Book Review : Refugee, By Alan Gratz

In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting an excerpt from a book and a refugee story. I will talk about both the differences and the similarities of each story.

The text chosen for this unit id the book Refuge by prominent Australian writer Jackie French (2013). Refuge follows the story of Faris, a young refugee feeling from his homeland with his grandmother to Australia. On the dangerous boat journey from Indonesia to Australia, they encounter a terrible storm where Faris falls unconscious and wakes up living his dream life in Australia. However, he has no recollection of how he got there. Whilst on the beach, he meets a strange group of children all from different times and places. Faris soon discovers that each child is like him, a migrant who travelled to Australia searching for a better place. Each child is living in their own ‘dream’ Australia and the beach provides a sort of ‘refuge’ from reality for them. Eventually, Faris has to make the decision to either continue living in this dream land or face his reality. This book is interesting as unlike other refugee texts, this novel serves to tell the multicultural history of Australian immigration. French relays the more than 60 000 year old history of people travelling to Australia by boat and makes the statement that all immigrants and refugees need to be treated with empathy and understanding.

Do you know what Refugees are what they do how they live and how they survive. Refugees are people that have to leave there home all because of war, they have to leave and find new ones far away. Before war happened in Vietnam Ha was different she was sneaky because when she went to get groceries she would by fried dough for herself, and she was mean because when she would hide her brothers sandals when she got mad at them. The title of the book makes you wonder a little by the words inside out and back again, the author Thanhha Lai had a good idea for making this book for a history lesson. Refugees like Ha and her family turn back again when they find better home like Ha she stared understanding more.

Life nearly came to an end to one of Australian’s leading comedians Anh Do nearly 40 years ago! His absolute inspiring story from tragedy to comedy has won the hearts of so many readers, both nationally and internationally. The Happiest Refugee is an award winning memoir which re-tells the incredible, uplifting and inspiring story of Anh Do. A man who turned his dream into reality.

Refugees, like Ha, came across many challenges on their journey, It was a traumatic experience for all, people lost their homes, friends, family and their lives. An example from the book inside out and back again say,“head whirls breath stinks for days.”(Lia)They don't have the resources to be clean and that's not the their biggest priority. Another example from the book is, ”food and water are provided but rationed.”(Gevert)There's so many refugees in one little area they don't have enough food or water to feed all of them. A quote from the article Refugees Who, where, why says,“Three civilians were killed three others are wounded last night when an explosion ripped through a crowded food market.”(Gevert) You always need to be aware of your

The Happiest Refugee is a memoir written by Anh Do which was first published on the 1st of August in 2010. It is regarded as one of the most influential and well-received novels in the world of literature for its great insight on the life of refugees. The book provides a universal message to its readers about the suffering of human beings during wars and their struggle to make a better life in a foreign country. The Happiest Refugee is about Anh Do and his family’s journey from

The poem ‘Migrants by ‘Bruce Dawe ’should be included for the core text for journeying as it portrays journeying through the perceptions and experiences of a migrant group. This poem depicts feelings of ignorance and disrespectfulness encountered by the migrant group as they are treated with a lack of concern by people living in Australia.

More than half the refugees around the globe are under the age of 18, even though children make up 31 percent of the world’s population. Refugees are people who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disasters. The stories that will be covered in this essay are called “The Teacher Who Changed My Life,” by Nicholas Gage and the second novel is “Letter to a Young Refugee from Another,” by Andrew Lam. These stories have many differences between each other but they both left their country to America. What if you had to flee your country?

This essay is about the universal refugee experience and the hardships that they have to go through on their journey. Ha from Inside Out and Back Again and other refugees from the article “Children of War” all struggle with the unsettling feeling of being inside out because they no longer own the things that mean the most to them. Ha and the other refugees all encounter similar curiosities of overcoming the finding of that back again peaceful consciousness in the “new world” that they are living in .

No one is prepared for war and the most challenging decisions you will have to make to survive. Although each character in Refugee, by Alan Gratz, is from a different time and place, they each share similar hardships and challenges in their experiences, such as they were all forced from their homes, they all lose a family member, and their problems begin in their own country.

After Mahmoud and his family's boat sank fleeing Syria, his mom was struggling to keep Hana, Mahmud’s sister, from drowning. After a while, they saw a boat that had room for one person, so they gave Hana to the people on the boat to save her. Right as she was about to drown: “A woman's arm reaching down for Mahmoud's mother. Reaching for the baby”(162). Mahmoud had to sacrifice his baby sister to the boat so she would survive and move on because his mother could not keep her out of the water.

America is the land of freedom and opportunity. It is a place where anyone can take refuge from harm and pursue their own dreams. However, the novel, The Refugees, by Viet Thanh Nguyen, portrays another perspective of being a refugee in the United States. The retelling of him becoming accustomed to America practices indicated that he faced an identity crisis. Specifically, he faces a contentious dilemma concerning how he would strike a balance between seeing himself as a person of Vietnamese heredity or of his American lifestyle. He amplifies the significance of this issue through the inquiry of certain practices of the community, his mixed views about fighting Communism, and his interactions with his family.

The Happiest Refugee written in 2011, is an award winning autobiography portraying ones will to survive amongst extreme hardships. Above all, the story displays resilience and optimism at their finest, despite the setbacks and adversities faced by Anh and his family. Readers as a result are invited to empathise with the hardships confronted by refugees, in turn enlightening them to be grateful for the many pleasures

Our cohort is nearing the end of its secondary education and therefore it is important that we reflect on the ways in which it has shaped our attitudes, values and beliefs. For example, over the past five years, we have read, analysed and evaluated various literary works such as novels, plays, poems and films in our English studies. These texts have expressed various ideologies, explored interesting themes and introduced us to fascinating characters. These elements have left a lasting impression on our attitudes, values and beliefs. In addition to this, English literary texts have provided us with historical knowledge as well as a thorough understanding of the role that aesthetic devices

-Violence (Uncle Three and Anh’s dad fighting, Anh’s dad getting drunk and hitting out at his family)