Inside Out And Back Again By Thanhha Lai

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In the novel, Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai, Ha and her family had to flee their home in Vietnam because of Communists invading. The years of fleeing their home and getting settled in their new one take place from 1975 to 1976. Ha, and her family had to travel quite a bit and had to wait a long while until they eventually came to where they are now. They escaped on a ship and were rescued by Americans where they were taken to Guam and then to America. Refugees go through many challenges and lose many things that are important to them. Ha had to leave behind things such as her home, her father, and items like her papaya tree. Refugees have to learn how things work in new places and might have to learn new languages. They have to learn how to interact with people and get jobs or go to school. Ha has changed throughout the novel by what she was like in Vietnam, how she was when she was finding her home, and what …show more content…

Ha liked her home in Vietnam and she had different traits there than the traits she has later in the novel. Ha shows that she is stubborn when she taps her toe to the floor on Tet even though a male is supposed to rise first in the morning. Ha also proves that she is selfish when she didn’t use all the money Mother gave her for food for the family, she uses it for sweets. “...and tap my big toe to the tile floor first.” (Lai, pg. 3) “I still buy less pork, allowing myself just the fried dough.” (Lai, pg. 20) These quotes show that Ha was stubborn and selfish while she lived in Vietnam. Ha was dishonest when she tapped her toe on the floor and it was an important tradition for the family because it is supposed to bring good luck. Also, when Ha was selfish and bought sweets for herself instead of buying all the pork, it was a bad thing to do because the prices were higher and her family