Inside Out And Back Again

The motif of communication barriers repeats throughout the story. It is established in the Florida refugee camp on the day when Mr. Johnston agrees to sponsor the family and bring them to Alabama, notably signifying the turning point from the ending of the family’s physical journey to the beginning of their journey of assimilation and acceptance. On that day, Mother rejects what Mr. Johnston communicates (that he wants only one Vietnamese male to help with cars at his business) and tries to communicate with him in her own language. She succeeds in getting across what she wants, but the communication barrier promotes misunderstanding: Hà assumes the man is a cowboy (which he is not), and the family doesn’t realize Mr. Johnston has a wife who is unaccepting of their presence until they arrive in the Johnston home.

This barrier between languages is notable each time Brother Quang must translate for the family, such as registration day when Hà cannot communicate horse to Mr. Johnston without Brother Quang’s assistance, and the principal’s office meeting when Pink Boy is coerced into an apology. The language barrier is clear each time Hà struggles with communication in her school. Miss Scott’s interpretation of Hà’s name is ironically incorrect: The teacher likens it to laughter. Hà feels awkward and unintelligent when the class claps for her recitation of the alphabet.

Hà’s language skills grow, however, as she receives extra lessons from Miss Washington. Miss Washington works to convince Hà that mistakes in language acquisition are natural and unavoidable, and in fact helpful. Hà sees that though she and her classmates have language differences, communication is possible: She can readily communicate in arithmetic, proven when she vanquishes Pink Boy at the chalkboard, and she “translates” Pam’s and Steven’s names to more graspable pronunciations in her mind: Pem, SSsì-Ti-vân. She even communicates some of her spunk and tenacity by January; instead of growing upset, she pulls the flower from the sleepwear she wore accidentally to school and says “Nightgown no more” (245).