Inside Out and Back Again Imagerys
Papayas, Hà'south favorite fruit, symbolize Hà herself. The papaya tree in Hà's family's lawn grew from a seed that Hà flicked outside. Since Hà threw the seed out there, information technology's grown exponentially—just as Hà has grown from toddler to a 10-twelvemonth-sometime child in the years earlier the novel begins. At the first of the book, Hà excitedly watches her papaya tree behave fruit for the outset time. She describes the papayas equally growing from thumb-size to the size of her fist, knee, and head. Likening the papayas to parts of her ain body reinforces that the papayas are symbols for Hà, and their green, underripe state mirrors Hà youthful, innocent land at the beginning of the novel. When Hà's family is then forced to abscond South Vietnam before the papayas are ripe, this situation represents Hà's relatively happy childhood in Vietnam being cut brusk.
Once Hà and her family settle in Alabama, Hà no longer has access to papaya. This is insult added to injury for her, and it makes her feel unmoored and disconnected from her old cocky, who lived happily in Vietnam and enjoyed fresh fruit regularly. Then, Hà isn't initially impressed when MiSSSisss WaSShington, subsequently learning that papayas are Hà'south favorite fruit, gives Hà a parcel of dried, sugared papaya for Christmas. It'due south naught like fresh papaya, which highlights the idea that few people, if any, in the U.S. understand Hà or her Vietnamese culture. The stale and sugared papaya is essentially an Americanized repackaging of Vietnamese civilisation, and Hà resents this immensely. Still, Hà ultimately makes do when she discovers that Mother soaked the dried papaya, which dissolved the sugar and rehydrated the papaya into something that better approximates the fresh papaya Hà misses. The papaya's physical transformation mirrors Hà's ain internal transformation equally she starts to feel more secure in her identity as a Vietnamese immigrant living in the U.S. By the novel's end, Hà is still adjusting, merely she's more than comfortable with her new life and with finding approximations of the Vietnamese things she loves.
Papaya Quotes in Within Out and Back Again
The Inside Out and Back Over again quotes below all refer to the symbol of Papaya. For each quote, you tin as well run across the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Five papayas
the sizes of
my caput,
a knee,
two elbows,
and a pollex
cling to the torso.
Still green
but promising.
Folio Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Mother says yellow papaya
tastes lovely
dipped in chili table salt.
You lot children should eat
fresh fruit
while you lot can.
Brother Vū chops;
the head falls;
a silver bract slices.
Black seeds spill
like clusters of optics,
moisture and crying.
Page Number and Citation:
Caption and Assay:
The outset hot seize with teeth
of freshly cooked rice,
plump and nutty,
makes me imagine
the taste of ripe papaya
although 1 has nothing
to do with the other.
Related Characters: Kim Hà (speaker)
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Yet
on the dining table
on a plate
sit strips of papaya
gooey and clammy,
having been soaked in hot water.
The sugar has melted off
leaving
plump
moist
chewy
bites.
Hummm…
Not the same,
merely corking
at all.
Folio Number and Commendation:
Caption and Analysis:
Papaya Symbol Timeline in Within Out and Dorsum Again
The timeline beneath shows where the symbol Papaya appears in Within Out and Back Over again. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
...the narrator is ten. As a 10-year-one-time, she tin learn embroidery and can lookout man her papaya tree deport fruit. She was mad last night when Mother insisted that one of the... (full context)
...idea how much Hà's brothers torment her, only Hà adores her mother anyway. When Hà's papaya tree bears fruit, she'll give Mother beginning selection of the papayadue south. (full context)
Papaya Tree. Hà'south papaya tree grew from a blackness seed. Now, information technology's twice as tall as Hà. Brother Khôi,... (total context)
Two More Papayas. At the get-go of Apr, Hà spots two more papayas on her tree. They're "Two green thumbs" that past summer will be sweet and orangey... (full context)
...sweet potato establish in the window, and Hà wants information technology so it can climb her papaya tree. She pinches Tram again; Tram is the instructor'due south pet and will become the plant. (full context)
Promises. In that location are now five papayas on the tree. Some of them are as big every bit Hà's head; others are as... (full context)
...thing what Mother says: he has to protect his chick, and Hà must protect her papayas. They claw pinkies. (full context)
Wet and Crying. Hà's biggest papaya is light yellowish flecked with green. Brother Vū wants to cut it downward so the... (full context)
...When Hà takes her first bite of rice, the taste makes her imagine what ripe papaya tastes like, even though the 2 foods have nil to practice with each other. (full context)
...she'south written. She draws shredded coconut, corn on the cob, fried dough, pineapple wedges, and papaya cubes. Mother smooths Hà's hair. She understands how painful it is to be stranded on... (full context)
...what Mother says, she can't terminate wishing for Father, just like Hà can't stop tasting papaya in her dreams. (full context)
...SScott is showing the grade where Hà is from, but she should've chosen pictures of papayas, or of Tet. It seems unbelievable, only sometimes Hà would rather be in Saigon during... (full context)
Hà gasps when she sees a picture of a papaya tree heavy with ripe papayadue south. Excited, she shouts, "Du du!" and says, "all-time nutrient." She... (full context)
Not the Same. The package MiSSSisss WaSShington gave Hà contains stale papaya. This papaya is chewy, waxy, and sticky—it's not like papaya at all. Hà is so... (total context)
...Hà refuses. Instead, she goes to bed and stares at the motion-picture show of a real papaya tree. Will she ever get to eat a fresh papaya again? Mother's gong rings out,... (full context)
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Source: https://www.litcharts.com/lit/inside-out-and-back-again/symbols/papaya