Environmentalist Metaphors in Tales from Outer Suburbia : Supporting students' visual literacy skills by analysing Shaun Tan's pictures

Abstract: As the impact of pictures in everyday life and literature is increasing, so is the importance of visual literacy skills. This essay combines theories of visual literacy, pictorial metaphor, image analysis and environmentalism to analyse visual literacy in relation to how Shaun Tan’s pictures create metaphorical ideas related to the environment in Tales from Outer Suburbia. Three pictures from the picture book were analysed for this purpose. The pictures are part of the short stories named “alert but not alarmed”, “no other country”, and “grandpa’s story.” Furthermore, this essay discusses how visual literacy can support students’ English language learning. The analysis found that analysing Tan’s use of symbols and icons in combination with the emotional effect of picture elements reveal several pictorial metaphors related to the environment. The pictorial metaphors reflect humankind’s relationship to nature. This essay concludes that visual literacy skills are necessary to identify pictorial metaphors and that analysing pictures supports students’ visual literacy skills and English language learning.