The Refugees

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Based on your prior knowledge, what is a refugee? What leads people to become refugees? What would be some difficulties for refugees who have just entered a new environment?

Teaching Suggestion: This Short Answer question situates students within the sociological context of the novel. Broadly speaking, refugees are people who are forced to flee from their home country for a multitude of reasons—including political, sociological, and religious conflict or discrimination—in order to receive protection elsewhere. People who apply for international protection (i.e., refugee status) may be called “asylum seekers,” while individuals who are displaced within their country due to war may be called “internally displaced persons.” Factors that contribute to these situations often include war, famine, targeted discrimination, and climate change. As a result, refugees must often adapt to a new culture, language, and employment. Throughout the novel, Nguyen alludes to the variety of difficulties that people who fled from the war in Vietnam face, connecting with the overarching themes of Intergenerational Conflict and Haunted by Trauma: PTSD and Narrative Exposure Therapy as a result of refugee-lived experiences in the US.