What Are Two Important Quotes From First They Killed My Father

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“From 1975 to 1979 - through execution, starvation, disease, and forced labor - the Khmer Rouge systematically killed an estimated two million Cambodians, almost a fourth of the country's population” (Ung 5). This is a quote from Ung, a survivor of the Cambodian genocide and the author of the book First They Killed My Father. In this quote, Ung talks about four horrific years of her life living under the reign of the Khmer Rouge. During the reign of the Khmer Rouge, millions of innocent lives and those who survived, such as Ung, were left traumatized. Just like Ung, in the book The Gangster We Were All Looking For, the protagonist, a young Vietnamese girl is also left traumatized due to the wake of war in Vietnam. The protagonist later immigrates to San Diego, …show more content…

This is important due to the fact that Ung is alone this time and her father's memories play a key role in supporting her. When Ung says “his arms holding me, protecting me” inside of her mind, the memories of her father cause Ung to subconsciously think about surviving because of words being used such as “protecting.” The memories of Ung’s father give her support and comfort, which causes Ung to adapt to living in a lonely environment, which motivates her to survive. Like Ung, the narrator of the book The Gangster We Were All Looking For also lives in a lonely environment. When the protagonist is thinking about another time in her life when her father and her had a comforting relationship she says, “Ba and I would go for walks around the neighborhood and stop to look at the window displays”(Thy 111). In this memory, the narrator and ba are spending time with each other and bonding at night. This memory plays a key role in the protagonist adapting to her lonely surroundings in a new country. Every time the protagonist says “Ba and I” the narrator refers to her father and her

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