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NAME:​ SCORE __________

WORLD LITERATURE 10: First They Killed My Father​ ​DATE:​ 7/8/13

Answer the following five questions below clearly and completely based on what you
understood from the novel YOU SHOULD HAVE READ & UNDERSTOOD WELL over
the summer. You may use your novel and notes if you wish to.

1. What kind of a child does Loung seem to be? What adjectives might you use to
describe her? In what ways do her mother and father take different perspectives
on her peculiarities?

Loung seems to be the naughty one compared to all her siblings and always has
her own unique way of thinking. To the society she lives in, girls are expected to look
nice both inside and outside. Loung, in the other hand, isn’t that way, she’s the kind that
can’t stay still and always questions everything around her. Although she may act a less
mature for her age by her actions, but by reading the book, the reader can infer from the
inner thoughts that she did understand a lot of what was going around her. From
questions she constantly asks her father, this shows that she is curious about
everything going around her.
Adjectives to describe Loung would be self-motivated, protective,
short-tempered, and caring. She was motivated to live and survive each and everyday
of her life with the fact that one day she would get revenge on the Khmer Rouge. Her
goal was to kill them and let them suffer they way she did. She is also protective in a
way that a five year old has a thought of protecting her whole family when the leader of
the house was no longer present. By having a body structure stronger than an average
kid her age, she was able to fight and protect her sister from harm. With that big body of
hers, there are both positive and negative side to it. The negative side would be that
whenever her short-tempered attitude conquers her, she would always try to pick a
fight. There isn’t a real big deal with the argument but her nature is what makes her like
that. Although she can be violent sometimes, inside, we know that she is just an
innocent little girl who tries to act brave and tough on the outside. She also has her
caring side which just doesn’t show much but she does care for one and every member
of the family.
To her mother, Loung seems to be the annoying kind because her mother
expects her to be like her other sisters. “Don’t you ever sit still? You are five years old.
You are the most troublesome child. Why can’t you be like your sisters?” (Page 2). Her
mother often compares her with her sisters and how much more mature they are by
their appearance and actions. She tries to give Loung all the feminine influence she
could so Loung is able to absorb it in somehow. “Princess Monineath of Cambodia, now
she is famous for being proper. It is said that she walks so quietly that no one ever
hears her approaching. She smiles without ever showing her teeth. She talks to men
without looking directly in their eyes. What a gracious lady she is” (Page 3).
Unfortunately, it didn’t quite help since Loung didn’t plan on being more feminine with
her mother’s words anyway. Although Loung didn’t quite listen to her mother’s words,
clues in the text suggests that she does admire her mother’s appearance a lot. “Among
her friends, Ma is admired for her height, slender build, and porcelain white skin. I often
overhear them talking about her beautiful face when they think she cannot hear.
Because I’m a child, they feel free to say whatever they want in front of me, believing I
cannot understand. So while they’re ignoring me, they comment on her perfectly arched
eyebrows; almond-shaped eyes; tall, straight Western nose; and oval face” (Page 3).
To her father, she is the exact opposite. Her father seems to understand her
more and they are a lot closer in terms of a father-daughter relationship. “Pa always
defends me- to everybody. He often says that people just don’t understand how
cleverness works in a child and that all these troublesome things I do are actually signs
of strengths and intelligence. Whether or not Pa is right, I believe him. I believe
everything Pa tells me” (Page 4). He believed that she is a smart girl always questioning
about the world she lives in. He is always happy to answer all those questions. “Loung
is too smart and clever for people to understand” (Page 5). He also believed that she
was unique and different from the others. While admiring her mother for her
appearance, she also loved her father for his “generous heart” (Page 4).

2. As Ung tells the story of her father’s profession, overtly historical material
intrudes on the narrative for the first time. In the case of historical memoirs, the
author always faces a choice: whether to tell the story entirely from the
perspective of the person they were at the time, with all the limitations of
perspective that entails; or to embroider the narrative with details the author only
came to understand as an adult. Based upon how she approaches this passage,
how might you describe Ung’s approach to this question? What does her
approach tell us about what we can learn about history from this book?

As Ung tells the story of her father’s profession, she chooses to tell the story
entirely from the perspective of the person she was at that time but with full details and
her inner thoughts. From reading, the readers were able to catch all the historical
information she attempted to incorporate. It was told straight through Loung’s
perspective based on what she had experienced. The information on the historical
material might not be as accurate since she seems to write it through eyes of a five year
old in the beginning of the story. In the beginning everything her family members told
her were believed to be true. She believed each and every bit of it, but as the book
progresses she realizes that some weren’t actually true. People also tend to be a bit
biased by the ways they tell stories so it would be more accurate to look at everything in
general and not sticking to one opinion. The fact that inner thoughts were included
actually helps the reader grasp all the feelings of what it was like back then.
For example the time when the Youns invaded, it gave Loung hope. “All I know is
if the Youns invading Kampuchea could have saved Pa, Ma, Keav, and Geak, I wished
they would have come sooner. When they first arrived, Loung had no idea about what
kind of people they were like and expected them to be like the Khmers. “The Youns
walked toward us and raise their hands in greeting” (Page 172). She never expected
them to be this nice as it shocked her. “...one Youn smiles and says in broken Khmer,
‘Chump reap suor,’ which means ‘hello’ (Page 172). At that time, she had all positive
thoughts about their invasion and that it was a good thing that they did so. But then one
day everything changed her perspective about the Youns. It was the day she was out to
gather firewood with Chou and Pithy. On their way, they were very thirsty and met a
Youn soldier on their journey. The soldier said he could lead them to a water source but
told that only Loung can come. Instead she was fooled and the soldier attempted to
rape her. “I’m never gonig to be that stupid again. I want to report him to the authorities”
(Page 181). From that point onwards, the Youns were never the same friendly people
as she once viewed them. So from this situation, the readers know that one situation
can be looked through the eyes of many people. Furthermore, an event can also be
looked at in different ways from even one person point of view and in this case, Loung.

3. Who are the people the Khmer Rouge considers “uncorrupted model citizens
for their new society”? What does the word ‘corrupted’ seem to mean in this
context?

The people the Khmer Rouge consider “uncorrupted model citizens” is a society
in which every is equal in term of their status in the society and everyone is under
control of the government. In other words, everyone is equally poor except the
government themselves. The citizens live the same way given and treated the same
way to ensure equality. They are forced to eat the same food, wear the same clothes,
and listen to what they were told. They were influenced by their leader of all the positive
comments on what the Angkar was doing to help their lives get better. The reality to it is
that they were all lies and the Angkar never made life easier for them.
The word “corrupted” is a status in which some citizens are more wealthier than
the rest. The advantage to it is that people that are richer would get even more richer. In
the other hand, people that are poorer would get even worst. Corrupted citizens are also
the ones that get educated which marks the point where there isn’t equality.
Uncorrupted citizens don’t get educated and they are forbidden to it. Corrupted citizens
live a luxury life with all the jewelries and everything that are not allowed in the
uncorrupted side.

4. “Though we are all supposed to be equal, there are nonetheless three levels of
citizenship in the village”. What are the three levels of citizenship, and in what
way do these status discriminations either confirm or belie the stated goal of
producing equality among citizens? Why are there status hierarchies even within
the population of New People?

Three levels in the society are the soldiers, base people or old villagers, and the
new people. Soldiers are respected to have the most authority in every area and they
are under the control of Angkar. They have guns and has the power to harm anyone
any time. They are feared by the majority of every villages and everyone is forced to
take orders from them. The base people are those uncorrupted citizens that live in the
countryside since before the Khmer Rouge took over. They were clearly on the Angkar’s
side fully supporting them and the soldiers. The relationship between them and the New
People had to be developed in many ways since they just moved in. The New People
are those of the corrupted citizens from the city migrating in these villages. Most of there
New People are considered corrupted by the fact that they are educated and once lived
a luxurious life. These facts had to be hidden in order for them survive. They have to act
as normal is possible and not get suspected for not being valuable enough to stay alive.
These people in the other words are the lowest class of all.
These statuses fail to produce equality among the citizens. If they wanted
everyone to be equal, they would all be in either one of the statuses. They would be
given the equal amount of authority unlike what is going on. The New People and base
people would be given the same amount of food, shelter, and daily work.
There are status hierarchies even within the population of the New People
because some were favored by the leaders while some don’t. For instance, Loung’s
family was given more food since Kim worked for the leader. Among the New People
some also got educated while some don’t. So there are different statuses among the
New People as well.

5. In what way, if at all, does the death of the first family member seem to change
the author and her family? To what extent and in what manner are they permitted
to grieve for their daughter/sister?

The death of the first family member seem to change the author and her family
greatly due to the fact that she was the first member they had lost. They never knew
what Keav had to faced because she was living separately. After losing the first
member, everyone was grieving for her death and started losing hope. But Pa was there
to remind everyone that they all need to keep their hopes up. “We all have to forget and
continue. We have to go about our ways as if nothing has happened” (Page 100). The
family then no longer talks about Keav and tries not to bring this subject up as it won’t
do any good for them.
They are permitted to grieve for their daughter and sisters to the extent in which
they can still survive. “I cannot listen anymore. I run and run, finding myself heading fo
the woods. There, beneath a large tree, next to a thick bush, I hide from the rest of the
world. Hugging my knees tightly to my chest, I rest my head on my forearms. I cup my
hands over my mouth and scream out in pain over the cruel death of my sister. THe
sound burns into my throat, fighting to be released, but I hold it in as tears stream out of
my eyes” (Page 99).The death of their family members should not make them weaker.
They have to try their best to keep their feelings inside and show them only when
necessary. By showing their inner feelings, they are also harming the other members
and bringing back all those memories. Grieving too much would make them weak and
would somehow lead to death. They are allowed to grieve for them and use it as a
motivation to live life each day.

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I wish I had talked more about the influence that the book could have on me and how
hard it would have been for Loung to go through all she did.

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