Ha has grown both physically and mentally over the course of Part 3 of the novel. How has she changed? How would you describe her best attribute or...

Over the course of Part III: Alabama, Hà has learned, first of all, to compromise. We see how this plays out in her relationship to the American foods that she dislikes so much. She starts off in this section hating the American-style chicken she's served, forcing herself to make "yum-yum sounds" so as not to offend her "cowboy" host, but she compares the chicken to "bread soaked in water." But by the end of this section, Hà has accepted the compromised version of her favorite fruit, papaya: instead of leaving the dried and grossly over-sugared papaya strips in her trash can, she discovers that her mother has taken them out and soaked them in hot water to reconstitute them and dissolve the sugar. "Hummm... Not the same, but not bad at all," Hà muses. She's learned to genuinely appreciate what she's given, rather than faking it: a mature compromise to make. I would call this ability to compromise her best new trait. Her comment, "Not the same, but not bad at all," is a good representation of how she's learned to adjust to her entire life away from Vietnam in the foreign environment of Alabama.

Hà also begins to see her classmates as not just a mass of foreign shapes, some of which are frightening (like "Pink Boy") but rather as individuals, some of whom are worthy of friendship. Notice how she sees her classmates at the beginning of Section III, in the part labeled "Rainbow." Instead of hearing what her classmates say, she sees them as "Hair the color of root on milky skin," "White hair on a pink boy," "Hair with barrettes in all colors on bronze head," and so on. But by the end of Section III, despite the harassment she's endured from "Pink Boy," Hà has made friends with both Pam and Steven.

In addition, Hà has gone from feeling dumb in school to actually feeling smart. When she first arrived at school, she was made to recite letters and numbers aloud in front of the class, like a much smaller child. She felt embarrassed and stupid. But by the time she works out a two-digit by two-digit multiplication problem on the chalkboard faster than Pink Boy can do it, she feels "Smart Again"—the title of that part of Section III.

Physically, Hà has grown her hair out long, just like she always wanted to, and her skin has darkened thanks to her walks to and from school in the sun. These physical changes probably serve to represent the more important mental and behavioral changes listed above.

Then, what is Hà's worst flaw that appears in Section III? I'd say it's her tendency to lord power over her classmates when she gets the chance. "I used to like making the girl who shared my desk cry," she confesses to her mother, recalling what she did back home in Vietnam. Even this awful trait, though, is starting to disappear from Hà. We know because when she's about to fight Pink Boy, he's fallen down onto the pavement. This is when Hà stops to consider:

"I thought I would love

seeing him in pain."

But she realizes that she doesn't. Even though it's her chance to kick him, she doesn't do it.