Summarize what we learned about Ha’s life in the first few sections of the story. What is her life like at home and how does she feel about it? Give textual evidence to support your answer.

In Section I, we learn that Ha's family is close and loving. The family tries to adjust to the Communist intrusion into their lives, and do the best they can. For the most part... they are happy. Happiness, none-the-less, is shadowed by Ha's father's arrest, a lack of food and money, as well as the need to move on... to escape.

People can barely afford food.

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"I will not risk fleeing with my children on a rickety boat."

"Would a navy ship meet your approval?"

"As if the navy would abandon its country?"

"There won't be a South Vietnam left to abandon."