Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai tells the story of a 10 year old girl name Kim Hà who was forced to seek asylum in America with her family due to the Vietnam War in the form of free verse poems. Hà holds onto a stand of hope as her country is torn into two. Although she continuously wishes that the war will end, she understands the danger her and her family in. For this reason, her mother makes the decision to flee from their home in Vietnam to America to find asylum and the family struggles to deal with the sudden change in her life. Like the title, Hà’s life is turned inside out, but she manages to find her home again. Many people are forced out of their country to escape war, persecution or natural disaster. These people are
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The Vietnam war was a fight between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, or rather the United States fighting communism. In the midst of the Cold War, North Vietnam wanted the country to become communist. However, America was completely against this idea and backed South Vietnam for democracy. Communist rebels who lived in the South, who called themselves Viet Cong, used the hit and run tactic and their knowledge of the jungle they lived in. The North helped these rebels set mines and booby traps, and create networks of secret supply routes. America didn’t perform to well in protecting South Vietnam. The Americans alienated the people they were suppose to be saving as they chased their enemy. They burned villages they suspected of harboring Viet Cong and sprayed the jungle with chemicals so the rebels can’t use them to their advantage. The rebels didn’t give up. On Tet in the 1968, New Year, when everyone was celebrating troops from the North Vietnam along with the Viet Cong surprised the South with an attack. By that year, 1 in 12 South Vietnamese was a refugee. Hà and her family are included in this group of refugees and part of the lucky ones who …show more content…
Although many struggle to adapt to their new home, they stay hopeful. Their life might be turned inside out like Hà’s, but they manage to come “back again” to somewhere they’re happy. How hopeful Hà is about her situation stands out a lot to the reader. Her optimism is shown as she faces challenges. In the poem titled “Early Monsoon”, Hà tries to comfort herself when she hears the war close to her home. She tells herself “the monsoon has come early” to hide the fear that comes from the bombs exploding “like thunder” and the gunfire falling “like rain”. She uses what she’s familiar with, the monsoon to cope with the terrifying war outside her door. Throughout the book, papayas are seen as signs of hope to Hà so on page 78, when she is given a small portion of food it“makes me imagine the taste of ripe papaya”, showing she is grateful and find hope that her family can stop starving soon. On page 127, it states, “Unless, Father has sent word that he’s safe after all.” Although the family is almost positive Hà’s father died, she holds onto a little hope to see her father when her mother write a letter to her uncle. Papayas are brought up again when Hà’s in Alabama. When she enters the state, she spoke no English and was constantly bullied by her peers. She found hope when Miss Washington gifted her dried papayas. At first she thought they were disgusting and threw them out, but then she took them back and this time, it was “Not
The Vietnam war was a fight between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, or rather the United States fighting communism. In the midst of the Cold War, North Vietnam wanted the country to become communist. However, America was completely against this idea and backed South Vietnam for democracy. Communist rebels who lived in the South, who called themselves Viet Cong, used the hit and run tactic and their knowledge of the jungle they lived in. The North helped these rebels set mines and booby traps, and create networks of secret supply routes. America didn’t perform to well in protecting South Vietnam. The Americans alienated the people they were suppose to be saving as they chased their enemy. They burned villages they suspected of harboring Viet Cong and sprayed the jungle with chemicals so the rebels can’t use them to their advantage. The rebels didn’t give up. On Tet in the 1968, New Year, when everyone was celebrating troops from the North Vietnam along with the Viet Cong surprised the South with an attack. By that year, 1 in 12 South Vietnamese was a refugee. Hà and her family are included in this group of refugees and part of the lucky ones who …show more content…
Although many struggle to adapt to their new home, they stay hopeful. Their life might be turned inside out like Hà’s, but they manage to come “back again” to somewhere they’re happy. How hopeful Hà is about her situation stands out a lot to the reader. Her optimism is shown as she faces challenges. In the poem titled “Early Monsoon”, Hà tries to comfort herself when she hears the war close to her home. She tells herself “the monsoon has come early” to hide the fear that comes from the bombs exploding “like thunder” and the gunfire falling “like rain”. She uses what she’s familiar with, the monsoon to cope with the terrifying war outside her door. Throughout the book, papayas are seen as signs of hope to Hà so on page 78, when she is given a small portion of food it“makes me imagine the taste of ripe papaya”, showing she is grateful and find hope that her family can stop starving soon. On page 127, it states, “Unless, Father has sent word that he’s safe after all.” Although the family is almost positive Hà’s father died, she holds onto a little hope to see her father when her mother write a letter to her uncle. Papayas are brought up again when Hà’s in Alabama. When she enters the state, she spoke no English and was constantly bullied by her peers. She found hope when Miss Washington gifted her dried papayas. At first she thought they were disgusting and threw them out, but then she took them back and this time, it was “Not