Life In Ha's Inside Out And Back Again

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The novel Inside Out and Back Again relates to the universal refugee experience regarding fleeing and finding a new home using specific and realistic examples. The general refugee experience is caused by war, or social injustice. Millions of people are killed or displaced while seeking a better life in an unfamiliar country. In Inside Out and Back Again, Ha flees her country due to war, causing her and her family to rebuild their lives in a new country from scratch. Though the novel isn’t exactly accurate, cutting out most of the gruesome details, Inside Out and Back Again can provide a glimpse of what refugees face without end. Refugees lives are “turned inside out” when they are pressured into fleeing their country. For instance, …show more content…

Even as a small child, it is obvious when something isn’t ethical, like war, and rather than a turning point, it seems like a rather large drop when their lives are turned inside out. Although, as the book continues, Ha notes, “We have landed on an island called Guam,” which is a shocking 7598 miles, or 12,228 kilometers away (Lai, 96). As the people aboard the boat search for a new start, it is obvious that they will stop at nothing to ensure the safety of those they love, even if it’s in a foreign country where a mere one or two people can translate. Yet, when her family is sponsored, Ha’s brothers try and fail to convince their mother that school isn’t important, and that they need to work, but “Mother says one word: College” (Lai, 136). Even at rock bottom, Ha’s mother keeps the importance of schooling in mind, knowing that one day it will turn her children’s lives around. While many people don’t understand the reason for school, this underprepared refugee mother is aware that an education is the key to escaping

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