Inside Out And Back Again Analysis

Inside Out and Back Again

Imagine if you had to leave your home, the place you know and love, all your memories good and bad. If you had to live in an entirely different place with completely different cultures. Everything would appear, flipped inside out. Thousands of refugees go through this everyday. In the nonfiction texts “Children of War” by Arthur Brice, “Refugee Children in Canada’s Searching for identity” by Ana Marie Fantino and Alice Colak, and the novel Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, the common experiences of refugees are shown. Refugees are defined as “persons residing outside their countries and cannot return due to a well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or

In “Refugee Children in Canada: Searching for Identity” by Ana Marie Fantino and Alice Colak, it lists some of the things refugees everywhere have experienced or soon will. In the refugee article it states, “... trauma from witnessing violent crimes, language difficulties, family disruption, and adjustment to different culture…” All of these horrible things are thrown at innocent lives impacting the future of all the refugees, especially the younger ones. They now grow up remembering the horrible things they’ve witnessed. One example of these tragedies is the life of a teenage boy named Emir. Emir’s life used to be great before the wartime, they had lots of money, they could travel around, then it all changed. In “Children of War” he says, “After the war started, you could not even go out of your house. I had to crawl through my apartment on my hands and knees or risk getting shot. I slept in the bathtub for days, because that was the only place where you were totally safe from bullets.” His life went from being free and grand to living in fear, and worrying about how long he would survive, just like many other refugees, then and now. In Inside Out and Back Again Ha’s story was also similar to this; once the war began all the things she loved in her life were gone. She was forced to leave them or expose herself to the probability of death. Although it was

In “Children of War”, Amela talks about how life is better in America. She was accepted here, unlike where she used to live. Amela says, “Here, people don 't judge you by your religion… Some people here don 't even know where Bosnia is, but they’re really nice and try to help. Things are getting better because we can go to school.” In America her life slowly but steadily improved, and became better than it was before. Just like Mary’s life improved. Mary had three younger brothers and no mother and father for they were killed in the war. She became responsible for all of them for putting lots or stress on her. Then she was put into a program that helped her handle these feelings. In the article “Refugee Children in Canada; Searching for Identity” the author writes, “one of the changes noted in the Play Program was that when given permission and encouragement to play, laugh, and enjoy Mary took that opportunity.” This example shows since being put into a refugee program Mary’s life changed dramatically. She laughed, played, and smiled, all signs that her life was getting better. As was Ha’s, returning to her old traditions in a new place. In “1976; Year of the Dragon” Ha says, “ As with every Tet we are expected to smile until it hurts all three first days of the year, wear all new clothes, especially underneath, not sweep, not splash water, not talk back, not pout. Mother thinks of