Theme Of The Story Inside Out & Back Again

The theme of the story Inside Out & Back Again is that family always comes first. Ha and her family have major problems going on and it's making it harder for them to decide whether or not they should leave to America. The big question that is holding Ha and her family back from leaving is what if their father comes back? Ha is willing to stay in a poor country if it means she will get her father back and being able to see him in real life. It all started when Ha’s father (who was in the Navy) never came back from one of his missions. Since then mother has been upset, and when Ha looks in her mother's eyes she claims she sees sadness.

Ha has daydreamed about her father and even wished on her birthday that her, “Father would appear in our doorway and make Mother’s lips curl upward, lifting them from a permanent frown of worries.” Ha mostly wished for this because she knows how much it hurts her mother to know that he may never come back. Ha could have easily wished for a toy or something that a child wanted, but she wished for her father, not for herself, but for her mother. This is a great example that family always comes first, other things are not as important.

Their mother is trying to convince them that it's best to leave, after all she says that she's lived in Saigon long enough to know that things will stay the same. The mother's plan seemed to guilt them into all deciding that it's best to leave their home town, the mother says, “Who can go against a mother who has become gaunt like bark from raising four children alone?” Although they want to stay incase their father does come home, they know they shouldn't disobey their mom especially as she said she raised four kids