CICADA written and illustrated by Shaun Tan is a powerfully-told story in both words and pictures about “the other” within our community. Cicada is thought of as different. Tan brilliantly gives Cicada a voice allowing him to tell his own story: “Seventeen year. No promotion. Human resources say cicada not human. Need no resources. Tok! Tok! Tok!”
He is bullied, kicked and humiliated throughout his many years on the job as a data entry clerk for a big company located in a huge skyscraper in a large city.
Cicada sits at his bleak desk in his bleak office without ever getting a kind word or even a thank you for staying late to complete his work. Now, after years of working hard and making no mistakes, he is retiring from his job and finds himself without money and without a home. He had been living in a small space in his office wall to make ends meet.
Tan uses a somber palette of grey and black to accompany this story about the treatment of “the other.” We see Cicada in his office cubicle cut off from everyone else. Cicada has heard co-workers say he is stupid. His supervisors refuse to look at him. When Cicada retires after seventeen years on the job with nowhere to go he climbs the back stairs of the building to the top of the skyscraper to say goodbye. However, a beautiful and colorful surprise awaits the reader on the last few wordless pages.
Cicada written and illustrated with passion by Shaun Tan is an important allegory about those who are marginalized within our midst for serious readers ages 12 and up (Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic, 2018).
Questions for CICADA
Why do you think the author-illustrator selected a cicada to tell this story of “the other” within a community? To help you, go online and read about the 17-year cycle cicadas. You can also hear the sounds they make. Does this help your understanding of the wordless pages toward the end of the book? Did the words of the Cicada on the very last page of this book surprise you?
How do the illustrations show Cicada being marginalized and harshly treated? How do these pictures make you feel? How does the cadence of the Cicada’s words make you feel? Read the book once more out loud to experience the rhythm of Cicada’s short sentences. How does this sentence structure help the story? What do you think the words Tok Tok Tok! mean?
At the end of this book the author has included a haiku written by Matsuo Basho. How could this poem relate to this story? Draw a picture of what this poem means to you. The drawing can be realistic or abstract.
