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"Inside out and Back Again." By Thanha Lai - Coggle Diagram
"Inside out and Back Again." By Thanha Lai
Themes
Uncertainty
Uncertainty of the journey of the refugee
Family
Family should love and care each other, not always but have to care and love during the hard time.
Family stays together. (Jayson) How they always stay together (on the ship, ...)
History
The poem kind of showing the experience of the refugee from Viet Nam. In my opinion, it represents the hardship that those Vietnamese refugee were facing as they were heading to the same location which is the US.
Settings/Context
The setting: USA - Alabama town (The South)
Context: 1975 vietnam war in the south of vietnam
Characters
Ha
confident
Impulsive/rebellious
Touches the hair. Wants to be first to touch the floor in Tet
competitive with her brothers
Wants to be the first one awake at Tet
Fearless
Mother
Practical
Makes sure that all of her children study English
Makes the family get baptized as christians and go to church in order to fit in with the community
Grateful
"Those living on other people's goodwill cannot afford political opinions"
Always tells Ha to be grateful for what they have, and for escaping Vietnam
Religious
Chant Nam mo A Di Da phat everyday
Prays for father to come home
Gets baptized to fit-in, but still buddhist
Brother Vu Lee
Love Kungfu
teaches the neighborhood kids kung fu, and teaches Ha how to defend herself from bullies
Brother Khoi
Sensitive
Jayson. He loves animals. He wanted to become a vet.
Brother Quang
good at english
He can communicate and translate for the family to understand
Smart
Study engineering, the most knowledgable guy in the family
The Cowboy
He is generous and accepting
Miss Washington
empathetic person
Understand how Ha feels and what she's experienced and helped her. She hugs Ha to make her feels better after she got bullied by the kids and started screaming she hates herself.
Caring
She cares about how ha feels. She even make for Ha a lunch box because she eats in the toilet.
Real Life Refugee Experiences and Themes/IB Themes
Sharing the Planet
They shared the ship with other refugees
Human Ingenuity
(Kevin) The way that Mom came to the neighbor's house to solve the problem after being bullied by them.
(Kevin) Both of Ha's brothers created a plan for Ha to escape the bully from school.
Experiences
Social Organization
(Kevin) The US government gave the Cowboy sponsor money so that he can take care of Ha's family after the US lost the "defend war" against North Vietnam.
Identities
Refugee
YOUR real-life connections and Opinions
(Kevin) I have a common feelings as Ha when I moved to another region; Sad, nostalgia, miss old friends and the culture
I wouldn't touch the "golden fuzz".
Poetic and Literary devices
To make the reader to use the imagination to imagine of what is going on in the poem.
In my opinion, she writes it in a novel of poetry to emphasis the moment.
The poems are all from Ha's point of view, and are mostly feelings and thoughts. We see important "snapshots" of Ha's refugee experiences, and her emotions.
It's like a part of Ha's memory. Each picture in her mind. It's not detailed but it's not too general.
Poetry is a better way to make the reader experience emotions and feelings.
Verse-Novel Structure
Audience
For student as a lesson( tools, devices to transfer message, learn about poetry), for American Vietnamese or refugee (remind them and give them a lesson "to let go") (Jayson)
Literally for everyone. In my opinion, the author wanted to target the group of people in the US, especially who have gone through this time. And also for US people to be more open to refugee because they've gone through hard time and they didn't want it.
Purpose