’t the women see? She was not Chinese, not even an ABC-Australian born Chinese” to herself. The use of rhetorical questions demonstrates how Leah disagrees with her identity. Her acceptance of her Chinese background was growing during the exploration in China. After Leah found her mother’s long lost family, she started to accept her Chinese identity,“I am definitely not a Chinese, but I am not not a Chinese”, the high modality of “definitely not”shows her confusion of her self identity, it also illustrates Leah was beginning to accept her Chinese identity as her discovering in China. On the other hand, the migrant in The Arrival was confused when he tried to discover the unknown place in order to fit in. The migrant’s confusion is presented thought his facial expression and body language, such as placing his hand near his ear and scratching his head. It shows that the migrant is confused and frustrated of being in an unfamiliar place. It demonstrates discovery can be confronting when exploring new …show more content…

In The China Coin, Ke was pursuing freedom and democracy for all the time, his conviction and passion for the value of justices enriches those around him, it enables Lean to see how deeply meaningful the protest movement was. The dialogue between Leah and Ke ‘why can’t the old men see?’, ‘we haven’t come far, have we?’ shows Ke’s new understanding of the corrupt society, the rhetorical questions allow his mother and responders to think about the motivation behind the protests, it also allows the responders to emphasise the tense atmosphere and realise the critical circumstance. On the other hand, The Arrival shows that discover can be harmonious. The huge sun with shiny golden sepia hues symbolised by the motif of a giant cog, this conveys how the migrant and his friends have discovered a sense of enjoyment in the new world. The golden giant cog also implies that the migrant have fit in the new world perfectly like cogs in a wheel, it also symbolises of discovering one’s place in the larger

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