Inside Out And Back Again: An Analysis

In the book Inside Out and Back Again, Ha’s life gets flipped around, similar to most refugees. They move from place to place trying to find a safe haven. If they cannot find a new home they lose hope. Their lives turn back to normal again because they feel accepted and welcome in a new country; therefore, resembling the “back again” in the title. A refugee’s experience becomes an “Inside Out” world because they leave home, lose hope and live a better life.

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai. The protagonist of the novel is Ha. Her family consists, her three brother, her mother. Ha’s father was a U.S Navy troop, he went missing on duty when she was almost one which is almost ten years ago. She lived ten years in her birth country Saigon. The war then reached her home. They knew they had to flee, all the members was discussing if to flee or don’t. They made a decision to flee. The thing Ha thinks about is all the items the, “Left Behind.” Ha brothers always call her, “Mother’s tail because Ha was always three feet away from her.”

In the novel “Inside Out and Back Again” by Thanha Lai, the universal refugee experience is expressed through the title, and Ha’s individual experience of fleeing and finding home. This essay will show the hardships of turning inside out and how hard it is coming back again. In “Inside Out and Back Again” an independent, determined girl named Ha flees her home in Vietnam because of war and poverty. Ha and her family flee to Alabama to start a better life. In Alabama, Ha faces challenges such as bullying, and racism that make her stronger to come back again.

The voyage for Ha in Inside Out and Back Again is a story by a young girl told through the use poetry. It is one of war and effects on her as well as her loved ones. As the readers delve deeper into the story they start to get a better understanding of the hardships and difficulties her and her family had to go through as a direct result of the Vietnam War. The young girl struggles to deal with her missing father, having to leave all that she knows to travel to the United States where she has to tolerate racism and discrimination within her school. The readers get an insight into Ha’s experience; we see her working through the changes of being in an unfamiliar country, and eventually get to see her become someone who will never forget where she came from. Reading about Ha’s experience helps the reader appreciate both the physical changes that

“Doesn’t the world see the suffering of the millions of refugees of Palestinians who have been living in exile around the world or in refugee camps for the past 60 years? No state, no home, no identity, no right to work. Doesn’t the world see this injustice?” (Ismail Haniyeh). This is how many of the universal refugees feel. There are millions of refugees all over the world in similar situations. This is also similar to how Ha feels in the book “Inside Out and Back Again.” Ha’s life mirrors the universal refugee experience because many lives are turned inside out, they have to get used to their new living arrangements, and they have to adapt to a new world.

The word choice in the Forgotten Ship and Inside out & Back Again display desperation in the context. First, the author of the Forgotten Ship writes “... still flying in the air, and dove into the water” (Shapiro). This shows desperation because he is jumping out of a moving helicopter, that is a last resort way to get out of a helicopter. Second, in the Forgotten Ship they were so desperate that “ One mother dropped her baby and two young children” (Shapiro). Desperation is shown here because the word dropped implies that the mother unwillingly threw her children out of the helicopter. Finally, in the novel Inside out & Back Again the author writes “has jumped into the water…” (Lai 68). The word jumped suggested that he threw himself

The story of this refugee is similar to Ha’s version of being back again because they both went through hard times, but found something good about the new place where they are

Many refugees around the world, including Ha, have to face challenges that cause them to feel inside out, such as poor living conditions. In the event that causes poor living conditions, refugees feel inside such as, “...Trapped in putrid, hot air made from fermented bodies and oily sweat” (Lai 83). This statement from the book, “Inside Out and Back Again” shows how the living conditions on the ship were very poor. Their lives were hard trying to get to safety. The ships were very hot and everybody was crammed together on the ships. They were hungry and depressed. The last thing they would want is to be stuck together and not being able to move. Not only was poor living conditions in the book “Inside Out and Back Again” it also shows through

In the book inside Out and Back again Ha’s and her families lives are significantly changed or turned “inside out,” and they face many challenges when they transition from their homeland to a new country. After leaving their homelands, refugees leave behind friends, family, and belongings. The host country’s culture and customs are unfamiliar to the refugees which makes it difficult to do everyday tasks. Another challenge is that the language spoken in the new country is usually different than their native land.

In the novel, “Inside out and back again,” written by Thanhha Lai is about a 10 year old girl named Ha faces many challenges throughout the war because they were forced to leave their home. When they, the refugees flee, they are going for safety, avoiding the war, and they go through so much fear. When refugees find a new home, they face, new people and they try to fit in the new community or a new culture that they are around now. Refugees feel sad when they are turned “inside out” because they had to flee home and they finally feel really happy when they are “back again” because they finally found a new home. Ha’s life is related to the common refugee experience because she faced everything that a refugee would go through. Ha’s experience is a specific example of the universal experience because she went through a lot like any other refugee would during a war.

There are many commonalities between the article “The Children of War” and the novel “Inside out and Back Again” by Thanhha Lai. The main character Ha from Inside Out and Back Again had to move with her family to take refuge in the United States just like the teenagers from the article had to as well. A commonality between the article and novel is when Ha’s family made it to Guam where her family is held in tents, they learn about American culture by relying on American movies about cowboys in the west. Ha says, “We watch movies outdoors with images projected onto a white sheet….If it’s a young cowboy like Clint Eastwood everyone cheers.

Refugees around the world as well as ha have proven to be resilent in times of war. Therefore, hardships triumphed through a variety of obstacles have affect refugees losing everything significant to them. During the novel, “Inside Out and Back Again”, by Thanhha Lai, Ha’s mother takes care of four children with the absence of their father. Although, when war approaches in Saigon, mother and her children are in the face of danger forcing them to flee and become refugees. Furthermore, fleeing home on many refuges expirences tough the challenges they face, assimilating to an unfamiliar home and mourning through their losses have truned them inside out and triumphing them and familarze what they have to get back again.

Have you ever really thought about what a refugee is? Before Ha became a refugee she was a very stubborn person. Page three of Inside Out and Back Again says, “I decided to wake up before dawn and tap my big toe to the tile floor first,” (Lai 3). She was also sometimes greedy with the food that her mom trusted her to buy. Ha also liked to speak her mind about everything even if it sometimes came out rude. A refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. Ha and many other refugee lives have turned inside out and back again when they are forced to leave their homes and start a new life.

How do you wake up in the morning knowing that you no longer have a home? How do you go about your day facing the memories of loss, of persecution, or of torture that still haunt you? How do you continue with your life knowing that many of your loved ones have been killed? For many refugees, that is daily reality. They wake up not knowing what their future holds, in a country that is not theirs, in a house that is not a home. But somehow, someway, they persist; they continue to live, for themselves, and for their families. They cope with their situations, developing new habits and new hobbies, becoming closer to their families, and growing stronger in their faith. Through these different coping mechanisms, they can continue to live their lives on a day to day basis, each day a battle, but getting through nonetheless. The coping strategies they adopt allow them to keep moving forward in an existence full of uncertainty.

“This year he predicts that our lives will twist inside out.” ( Lai 4) Many children and adults every year have to deal with the ‘push-and-pull’ forces of home and school. These refugees have to try to make the most of their new lives. Ha’s experience of being a refugee in the novel Inside Out and Back Again is similar to the universal experience because she struggled with schooling, trying to put her life back together and dealing with lose.