In the book First They Killed My Father, Loung Ung is a five-year-old girl living a prosperous middle class life in Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge army charges into the city. They forced all citizens out and persuaded them the reason was the U.S. would be bombing Phnom Penh and killed those who stayed back. They sought to enforce a classless Agrarian society. Unable to return because of the danger, Loung and her family of 9 walked a disturbing amount in the hot sun and uncomfortable conditions. Developing a painful starvation, they attempted to survive the harsh circumstances of the camps they were put in by the Angkar. Throughout the brutal journey of working day to night, receiving little to no food each day, being stripped of multiple identity …show more content…
These aspects of her personality along with others continue to inspire throughout the entirety of the book. These qualities are extremely apparent when Loung’s mother has made the decision to send all of the children except for Geak away because it is dangerous if the government discovers their previous life in Phnom Penh. The fearful and heart-breaking circumstances caused Loung to express her stubborn position and stand firm with her feet planted rejecting her mother’s order. She insists that she stay because she is emotionally crumbling at the thought of never seeing her family again. The following action displays Loung’s incredible growth of physical and mental toughness as well as how she harnesses it to survive. “I don’t care if I win, but I will draw blood. I will get in my punches” (Ung 127). When at the labor camp, she was confronted and injured by bullies. At one point Loung became severely aggressive and returned the attacks on the bully. This action is incredibly representative of how she uses her hate and fury to fuel her survival. In my opinion, Loung is incredibly strong and persistent. By pushing past excruciating physical and mental pain, assisting in raising and providing for her family, in detrimental situations, and thinking of others she creates an inspiring and hopeful …show more content…
He is intrepid, intelligent, and very nurturing towards the whole family, but because written in first person by Loung, the emphasis is placed on how her father provides for her. Within the time the family was placed in one of the many camps with little food rations, a severely cataclysmic flood occurred. Loung’s father tied a fish net to a long stick in order to retrieve rabbits and other animals that floated by so the family could feast on them. He also shows his strength in multiple emotionally difficult times such as when he is told to leave with the soldiers. “As Kim’s face crumbles, Pa’s face is rigid and calm. “Look after your Ma, your sisters, and yourself,” he says” (Ung 103). Although he is almost sure wherever he goes will result in death, he shows no fear when leaving and maintains emotionally stable so the departure is easier for his family. Personally, I believe Loung’s father is an extremely caring and tough man. He goes to great lengths to keep his family alive. He expresses great persistence through the pain and shows little to no weakness in order to spare his family’s emotions and put their needs
Kenan is beginning to become weak, but instead of making it easier on himself, he chooses to put his family’s safety and security before his own needs and continues to fill the bottles alone. He thinks of his family’s pain before his and he realizes that, “If he is killed he does not want anyone in his family to witness it, as much as he would like their faces to be the last thing he sees” (27). Kenan also rejects the idea of asking for assistance from his son, because, “He knows his wife will never recover” (27) if he and his son die and he does not want to think about what might happen if, “his son alone die[s]” (27). Kenan’s rejection of help despite the fact that if the two of them made the trek for water it would result in a safer and faster trip shows that he would rather risk his life and risk his family’s. After this profound realization Kenan becomes a better person who is proud of his family’s life.
There was not a time well spent between the father and son throughout the narration. Yunior felt that he “ still wanted to [Papi} to love me, (par 24)” a heartbreaking moment of truth for any child with an abusive parent. The unfortunate relationship between Papi and Yunior eventually came to the point where Yunior wrote an essay based his father titled, "My Father the Torturer.” The title speaks for itself in that Yunior clearly pictures Papi as more of a torturer than a father figure. The audience is left with only the realization that Papi had not taken any type of parental responsibility for his son’s upbringing , which is yet another reason why Yunior had lost his
In the novel, Eldon and Frank Starlight, who are father and son, have a strained relationship. When Eldon accused Frank of an inability to understand war because he had never fought in one before, Frank said, “‘Not one of my own, leastways.’ ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ ‘Means I’m still livin’ the one you never finished,’ (Wagamese 168).” He was explaining to his father that experiences don’t need to be physically experienced; they may also be mentally experienced. Frank knows a different type of war. It is the war where he grew up not knowing anything about his past, other than the fact that he is an Indigenous person. Whereas, Eldon’s war experience was a physical experience with the trauma and post traumatic stress of fighting in the Korean War. Inevitably, Frank ends up realizing that these stories though different, through empathy and an attempt to understand each other, they can bring people together. Wagamese’s strong connection to empathy is a grueling one. In an interview done with Shelagh Rogers, Wagamese spoke about not being there for his children. He said, "The lack of a significant parent is really, really a profound sorrow, a profound loss. It's a bruise that never really heals" (Rogers). With the difficult history of Wagamese’s family, he wanted to be able to pass on those meaningful lessons learned to his children. This is important because having learnt something like that from a parent or guardian is really meaningful to a child; it is a part of the parent and their past that will never leave and carries on through the child. The authors empathetic portrayal of his characters is direct result of the cultural influences of his
...inding a way to make what she wants happen. Lou Ann's total transformation from a timid housewife to a strong single mother came through unique experiences that she was able to thrive from.
During the 1960s and 70s, Laos became engulfed in the Vietnam War. The U.S. government also got involved by supporting the anti-Communist forces and getting the tribes in Laos to help them. The Iu Mein, as well as other minority tribes, provided the U.S. with armed manpower, intelligence, and surveillance. In 1975, the community forces rose in victory as the Iu Mein people began to escape to their homeland. My father said that the reason my family, as well as most of the Iu Mein in Laos, ran away was because they didn't want to be under the new Pathet Lao government. Escaping was not easy to accomplish. Many of my parents' friends who were caught trying to escape were taken to prisons, tortured, and most of them were killed. My parents were terrified of the Vietnamese soldiers and prayed that nothing would happen to them, their brothers, sisters, parents, and their son (my brother) who was 8 years old at the time. They had to flee during the night, pass through the jungles and onto boats traveling across the Mekong River.
Anlungthmor Village – small hut raised three feet off the ground, bamboo leaves and straw for walls and roof, entire family sleeps underneath mosquito net in the hut, grows food in back of the hut to supplement rations, Khmer Rouge soldiers patrolling, Pa and the two oldest boys work from dawn to dusk, eventually, Meng, Khouy and other young men leave for three days a week to find food to ration to the village, flooding.
The bitter cold bit against the starved girl’s skeletal body. She was tired. Her parents discussed ways to get to good lands. They told her the only way to have a better life was to sell her into slavery. The girl, only ten years old was silent. She dreamed of fine clothing and good food. The girl went to the House of Hwang. She was too ugly to be in sight; she was kept in the scullery. All dreams of any kind were lashed out of her young mind. Mistreated, beaten, and underestimated, young O-lan learned to work hard and became resigned to her fate. One day, the Old Mistress summoned her and told her that she was to be married to a poor farmer. The other slaves scoffed, but O-lan was grateful for a chance to be free - they married. O-lan vowed to return to the great house one day in fine clothing with a son. Her resolve was strong; no one could say otherwise. Her years of abuse as a slave had made O-lan wise, stoic, and bitter; whether the events of her life strengthened or weakened her is the question.
As a young teen, she huddled in a bomb shelter during intense artillery shelling of her hamlet, escaping out a rear exit just as US Marines shouted for the “mama-sans” and “baby-sans” (women and children) to come out the front. She got as far as the nearby river before she heard gunfire. Returning the next day, she encountered a scene that was seared into her brain. “I saw dead people piled up in the hamlet. I saw my mom’s body and my younger siblings,” told Ho Thi Van. She lost eight family members in that 1968 massacre. In all, according to the local survivors, thirty-seven people, including twenty-one children were killed by the Marines. She then joins the guerrillas and fought the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies until she was grievously wounded, losing an eye in battle in
A man who was emotionally hardened by the war, learned how to care for someone deeply. When Kanaalaq’s health was deteriorating he allowed her to rest and tried to feed her.
Louie’s rebellion not only hurt him, but also helped him on his journey. He drank his parent’s wine at the age of 8, which is an act of rebellion. “He began drinking one night when he was eight; he hid under the kitchen table, snatched glasses of wine, drank them dry, staggered right off the front porch, and fell into a rose bush.”(7) Louie did a lot things that got him hurt. He let kids in through the back of the gym into the basketball games. “Finally, someone discovered Louie sneaking kids in the back door.”(13) His rebellious side got to him and when he got to Torrance High he was seen more as a dangerous young man than a rebellious teen. In one of the multiple POW camps Louie was in, he had gotten a journal. “Louie had another private act of rebellion. A captive gave him a tiny book he’d made from rice paste flattened into pages.”(155) In this book he knew shouldn’t have
He experiences prejudice from Canadians, found his father dying away and dealing with Blue-Scar Wong. These problems can cause stress, anxiety, addiction to drugs and possibly mental illness. "Living in my time is enough of a burden right now. I have found my father only to watch him die" (pg. 138). If I were him, I might had exploded. The pain was unbearable. My connection to this experience is that my beloved grandmother died one month ago before I was born. As a baby, I cried for 100 days. Every single day.
Through all the monstrosities Lola faced as a child, she never gave up. Not when she was orphaned. Not when her Babcia sent her away to live with strangers. Not when she discovered that her grandmother had died. Not even when she was alone on the streets and forced to beg for food. That is why her story needs to be remembered. She IS a survivor.
The Cambodian Genocide has the historical context of the Vietnam War and the country’s own civil war. During the Vietnam War, leading up to the conflicts that would contribute to the genocide, Cambodia was used as a U.S. battleground for the Vietnam War. Cambodia would become a battle ground for American troops fighting in Vietnam for four years; the war would kill up to 750,00 Cambodians through U.S. efforts to destroy suspected North Vietnamese supply lines. This devastation would take its toll on the Cambodian peoples’ morale and would later help to contribute that conflicts that caused the Cambodian genocide. In the 1970’s the Khmer rouge guerilla movement would form. The leader of the Khmer rouge, Pol Pot was educated in France and believed in Maoist Communism. These communist ideas would become important foundations for the ideas of the genocide, and which groups would be persecuted. The genocide it’s self, would be based on Pol Pot’s ideas to bring Cambodia back to an agrarian society, starting at the year zero. His main goal was to achieve this, romanticized idea of old Cambodia, based on the ancient Cambodian ruins, with all citizens having agrarian farming lives, and being equal to each other. Due to him wanting society to be equal, and agrarian based, the victims would be those that were educated, intellectuals, professionals, and minority ethnic g...
The Ung’s moved from one place to another just to keep their family together. Because their father was a former government worker, the Khmer Rouge would have killed him if they found out because they think anyone with an education is a threat to their dictatorship. For months they were on the road. Walking in the hot sun, starving and it was very hard for them to stay together. It was the hardest on Loung because she desperately wanted to be somewhere she can call “home” somewhere like Phnom Penh. But that was difficult considering they had to move to anot...
One example is while Po is a panda and his dad is a duck, which in the second movie is made clear that he is adopted, there are definite examples of the relationships between father and son known in the Confucianism way of thinking. In the film, Po, just like his adoptive father and his family, pursue the dream of selling and making noodles. “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” (Confucius). Mr. Ping, Po’s dad, loves what he does and wants Po to honor the family and continue the noodle business just like his predecessors.