The Happiest Refugee Essays

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Anh Do’s story is a timely reminder of the plight of refugee in our country. Discuss the Happiest Refugee in the light of Do’s universal message about the suffering of human beings during times of war and the struggle to make a better life in a foreign country.

The Happiest Refugee is a memoir written by Anh Do which was first published on the 1st of August in 2010. It is regarded as one of the most influential and well-received novels in the world of literature for its great insight on the life of refugees. The book provides a universal message to its readers about the suffering of human beings during wars and their struggle to make a better life in a foreign country. The Happiest Refugee is about Anh Do and his family’s journey from …show more content…
“Boat people” is a term that used by Australians to refer to refugees, illegal immigrants and asylum seekers from Vietnam during the Vietnam War in 1962. In order to save their family and start new life refugees were forced to travel in old unsafe vessels that were dangerously over crowded with asylum seekers. In Anh’s memoir he described the boat that they travelled in as being “old, creaky and stank of fish..... The boat was only nine meters long and two and half meters wide and there were forty people crowded on board...” While escaping from war and the danger of being brutally beaten and or killed refugees were forced to live in these conditions. They weren’t allowed to take any belongings except a few clothes on their back and had very little to no food and water to survive on. They had very little supply of food and water that were usually lost in storms. The sea water would ruin the water and stored food. “Much of our cooked rice was ruined by sea water ruined by seawater, and a good portion of our fresh water was lost overboard in the storm.” Refugees travelling from Vietnam had to through many hardships and life threatening circumstances to reach a safe destination, they were all in poor health conditions and some were even lost at sea.

Refugees who manage to escape pirates, typhoons, and starvation and safely make it to refugee camps located
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