The Portrait of Refugees and Their Lives in the 'Inside Out and Back Again'

A refugee is a regular person who has had to leave their country due to war or things like racism or persecution due to their religion. While leaving home their lives turn inside out because they are forced to go to a new place where they might not speak the same language or look the same as the people that live there or they may not understand many of the things in this new country such as as as traditions. While finding home their lives can turn back again because they can learn how to live in this new country and they could start to feel like this country is their home. The refugees could learn how to fluently speak the native language or understand the traditions or learn how to adapt to the new environment. Inside Out and Back Again relates to the universal experience of refugees fleeing and finding home because it shows what it is like to be a refugee from the perspective of a refugee child and what her family has been through when it comes to being a refugee. 

Ha is a ten-year-old girl that lived in Saigon, Vietnam during the Vietnamese war. During this time ha´s father got kidnapped by the communists and had lived with her mother and three older brothers. Ha's life is turned inside out when she has to leave her home due to the war and she ends up in Alabama. Some of the things that ha has to deal with in Alabama are the kids making fun of the at she looks at school, her mother struggling at work due to the new technology there, and Ha´s family having to learn a new language. After a while Ha´s life was able to be turned back again when they got a letter from their father and they all get used to life in America. I believe that this relates to the universal experience of being a refugee because it shows some of the struggles that refugees would have to go through when it comes to being in a new country but it also shows how a refugee's life can go back again with time. No matter who refugees are, where they are from, or why they flee they all go through losing their home but they can find refuge or home in a new safer place where it may be easier for them to live better.

The lives of refugees turn inside out when fleeing home because they have to leave behind their old lives, friends, and possessions. In inside out and back again ha had to leave behind her home and the gold-rimmed glasses her father gave her in his time in America.¨Ten gold-rimmed glasses father brought back from America where he trained before I was born¨. In the text, ¨panic rises in Saigon but exits are few¨, we learn that the people of Vietnam all have to leave something or someone behind due to the war. ¨still others, trying desperately to get a seat aboard one of the planes, offered everything they had.'more than 200,000 people have been killed and another 2 million have been driven from their home', children of war. The lives of refugees have been turned inside out because of a family as well. Most refugees have to leave behind their families to leave their country because of multiple reasons like there not being enough space on escape boats or planes or disease. inside out and back again, we learn that ha's father has been taken by the communists due to the war. 'Father left home on a navy mission on this day nine years ago when I was almost one. He was captured on Route 1 an hour south of the city by moped.'

The lives of refugees turn back again when finding home because after finding a new home in a new place a refugee could get used to living there and that new place could become their new home just like when you move to a new house, that new house would become your home over time. some solutions that a refugee could find when trying to find a new home is learning to speak the new language, learning the tradition, or getting a job. Inside Out and Back Again in the chapter passing time, ha is reading the dictionary to learn new words because she has nothing else to do. In the text children of war, the kids are talking to the interviewer in English even though that's not their native language which shows that they learned the language. In refugees who were what when 2 refugees of different backstory talk about their lives as refugees. the old man is talking in the video speaking English even though that isn't his native language which shows that he also learned English to try and live in America and have America be his new home.

On the journey fleeing home refugees experience many things such as not understanding the native language, not understanding traditions, and looking different from other the other people living there. These challenges impact their lives. They could need help but not understand how to ask the people that live there how to help because they don't understand the language or people will treat them differently because they look different. On the journey, refugees finding home experience having to lose or leave behind everything from their old lives and homes. In the text, panic rises in Saigon but exits are few the author says 'still others, trying desperately to get a seat aboard one of the planes, offered everything they had.' This tells me that the refugees were willing to not have anything to escape to a new country. 

Although many encounters may change their lives forever, their lives eventually turn back again. When the life of a refugee turns back again they begin to have a normal life as they did in their old countries because they learn to live in this new country. Some ways a refugee could learn to make this new country into their home is by learning the native language, getting a job, or making new friends as it clearly showas in Inside Our and Back Again. These solutions help refugees because they can help the refugees learn how people in their new home country life and how to live in this new country as a citizen.