Thanhha Lai`s Inside Out and Back Again, which received the Newberry Honor Award in 2001, is about the Vietnam War and war refugees moved to seek asylum from their war-torn country of Vietnam. When the Vietnam War broke out, most Vietnamese were exposed to violence, such as rape, piracy and forced labor, and they hurried away from their country after the defeat of South Vietnam. But even when they immigrated to the United States as war refugees, they were discriminated and despised by Americans. These things show that Vietnam war refugees were weak and poor others in many ways.
This article examines the (im)possibility of (un)conditional Hospitality in Inside Out and Back Again through Jacques Derrida`s ethical writings on hospitality. Derrida mentioned two kinds of hospitality, one is a conditional hospitality and the other is a pure and unconditional hospitality, hospitality itself. He emphasizes realization of the latter, unconditional hospitality. If `unfamiliar` people of different nationalities, languages and cultures come into our home, how should we welcome the guest? Especially when a stranger coming to our home is a stranger who is not identified, what should we do? Even so, Derrida lets us offer them unconditional hospitality without any condition or expectation. It is possible only when we give up our rights, our own property, our authority and duties. This is the possibility of the impossibility of hospitality, and the realization of boundless love.