Symbolism In Inside Out And Back Again

Symbolism is an object’s physical and emotional representation. In the novel "Inside out and back again" Ha's papaya tree symbolizes hope and strength but physically it's just a tree that bares papaya. In this novel, ha expresses how much she fancies the "orange-yellow delights" and how a simple seed she flicked into the back garden turned into a tree that is twice as tall as her. Every morning she would wake up first to watch the tree so she can witness its ripening first", She even learns to nurse her papaya tree right so that when they are ripe she can offer her mother the first fruit the tree produces.Ha also fancies the tree because she admires how it can grow and stand strong and even when it is surrounded by war, the tree still stands so in Ha's mind hope isn't lost. Due to war, Ha must flee the country but before leaving her brother Vu says it's better to cut it than to let the communists have it" which means the communists don't deserve to take their hope and he rather cut it than for one of them to have eaten the last thumbs of papaya.

Over time, she feels like it's her fault they are in America because she was the one that tapped her big toe on the floor first mother reassures her that is just superstition. Soon near the end of this novel she gets dried papaya she is so enraged about how “chewy sugary waxy sticky’ it is that she throws it out because she believes it is not the same, her mother demands she tries it but she doesn’t want the dried papaya’s she wants the ones she had back at Vietnam. She wakes and goes to the trash but before she gets there the dried papaya that was cloaked were now “gooey and damp the sugar melted off leaving “moist chewy bits” she ate one and states “Not the same but not bad at