Book Analysis: Inside Out And Back Again

The book Inside Out & Back Again by Lai shows the struggles that refugees face in their long journey to safety and a new home. In the book, the author uses a character named Ha and the rest of her family to show what refugees go through while escaping their home country. Ha, and her family have lived in Saigon Vietnam their whole lives up until 1975 when the communists took over their country. Throughout the book, the author shows us the struggles that refugees go through by telling a story through Ha and her families point of view.

While Ha lived in Vietnam she seemed to be a normal 10-year-old girl, she went to school, had friends, and was curious and rebellious. She and her family lived an average life compared to the rest of Vietnam.
For Ha, this stage came when she began to move back to her old habits, characteristics, and ways of living “...I run and shout, Bully! Coward! Pink Snot Face!” (Lai, page 219). This quote shows us how Ha is beginning to stand up for herself and fight against her bullies. In Vietnam, she would stand up for herself and rebel against others which is what she has just done in her new country. This indicates that she is “coming back” from being “inside out” by going back to the old usual habits that she had while she lived in Saigon. “Coming back” can also be shown through getting a job, finding new hobbies, or just learning your surrounding better than you did before “Brother Quand has started night school… will go to a cooking school in Sanfran-cis-co… Brother Khoi announces he will become a doctor of animals.”(Lai, page 115). All of Ha’s family are starting to create their new lives in America, their jobs will help them settle in and start to love their new home. Other refugees have also tried this to help settle in and begin to come “back again”. Just like Ha’s family in the article “”Refugees: Who, Where, Why”” the refugees are being educated through schools so they can better learn their new country and the language they need to learn. “ … to be treated the same as legal residents, and as such are entitled to basic civil rights, medical care, and schooling.”(Paragraph 3). From having these rights the refugees can do what they can to come “back again” while living in their new country. They can get jobs, have an education, and start a new life in their new home. In Ha’s story she is just a kid and having friends is also a big part of her coming “back again” her classmates are finally ready to accept her into their friend groups and Ha is meeting some new friends to better help her adapt to her home “So someone is always