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Character Analysis: Inside Out & Back Again

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Thanhha Lai wrote a heart-wrenching novel, Inside Out & Back Again, that conveys the difficulties of refugees escaping the Vietnam War. Ha is a ten-year old refugee girl fleeing from the Vietnam War and Communist rule. Consequently, Ha’s life twists inside out in the areas of intelligence and religion, but she manages to find her way back again.

Intelligence is one challenge that Ha faces as she assimilates into American culture. While in Vietnam, Ha boasts, “Now I am ten, learning to embroider circular stitches, to calculate fractions into percentages” (2), which reveals Ha is confident in her knowledge; ergo she is confident in herself. Once Ha arrived in America, she finds that she has previously learned about fractions in Vietnam, and she is angry that she cannot tell her new teacher of her knowledge (156-57). This demonstrates how others’ belief that she is incapable, since she cannot speak English, causes Ha to doubt herself and feel dumb. Lastly, Ha proclaims, “I go to the board, chalk the answer in five moves” (187), because Ha is the only one in the class who could solve the problem, and swiftly, causing her to regain her confidence and feel …show more content…

Initially, Ha recites, “No one can sweep, for why sweep away hope? No one can splash water, for why splash away joy?” (1). Ha knows this Buddhist saying, revealing she practices Buddhism. Ha states, “Bumps enlarge on my chilled skin as I realize we will be coming back every Sunday” (172), following her arrival in America. This means Ha’s faith has been changed for the sake of blending in with the American Christians around her and not because her beliefs have changed. Eventually, Ha finds comfort in a Buddhist chant her mother coaxed her to say (198), for she has regained her faith in Buddha, so she has converted back to being a Buddhist. Therefore, Ha has managed to hold onto a piece of her culture after twisting her beliefs to fit

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