ipl-logo

Character Analysis: Inside Out & Back Again

458 Words2 Pages

Thanhha Lai wrote a heart-wrenching novel, Inside Out & Back Again, that conveys the difficulties of refugees escaping the Vietnam War. Ha is a ten-year old refugee girl fleeing from the Vietnam War and Communist rule. Consequently, Ha’s life twists inside out in the areas of intelligence and religion, but she manages to find her way back again.

Intelligence is one challenge that Ha faces as she assimilates into American culture. While in Vietnam, Ha boasts, “Now I am ten, learning to embroider circular stitches, to calculate fractions into percentages” (2), which reveals Ha is confident in her knowledge; ergo she is confident in herself. Once Ha arrived in America, she finds that she has previously learned about fractions in Vietnam, and she is angry that she cannot tell her new teacher of her knowledge (156-57). This demonstrates how others’ belief that she is incapable, since she cannot speak English, causes Ha to doubt herself and feel dumb. Lastly, Ha proclaims, “I go to the board, chalk the answer in five moves” (187), because Ha is the only one in the class who could solve the problem, and swiftly, causing her to regain her confidence and feel …show more content…

Initially, Ha recites, “No one can sweep, for why sweep away hope? No one can splash water, for why splash away joy?” (1). Ha knows this Buddhist saying, revealing she practices Buddhism. Ha states, “Bumps enlarge on my chilled skin as I realize we will be coming back every Sunday” (172), following her arrival in America. This means Ha’s faith has been changed for the sake of blending in with the American Christians around her and not because her beliefs have changed. Eventually, Ha finds comfort in a Buddhist chant her mother coaxed her to say (198), for she has regained her faith in Buddha, so she has converted back to being a Buddhist. Therefore, Ha has managed to hold onto a piece of her culture after twisting her beliefs to fit

Show More
Related
695 Words | 3 Pages

and with that, he made a snorting, derisive sound, the sort of sound an eight-year old boy would make on a playground (66). This showed how the preacher thought of Kathy, he thought she was foolish thinking the two religions were similar, and is technically discriminating the Islam religion. Eggers appeals to pathos about Kathy feeling insulted so that is why she decided to convert into Islam. “Did he not know that his God and Islam’s were the one and the same?” (66).

Read More
460 Words | 2 Pages

I chose this quote because I realize that many people including myself encounter other religions and their lifestyle due to multiculturalism in the modern society as well as technology and social media. Having peers who are of other religions, being a part of their lives and seeing pictures, videos, words and thoughts derived from other religions on social media has allowed us to understand and gain knowledge about these religions that alter and reshape our understanding of our own faith. The exposure of different religions in our daily lives through observation and experiences raises countless questions about not only the reasons behind the practices and traditions of other religions but also what this information and knowledge means to one as an individual of another religion. For example, the author 's encounter with Banaras and a few of the people she met allowed her, as a Christian, to realize that people of other religions have similar values or beliefs and she realized the possibility that "god really encounters us in the lives of people of all other faith" (10). It is also important to note that everyone has a different personal experience and perception of these encounters as personal beliefs and opinions play a part in building up the

Read More
940 Words | 4 Pages

“Today more than 14 million men, women, and children have been forced to flee their homes, towns, and countries because they are afraid to stay” (Gilbert 9). In the book, Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, Ha, a young girl, grew up in Saigon, Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Before the war she was just like every other girl living in South Vietnam. She went to school, had friends, played with her doll, and she is a little stubborn but who could blame her. Ha is the only girl out of the four children.

Read More
1263 Words | 6 Pages

A very defining part of someone's life is there religion, having one determines morals, and who they worship, but not having one means that you don’t need to serve, whether or not we have a religion defines us. Which is why it is so critical that Ha and her mother changed their religion, and to what lengths they would go to to get it. Just showing how much they need to find a new

Read More
879 Words | 4 Pages

The conflict of English learners being in mainstream or private classes has been raging for decades. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai is a work of historical fiction. First Ha, her three brothers, and her mother were forced to leave their home country of Vietnam due to the war. They have to face this hardship without the support of their father, who was captured by the Communists and disappeared many years before. Then they travel on a boat in terrible conditions to a refugee camp in Guam.

Read More
1058 Words | 5 Pages

A Hope in the Unseen written by Ron Suskind is a novel about an underprivileged kid named Cedric, that wants the American dream, to go to college. Cedric really wants to get into MIT, but poor Cedric keeps getting shut down by mostly everybody about him not being ¨MIT material¨. Cedric’s high school failed to provide him an excellent education by shutting down his dreams into getting the college he desires to attend, the low self esteem he has, no longer wants to attend MIT, and being scared for being known for his intelligence. These points are the reason why his high school did not do the proper job on giving Cedric an education. Education is the key to success. Cedric’s experiences in high school affected how he approached his college by,

Read More
777 Words | 4 Pages

The use of children in the Sierra Leone Civil War was widespread, with up to 10,000 children taking part in the conflict and up to eighty percent of RUF forces between the ages of seven and fourteen. Ishmael is one of these children. In his memoir, A Long Way Gone, Lieutenant Jabati and his men exploit several techniques to transform these frightened children into ruthless killing machines. They do this through the use of drugs, pop culture, as well as character and emotional manipulation. Tactics like these create habits and addictions that are almost impossible to break.

Read More
216 Words | 1 Pages

He arrives to work and see's Pino, his coworker, and son of Sal, give him a dirty look and said, " you are late". Pino is a racist person who does not like black people and does not get along with Mookie. In contrast, Vito is a nice and respectful individual who is friends with Mookie. It is with these four individuals that Sal's pizzeria had become so well known in New York. Sal is a person who likes to help everyone and is a well-rounded individual.

Read More
1149 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, main character Billie Jo faces several challenging obstacles throughout her lifetime. Getting through these obstacles is the only way Billie Jo can learn to forgive her father as well as herself for their mistakes. Once she learns to stop feeling resentful, and let go, Billie Jo will be able to grow up. The first major challenge Billie Jo faces is when a fire breaks out in her home. The fire ignites when Billie Jo’s mother mistakes a pail of kerosene for water, where,“instead of making coffee, Ma [makes] a rope of fire”(87).

Read More
1035 Words | 5 Pages

Desire is the need for an object, a feeling or a person. One can have a desire for something that is essential for survival, such as water or food, but desire could be used to harm others or oneself. Through A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael’s perspective of desire was altered dramatically. These desires were changed from his surroundings or events that were taking place. In the book, Ishmael was easily manipulated by his desires.

Read More
804 Words | 4 Pages

(Lai p.151-152)(Lai, Thanhha. Inside Out & Back Again (New York: Harper,

Read More
469 Words | 2 Pages

In the article “Refugees: Who, Where, Why” by Catherine Gervert, she states that “Refugees are people who are forced to flee their homeland because they are afraid to stay”. Ha’s family had to leave behind their friends so they are alone in America. Ha, alike many other refugees, has to experience the loss of friends and loneliness. Refugees, just like Ha in Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, have to go through loneliness before they can stand up for themselves again.

Read More
563 Words | 3 Pages

However, she rejected religion once again after she was freed and went on to live the period in her life she claimed to have been wasteful. And then, “I read En Route, The Oblate, The Cathedral, and it was these books which made me feel that I too could be at home in the Catholic Church.” (107) There were times when she would wander away from God because her husband, Forster, wasn’t very fond of religion. Once Dorothy Day became a Christian for good, she never regretted it. She realized that true happiness came from knowing God.

Read More
937 Words | 4 Pages

“Two Kinds,” by Amy Tan, essentially revolves around the struggle of Jing Mei and her constant conflict with her mother. Throughout her life, she is forced into living a life that is not hers, but rather her mom’s vision of a perfect child; because her mother lost everything, which included her parents and kids, so her only hope was through Jing Mei. Jing Mei’s mom watches TV shows such as the Ed Sullivan Show, which gives her inspiration that her daughter should be like the people and actors. First her mom saw how on the television a three-year-old boy can name all the capitals of the states and foreign countries and would even pronounce it correctly. Her mom would quiz Jing Mei on capitals of certain places, only to discover that

Read More
1483 Words | 6 Pages

Shug is shown as not naturally religious, she believes strongly God’s most important aim is that he

Read More

More about Character Analysis: Inside Out & Back Again

Related Topics

Open Document