Inside Out & Back Again Research Analysis

Table of Content

1

........................................................................... Group Members

2-3

.........................................................................

4-5

................................................................................... Characters

6-7

..................................................................................... Summary

8-9

.................................................................... Background of Novel

Author and Book

10 - 11 .......................................................................... Context of Novel

12 - 13 ............................................................................ Critcal Analysis

14 - 15 ......................................................... Style of Writing & Questions

16 - 17 ........................................................................................

Citation

Group 9

Jessica Grimmer

Kevin Hong

Major

Major

Early Childhood Education

Architecture

1

About Thanhha Lai

Thanhha Lai was born in Vietnam in 1965. She was the youngest of nine children, she and states that life in Saigon, South Vietnam was good. Things would change drastically for Lai though, when she turned ten and North Vietnam won the war. Lai and her family were forced out of their little home in Saigon and told to board a tightly packed Navy ship in order to escape the turmoil in their homeland. With only the remembrance of their father, who had been captured by the Viet Cong, the journey would be long and sorrowful.

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3

Characters Thanhha, or Ha Ha is a young, ten-year-old girl who lives in Saigon, Vietnam. Ha is physically described as having short, straight, black hair and olive skin.

Ha's Mother Ha's mother is both tender and strong for her family, as her husband is a missing navy captive in the war.

While she is the source of love and comfort for her children, she is also witty and does not allow disobedience.

Brother Quang Quang is the oldest brother at 21 years old. He is very intelligent and already speaks English prior to the journey, so he acts as a translator once they land in the United States. He also seems to be the one who struggles the least.

Brother Vu Vu is the middle brother at 18 years old. He is the least hesitant and most excited to flee to the united states because of his love for Bruce Lee. He has a passion for martial arts and teaches students in their yard in Alabama.

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Brother Khoi Khoi is the youngest of the three brothers at 14 years old. He shows the softest side of the three boys. When the hen lays eggs he always tries to sneak and hatch the eggs instead of letting the mother cook them.

Miss Scott The teacher for Ha's fourth grade class is Miss Scott.

Although she has good intentions to help Ha feel welcome, the ideas she has only make things worse for Ha.

Mrs. Washington Mrs. Washington is a dear neighbor that really helps Ha to cope with all of the change in her life. She gives her English lessons after school every day, as well as sharing with her that her son was a soldier who went to fight in Vietnam.

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Summary Part I : Saigon - Tet: Vietnamese New Year - Introduced to Ha and her family - Father was captured and is missing - Lives with her mother and 3 older brothers - Learn about her life in Vietnam - Have to decide if they will leave their home - Packed with clothes and food - Each person gets a pack - Get one choice: Ha chooses her doll

Part II : At Sea - On the ship, everyone has only a small space - They sail to Guam where they live in a tent city - Mother has to decide where they will go (Paris or America) - They are flown to Florida where they live in another tent city until an American chooses to sponsor them - A man from Alabama sponsors them

Papaya Tree

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Motor Scooter

Part III : Alabama - There sponsor finds them a house - Ha attends public school - The other students make fun of her - She feels dumb because she cannot communicate in English - A neighbor volunteers to give them English lessons - Ha makes a few friends

Part IV: From Now On - Receive news that their father is probably gone - It takes a while but her mother finally accepts that her husband is gone - Allows the whole family to move on - It is Tet again and the family has finally settled into American life

Evacuation

Presidential Palace

7

Background of Novel - Written in the form of an autobiography, and illustrated in first person by the author herself throughout the novel

- Introducing readers to Vietnamese Culture - Informing readers about the Vietnam War

- Written as a timeline with a specific date and event relating to important dates during the Vietnam War

- Sharing her personal experience, impression, and understanding of everyday life and the war as a ten years old girl

- The story builds up from many little events and leads to the climax when her and her family migrate to Alabama

Rice Cake

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Historical Timeline

"1975: Year of the Cat

Today is Tet, the first day of the lunar calendar.

Every Tet, we eat sugary lotus seeds and glutinour rice cakes.

We wear all new clothes, even underneath.

Mother warns how ew act today fortells the whole year.

Everyone must smile no matter how we feel.

No one can sweep, for hy sweep away hope?

No one can splash water, for why splash away joy?"

(Lai, 2011, 1)

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Context of Novel

Importance of Family - Family involves mutual love, compassion, loyalty towards, and emotional, spiritual, and physical support of individuals who may or may not be blood-related

Purple Ring

- Mother wears a purple amethyst ring throughout the novel. Ha's father purchased it for as a gift during his naval training in the United States - She considered selling the ring for money when time got hard, but her son Quang opposed of it because it was a symbol of father - She accepted that it was a sign that father has died when she lost the ring

Saigon - Saigon was the capital city of democratic South Vietnam. It is the home of Ha and her family, and was the symbol of resistance for the free people of the South against the oppression and violence of Communist North Vietnam

Point of View - Thanhha Lai tells her novel in the first person present tense narrative mode - It is similar to an autobiography sharing her childhood life and experiences

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"A Day in Downtown

Every spring President Thieu holds a long long long ceremony to comfort war wives.

Mother and I go because after President Thieu's talk talk talk of winning the war, of democracy, of her father's bravery each family gets five kilos of sugar, ten kilos of rice, and a small jug of vegetable oil" (Lai, 2011, 32)

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Critical Analysis

Religious Allegory - Referencing Budhdhism "Missing in Action This day Mother prepares altar to chant for his return, offering fruit, incense, tuberoses, and flutinous rice.

(Lai, 2011, 12)

Political Allegory - Referencing Cold War, Communism, Vietnam War "Should we go?

Mother twists her brows.

I've lived in the North.

At first, not much will happen, then suddenly Quang will be asked to leave college.

Ha will come home chanting the slogans of Ho Chi Minh, and Khoi will be rewarded for reporting his teacher everything we say in the house April 17"

(Lai, 2011, 12)

12

Gender Sterotype - Referencing how a girl and boy should act and behave "Birthday wishes Wish I could do what boys do and let the sun darken my skin, and scars grid my knees" (Lai, 2011, 30)

Model of Child - Sacred Child "Birthday I, the youngest, get to celebrate my birthday even though I turned a year older like everyone else at Tet. I, the only daughter, usually get roasted chicken, dried bamboo soup, and all-I-cam eat pudding."

(Lai, 2011, 26)

13

Style of Writing - Speaking is in italics

- The way words are designed are reflective of how Ha interprets them - "She points to her chest:/ MiSSS SScott,/ saying it three times" (Lai 140) - "She says Pam. I hear Pem." (Lai 184) - "He says Steven./ I hear SSsi-Ti-Van." (Lai 185) - Short verses mimic Vietnamese - "The words came out in quick, sharp phrases that captured her feelings in crisp images. These phrases reflected that Vietnamese sounded like."

(Back Again: An Interview with Thanhha La 3)

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Questions - What is your thought on the idea that girls must have pale light skin and not allow to have dark skin?

- If you have to leave and never return home, what would you take with you?

- If you have to leave and never return home, what would you take with you?

- What is your thought on political disagreement and war and running away from home?

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Work Citation Lai, Thanhha. "Inside Out and Back Again." HarperCollins Childrens,

Harper Collins Publisher, 2015, www.harpercollinschildrens.com/

books/Inside-Out-Back-Again-Thanhha-Lai/.

Lai, Thanhha. "Thanhha Lai - Inside Out & Back Again." Thanhha Lai

- Home, www.thanhhalai.com/inside-out-back-again/.

Lai, Thanhha. Inside out & Back Again. Harper, an Imprint of

HarperCollins Publishers, 2011.

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Image Citation

https://quangcaodongphuong.net/de-tet-khong-lotang-can-dung-bo-qua-nhung-meo-nay-nhe/

http://www.kcur.org/post/book-award-winnerstale-echoes-those-told-other-vietnamese-refugees#stream/0

Kevin Hong, October 18, 2018

https://3g.163.com/news/article/C8ROSCQF00018ASD.html?spss=newsapp&spsw=1

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/lastdays/firstdaysstoryproject/slideshow/operation-frequent-wind/ https://teolangthang.blogspot.com/2014/04/sai-gonthat-thu.html

https://www.booking.com/hotel/vn/kim-lien-guesthouse.et.html

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