The novel is titled Inside Out & Back Again. Think about just the first phrase in that title: “inside out.” How does phrase “inside out” relate to the universal refugee experience of fleeing and finding home? In what ways is Ha’s mother’s experience a specific example of this universal experience? Refugees like Ha and her family face many challenges going into a new country with new ways and things. When refugees flee their home they lose everything. In the novel Inside Out And Back Again Ha and her family are living in Vietnam during war time. Term “inside out” is basically meaning a complete change to one’s life. Ha went through mostly everything any other refugee would. Ha’s life turned inside out when fleeing home, then she got to experience it shifting back again while finding a new home. When fleeing your home there is going to be many challenges.
Challenges like finding a home, getting a job , education, leaving behind things that meant the most to you,and adapting to a new culture. Many refugees want to return home. In the informational text “Refugees Who Where And why ”“Some have lost many family members and many have lost everything that was familiar to them”. Losing a family member can be very challenging.( Fantino and Colak 10). Losing a family member can turn your life inside out. Imagine not having that person around anymore, not being able to make memories with that person anymore. In the text “Children Of War” Amela states “ Before War I really enjoyed life. But after I found out about my father’s death, everything seemed so useless I couldn’t see any future for myself” (Brice 26). Also when refugees lose a family everything is just futile to them . In “ Inside Out And Back Again” Ha really didn’t have a father figure. In the novel mother says “ Your father is truly gone.” (Lai 250). It took Ha a while to fully accept her father’s death but eventually she started to become conscious about it.
Usually when refugees resettle in a new country the country have a have a whole new culture. This is another example of refugees lives turning “Inside Out”. It’s not easy adjusting to having two cultures. “Perhaps the greatest threat the these children is not the stress of belonging to two cultures but but the stress of belonging to none” (Fantino and Colak 9.) Trying yo get use to a new culture can be arduous and hard to fit in. In the novel Ha goes to a new school with a different language , people looking different from the people back in Vietnam. In conclusion People all around the world have had to leave their home for fear of oppression. Refugees face challenges fleeing and finding a home. Ha and her family first experience fleeing their home and searching for a new asylum in Alabama. This turned everything “inside out” for them. Eventually, after all that trauma they went through their lives started to turn “back again” when the adapted to their new home. There are many challenges when living in a country at war, but there are many to come when you decide to become a refugee.
127 our experts are availableright now
Works Cited
- Ana Marie Fantino and Alice Colak, “Refugee Children in Canada” Thanhha Lai, Inside Out And Back Again (New York : Harper, 2011) Arthur Brice , “Children Of War “, Scholastic update March 25, 1994. 25-26
