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Inside Out And Back Again By Thanhha Lai

2108 Words9 Pages

War. It’s been a part of our lives for as long as anyone could remember. However, the people who are most affected by this horrible thing, aren't the ones fighting the wars, or the people who start them. The people most affected are normal people, who are forced to leave their homes and become refugees because of fear for their life, or the lives of their family. In the book Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, a young girl named Ha becomes a refugee and flees from her home with her family. The book takes place during and after the Vietnam war, in both Vietnam and America. The characters that played main roles in this story are Ha's Brother Khoi, her parents, a bully nicknamed Pink Boy, her teacher in America, and her two friends America, …show more content…

Ha started to become someone who let others walk all over her. She didn’t stand up for herself, and she was struggling with learning English. Ha was being bullied at school by one of her classmates. She called him Pink boy. The Ha that was in Vietnam would have never let him get away with all the names he called her, or how he harmed her. She was not herself, she was weak, and so Pink boy bullied her as much as he wanted. “Pink Boy keeps asking, What are you? By the end of school, he yells an answer. “ She should be a pancake. She has a pancake face.”(Lai,p.g.196) Ha didn’t stand up for herself and tell him to stop. She simply let him continue to bully her about her differences. Ha in Vietnam would have stopped him by yelling at him, maybe even insulting him. She was loud and aggressive before she left her home. Now she is inside out and doesn’t show her fiery streak, she doesn’t show any of her real characteristics. Another way Ha was turned inside out was by the language barrier between her and anyone outside of her family. Ha couldn't communicate with people as easily as she could in Vietnam. Every conversation was a struggle for her. She had to learn English, and even then she would hear English words and use Vietnamese accidents. Ha could barely talk with her teacher. “I tap my own chest Ha. She must have heard ha, as in funny ha-ha-ha. She fakes a laugh. I repeat Ha, and …show more content…

Ha starts to show her strength, just as she had in Vietnam. Ha hasn’t let her new life stop her from being who she truly is. Ha is back to her old self, she is back again. One way Ha starts to show her old traits is by standing up for herself against her bully. She yelled at him and called him names, but she still embarrassed him and got what she was looking for. She was sick and tired of him calling her names and being racist. In Vietnam, Ha would have made him back down by now, but she was missing pieces of her original self. Once she reached her breaking point with Pink Boy, her old strength and resilience came back. “My heart lifting, I run and shout, Bully! Coward! Pink Snot Face!...I turn to see Pink Boy coming close to me. No longer Pink, he’s red, blood-orange like a ripe papaya.”(Lai,p.g.219-220) The quote shows how Ha was able to insult her bully. When she first came to America, she could barely speak any English. Now she is able to correctly insult people with the same thing she had so many problems with. Ha had the ability to stop her bully from harassing her for the day because Ha showed him some of her true personality. Another way Ha was back to her old self-was that she started to be accepted by her classmates and gain friends. In Vietnam, Ha had friends and was accepted by her classmates.

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