“Inside Out & Back Again” is a semi-autobiographical children's middle grade novel by Thanhha Lai which recounts the fleeing of Vietnam by Ha and her family and their immigration to the United States of America. In 1975, ten year-old Ha lives in Saigon, South Vietnam, with her mother and three older brothers, Vu, Khoi, and Quang. They are a close-knit, traditional family, though their father was captured by the Communists on a naval mission nine years before. The family endures high prices and scarcities in food as North Vietnamese forces move toward Saigon. Uncle Son, a friend of Ha’s father, encourages Ha and her family to be ready to flee Saigon at a moment’s notice. Ha’s family is divided on whether to leave or stay, but in the end, Ha’s
mother convinces everyone to leave. Tens of thousands of people do the same. Ha and her family make it out of Saigon by boat just as the city falls to the Communists. Ha and her family are on board the ship for weeks, sailing toward Thailand. Food and water are scarce, but the people on board are cautiously hopeful about what could happen next. Ha and her siblings use the time to practice their English. Salvation appears in the form of an American naval vessel, which distributes food and supplies, and tows the boat to Guam where a refugee camp has been established. There, Ha learns about how most of the refugees are either going to France, Canada, or the United States. Ha and her family decide to travel to the United States. They are sponsored by a Southern farmer named Mr. Johnston, who helps the family to settle in Alabama and looks after their interests. Ha’s mother insists they assimilate into American society as quickly as possible, shutting out their old lives entirely. But this is difficult for Ha to do, for she misses Vietnam greatly. In Alabama, Ha and her family receive mixed reactions from their new neighbors. While many, like Mr. Johnston, Miss Washington (a neighbor), and Miss Scott (Ha’s teacher) are friendly and welcoming, others are not. At school. Ha is bulled by a pink-colored boy who takes every chance he can to make fun of Ha. Ha is humiliated, but comforted and watched out for by not only Mr. Johnston, Miss Washington, and Miss Scott, but by her brothers as well. Vu teaches her self-defense, and Ha’s mother tells her that there is always a time when Ha must defend herself. When the pink-colored boy attempts to become physical with Ha, she uses self-defense against him, frightening him into no longer bullying her. Slowly, all of the neighbors come around and warm up to Ha and her family, and the family begins to feel welcome at last. As the Vietnamese New Year comes on, a letter is received from Ha’s father’s brother, who has no news about Ha’s father to report. When Ha’s mother loses her amethyst ring--a gift from her husband years before--she takes it as a sign that he is dead. As a result, the family holds a mourning ceremony for him and vows to move on in America while remembering the past. NOTE: Due to the structure of this novel, this study guide has been arranged into sections according to page numbers. Quotes are therein referenced by section numbers in this guide, by page number, and by paragraph number. This study guide specifically refers to the 2011 Harper Paperback edition of “Inside Out & Back Again.”
The reports in this novel are prefaced with a quote by Robert Shaplen, which sums up the feelings of those Americans involved in the Vietnam conflict. He states, "Vietnam, Vietnam . . .. There are no sure answers." In this novel, the author gives a detailed historical account of the happenings in Vietnam between 1950 and 1975. He successfully reports the confusing nature, proximity to the present and the emotions that still surround the conflict in Vietnam. In his journey through the years that America was involved in the Vietnam conflict, Herring "seeks to integrate military, diplomatic, and political factors in such a way as to clarify America's involvement and ultimate failure in Vietnam."
Everyone needs hope to get through hard times. In the book Inside Out and Back Again Written by Thanhha Lai HA is going through hard times in Vietnam. Her country is at war and she sleeps to the sound of bombs. Ha is missing her father who went to war when she was just one and never came back. Ha and her family fled Vietnam and moved to Alabama
As the war progresses, Caputo requests to go to a line company in the middle of November. This is a change from the “office” position he currently held where he was largely responsible for counting casualties. At this point, the romanticized visions Caputo had of war have been completely shattered and he goes into this transfer being fully aware of this. This change in viewpoint becomes even more clear when compared to the beginning of the novel where Caputo was intrigued by the romance and action of war. While readers would expect more action and typical war stories in this section of the book, Philip Caputo writes anything but. Caputo writes, “It went like that for the rest of the month. It was a time of little action and endless misery…Almost every hour of every night, the radio operators chanted, ‘All secure. Situation remains the same’ (1996: 240). Caputo repeats the phrase “All secure. Situation remains the same” five times throughout this single paragraph. Because of this, readers see the dull and mundane side of war that is often not talked about. In addition, Caputo continues to comment of the large amounts of waiting throughout the autobiography. When most think of the Vietnam War, they picture the “main events”. Similar to the numerous documentaries we watched in class, some of the main points of the war include: The first Indochina War, The Gulf of Tonkin, and the Tet Offensive. These documentaries all focused on these monumental events and because of this, the public perceives this war as the sum of these events. However, what many fail to consider the large gaps in time between these events. It is in these large gaps that little action occurred and most of the soldier’s time was spent waiting as Caputo depicted in this scene. In connection with
In this chapter, O’Brien contrasts the lost innocence of a young Vietnamese girl who dances in grief for her slaughtered family with that of scarred, traumatized soldiers, using unique rhetorical devices
The author, Tim O'Brien, is writing about an experience of a tour in the Vietnam conflict. This short story deals with inner conflicts of some individual soldiers and how they chose to deal with the realities of the Vietnam conflict, each in their own individual way as men, as soldiers.
Pham’s trip however has the opposite effect. He shows us the Vietnamese culture through the eyes of an assimilated Vietnamese American trying to get back in touch with his roots. He hopes to get in touch with his roots mostly through interaction via food. In Pham’s case that’s exactly what he does, with disastrous results bringing to light his inability to...
	The novel illuminates light on the situation not just during the Vietnam era, but also rather throughout all history and the future to come. Throughout mankind’s occupation of earth, we have been plagued by war and the sufferings caused by it. Nearly every generation of people to walk this earth have experienced a great war once in their lifetimes. For instance, Vietnam for my father’s generation, World War 2 for my grandfather’s, and World War 1 for my great-grandfather’s. War has become an unavoidable factor of life. Looking through history and toward the future, I grow concerned over the war that will plague my generation, for it might be the last war.
The narrator, Le Ly Hayslip was born into a family of six in a town called Ka Ly in Vietnam. The villagers of Ka Ly fight for both side of the war; Hayslip’s own brothers were split between the communist north and the puppet government controlled south and so were her family. By day the village was looked over by Republicans, but by night they were under...
Symbolism has been used throughout history to used to represent religion and country. There are many symbols in the novel Inside Out and Back Again. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai is a work of historical fiction. First, Ha, her mother, and her three brothers were forced to flee their home country of Vietnam due to war. They have to face this hardship without the support of their father, who was kidnapped by the Communists and disappeared. Then, they travel on a boat in unsanitary and awful conditions to a refugee camp in Guam. Next, they are sponsored by a many they call “Cowboy” and are taken to live with him in Alabama. In America, the family faces discrimination because of their race, language, and struggle to adjust to their new life. Finally, In the end Ha, her Mother, and her three brothers are starting to adjust to their new life in Alabama. In Inside Out And Back Again, Mother’s amethyst ring symbolizes value, comfort, and love.
When Mary Anne begins interacting with the land and the material culture of war we are introduced to her curious nature. She would “listen carefully” (91) and was intrigued by the land and its mystery. Vietnam was like Elroy Berdahl to her in the beginning in that it did not speak, it did not judge, it was simply there. Vietnam saved Mary Anne’s life. Like Elroy, “[Vietnam] was the t...
Imagine that you are in Vietnam in 1975. Out of your house window, you hear gunshots and screams of pain and agony. You hide in fear as your parents are packing their things, planning to head a boat to a refugee camp in America, as it will keep you away from those pesky Communists. Who knew that a simple boat ride to a refugee camp would cause so much stress when realising that you will have to leave all your old memories behind? This is what Ha experiences when running away from home with her family because of Communists. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai is a historical fiction set in South Vietnam in a small town called Saigon. Ha, a rebellious ten-year-old Vietnamese girl, her three brothers, and her mother who had recently lost her husband- must flee out of their hometown once war strikes. But this is a challenge, with little to no source of food and water, and with many eyes of the Communists staring down on them, wishing upon death. Will Ha and the rest of her family be able to flee safely to America, and if they do, will Ha be able to bound “back again” in her new home in
The mother realizes then that the young boys, the future "Generals" who will soon live as men do "playing war", are far from innocent. Her rite of passage is a complete and sad transition from the mother of a child that she has some control over to the parent of an independent man, who will make his own choices and fight his own battles.
The argument over which form of education is better (English immersion or Two-language programs) for children who are not familiar with the English language has been a much heated debate over the years. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai is a work of historical fiction. First, Ha, and her mother and her three brothers were forced to flee their home country in Vietnam due to war. They have to face this hardship and many to come without the support of their father, who was kidnapped by the Communists and disappeared. Then, travel on a boat in unsanitary and conditions to a refugee camp in Guam. Next, they are sponsored by a man they call “cowboy” and Are taken to live with him and Alabama. In America, the family faces discrimination because
The 2015 animated film Inside Out follows the life of the protagonist Riley (Rivera & Docter). At the beginning of the film, Riley is a happy 11-year-old girl who leaves her friends and old life behind as she moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. In Riley’s mind, there are five key emotions that define her personality: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. These five emotions are personified into five distinct characters. The audience experiences Riley’s life through the internal conflicts of these emotions. Once a happy, hockey loving girl, Riley slowly starts to become numb to the world. The film highlights the plight of Riley’s life as she falls into a state of depression.
The 2015 Disney-Pixar movie Inside Out depicts the functions of an eleven year-old girl’s brain by personifying five prominent human emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. In the movie, the main character, Riley, experiences significant change when her family moves across the country and she begins to adapt to her new life in San Francisco. The five emotions have resided in Riley’s brain since her birth and control her emotional state by using a control panel. The Disney film Inside Out uses a variety of structural, ontological, and orientational metaphors to illustrate abstract neuroscientific concepts, both psychological and physiological, including emotion, the structure of the human brain, thoughts, memories, and personality.