The Red Tree By Shaun Tan

The Red Tree by Shaun Tan

The age level for this book is young on up, because its major theme is isolation and how individual perspective and circumstance can change a person’s view of themselves and the world. It takes place in the imagination of a young adult. The language is very simple and mostly intended to support the illustrations. The illustrations are intended to relay the psychological aspects of the themes, which are expressed in the text.

There is a wonderful quote that goes some thing like “talking about music is like trying to dance architecture.”  I feel this applies to illustrations as well. Descriptions do not do justice to the actual sensation of observing these illustrations. For instance the first illustration has simple text “darkness overcomes you” there is an image of girl walking isolated along a city street under the shadow of a ghost like unearthly dieing fish that is over 100 times her size. The colors and detail are astounding and the affect of this image is arresting.

The illustrations are paintings in a style that uses very subtle shading and coloring. This is consistent throughout the book. Shaun Tan’s style is very psychological and emotional. One often feels a blurring in the lines of reality of fantasy.

The size of the book fits the content perfectly. The cover is of  a red haired girl floating in a paper boat on an endless calm sea staring down at a leaf beside the boat. This perfectly fits the story theme. Nothing about the beginning of the book gives a clear indication of the depth of the emotional and psychological journey to come, which is exactly how it feels that it should. Which is to say there is an unfolding of emotional states that lead further and further into an ambiguous sense of self. This helps the illustrate the main themes idea of isolation and perfectly impacts the final idea that perspectives can change sometimes divorced from the individual will.

This book and the author/illustrator have numerous awards and very justifies recognition. I believe that I have never seen this theme done in such a powerful and unique way. I am thankful to have had the privilege to be have been exposed to this artists work and to have passed it on to others whose reaction were similar to mine.