Ha Dynamic Character

Improved Essays
In the book Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, the main character, Ha, is a very dynamic person, meaning that she significantly changes throughout the story due to many challenges that she faces in the middle of the Vietnam War. There are many different reasons that Ha is a dynamic character. The first reason that shows how she changes is that her thoughts about her selfhood vicissitudes. “Mother says to be grateful, I’m trying” (Lai 126), this an example of how she tries to be more gratified about all of the good things that has happened to them and how she is trying to forget all the bad things that has happened to them so far. “Water, water, water everywhere making me think land is just something I once knew like napping and homework, bathing without salt , watching mother write, laughing for no reason, …show more content…
The first example is in the quote “ Brother Khoi nods and I smile, but as soon as the white bundle sinks into the sea, I immediately regret not having my doll”(Lai 86), she is helping someone she loves by giving something up, in order to make that person feel happy. “ The Pink Boy and two other friends follow me home, I count to ten in English forcing it to the front of my mind”(Lai 147), this quote explains that Ha is trying to manage her anger and become patient with the boys that are bullying her.” I don’t mind being here. My hair is growing as I’ve become dark and strong from running and swimming”(Lai 108) Ha is being more appreciative for all the goodness that has come to their family, unexpectedly.
In conclusion, Ha is a dynamic character because she encounters so many different challenges that changed her thoughts on herself and her new life in a new world.This new life will be filled with many more new challenges, and adventures . These challenge will keep on changing Ha, into a developed young person.

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Inside Out And Back Again

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Refugees and immigrants experience the Universal Refugee experience. Thanhha Lai, someone who had once undergone the Universal Refugee experience herself, writes about her experiences in the novel "Inside Out and Back Again" through the perspective of a ten-year-old refugee named Ha. As a refugee, Ha has to flee her home for salvation, just like many other refugees and immigrants. Before Ha had left her home, she was proud and confident in her capabilities, but when had she fled to Alabama, she had left her belongings and memories behind, thus turning her life "Inside out" and "Back Again" when she learns to adjust to her new country. Inside out and back again refers to the Universal Refugee Experience since refugees and immigrant's lives…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    These are caused by cultural differences between their mothers and themselves. Both mothers, Ying-ying and An-mei, had wanted their children to fix these issues, and early in their lives, the daughters were not taught their mother’s expectations, until they ran into…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    A dynamic character is a character who goes through an important change within; personality wise or attitude. Miss Brill’s character showed loneliness, emotional insecurity, and delusion……… In the story, the way Miss Brill is portrayed almost makes one feel sorry for her because of how lonely she is. She mentions that she loves going to the pier every Sunday to sit on her bench and watch people. She listens to others’ conversations and tries putting herself into their shoes, but never does she actually engage herself in conversation with them.…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She expresses this relationship through implementing aggressive diction and hurtful tone into her recounts of past experiences. For instance, Amy is “yanked” off the couch by her “frighteningly strong” mother who then begins to “shout” (Tan 141-142). By using diction like “yanked,” “frighteningly,” and “shout,” Tan shows the aggression and anger in the relationship. The hurtful tone surfaces in order to show the daughter’s pain and misery resulting from her mother’s fierce words. Tan claims she “wish[es] [she]’d never been born” because her mother’s harsh words became too much for her to handle (Tan 141-142).…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    They Killed My Father

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the memoir, First They Killed My Father, Loung recaps her life from the age of five to the age of nine. Loung Ung describes to the young readers her torturous, devastating life during the Khmer Rouge invasion of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Loung tries to inform the reader of how life was for the people during Pol Pot’s, the leader of the Angrakha, regime by stating her own life experience at the age of 5 but using the diction of an adult. Loung depicts the situations occurring, repeats phrases, and has flashbacks to transmit her irritation and grief to the reader. Imagery is the very first strategy used by Loung in the first paragraph of the story to capture the reader's attention.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the short story "Scar" by Amy Tan, the title is thoroughly complemented to the story. The author creates an organized plot that exhibits the numerous uses of literary devices such as symbolism, figurative language, and progression in order to make it obvious to the reader that the title brings out the entire premise of the story. Amy Tan uses a great deal of symbolism in her novella which stands out in her work and makes her writing more compellingand appealing to the reader. Her symbolism points out precisely how important the scar really is in relation to the title and the story. For example, it is stated that "With her pretty, pale face, my mother appeared to float in the room, like a ghost" (Tan 16-17).…

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Whether it’s about a man out for revenge due to an insult from a friend or a mysterious castle on a hill, setting often play an important role in establishing meaning in stories. Setting is the when, where, an action in fiction takes place. While the setting in a story may seem like a simple part of the story, it can in fact have a huge impact on what is going on in the narrative. In “A Pair of Ticket” the setting plays an effective role because it shows the progression of June May learning about herself, where her family comes from and also relates to the overall theme of the story.…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, a character who has been changed throughout the novel was Helmholtz which experienced a dramatic shift from being well-known honorable position, from questioning his individual thoughts and whether everything he once believed in was all a lie. Helmholtz was the least obvious character that experienced immediate exile from his “special place” because his special place was his own thoughts. Everyone else knew of him as one of the most promiscuous and prominent individuals among the Alpha’s. He wrote jingles that everyone loved, but he towards the end of the novel he soon realized that he was not fit to keep living that way.…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The book ''Inside out and Back Again'' by Thanhha Lai, relates to the universal experience of fleeing and finding a home. Many refugees, including the character Ha from the book ''Inside Out and Back Again'', go through a lot of sadness and worries because of war, or any reason for fleeing. '' Inside Out'' which is the first half of the title, means a turn of events in someone's life, or something bad is awaiting. ''Back Again'' the second half of the title, shows how someone or in Ha's case, her family can get their lives partially normal, or how it was before. It is never easy for a refugee to flee, let alone find a new home, and get their life on track, we see this, especially through Ha's experience.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Parents seem like they always push their kids to do something that they don’t want to do. Have you ever wondered why parents often force their children to do things they don’t want to do? “You want me to be someone that I’m not” (Tan 231). “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan. The conflict in the story was that Jing-mei’s mother wanted her to be a prodigy but she didn’t want to listen to her mother.…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Foo 1 The Charmer Why is it so difficult for us to accept responsibility for our actions? The more we are willing to accept the responsibility for our actions, the more credibility we will have. Everything we do each and everyday is based on our choices and only we are responsible for every decision we make. In the short story “The Charmer” narrated by the character Winnifred, Budge Wilson tries to illustrate that sometimes if we don’t take responsibility for our actions it could result in a great deal of pain for ourselves and the people around us.…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    As we have seen lots of bad news in the newspapers, many of the news are relating to the crook and scam. Cheaters are all around the world; have you ever thinks about that you might be the next person who will be cheating by the crooks? Frauds are happening everyday around us and also the percentage of scams are increasing everyday. People who have been cheated by the scalawags would have a harder life, since they give out most of their money. In order to know more about how the people who have been cheated live, I would like to interview an old couple that uses to lives next to my house.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Positives In Change Change: it’s something that many people don’t like, but also something that people all have to live with. In This Side of Home, the main character, Maya, sees her community changing, and she doesn’t like it. But, as the story develops, Maya realizes that change doesn’t always have to be a horrible thing. The theme “you can always find something positive in change” is present in the novel This Side of Home by Renée Watson. This can be seen through the main character realizing that the change in her community will make it safer, and realizing that her sister changing also helped her to look at things in new ways.…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Frankenstein Journey

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Life is full of journeys, both physical and emotional. A character’s physical journey is often used by many authors to play a central role in their novel. The process of a physical journey is often associated with expanding knowledge, such as mental growth. The concept of a journey can be used metaphorically as a direct link to a character’s inner search to find his own identity or a search to find a new identity; it provides an opportunity for a character to see himself from a different perspective, rather than his own. Some characters remain stagnant and others become dynamic.…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There exists a stereotype about the children of immigrants: their parents press them hard to be successful, to be more than the ordinary, to avoid the struggles they themselves once faced. Those parents, perhaps, see the success of the future generation as the fruits of their own labor. People often hold the idea that immigrant parents are living vicariously through their children. In many ways, as they sometimes are, this stereotype is not far from the truth. Such behaviors are observable in the stories and memoirs of immigrants’ children; for instance, Jing-mei of Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds”.…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays