Monday, March 15, 2010
First They Killed My Father
As a read Ms. Ung's story of surviving the war in Cambodia, I am continually amazed at the strength she had as a child to endure the pain of hunger and the loss of her family members. Her description of her family, especially her father, allows the audience to share in her emotions while getting to know her character. The way that she describes her hunger and the malnourished state of her family creates such a clear picture in my mind. I feel that I can see their suffering. Also, because this book is a first hand account told in the perspective of a child, I feel that the story is told in a more honest and straightforward manner than the first book we read.
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I absolutely agree. What I loved most about this book was the fact that it was told through the eyes of a 5 year old. By recounting her experiences with such a perspective, Ung is successful in relating the horrific experiences that she faced. This helps the reader truly understand the misery and wretchedness of the Cambodian genocide. As I read about Ung's childhood, I naturally began to reminisce to a time when I was 5 years old, and by comparing my very fortunate childhood experiences with her horrific ones, my heart began to ache. While reading the narrator's words, it often slipped my mind just how young she was while she was faced with such adversity. Upon remembering that the experiences were those of a naïve child, I was reminded of her remarkable maturity and enduring courage. I like the simple way in which she presents her emotions. I will never be able to genuinely empathize with Ung because I have never been so unjustly traumatized and anguished. However, she recounted her childhood struggles with such a candid perspective that I felt harrowing grief for all that Ung had lost.
ReplyDeleteI am currently a little more than half way through with First They Killed My Father, and from my reading so far, I was also extremely touched by the fact that the story is narrated by a 5 year old girl. As a result of the story being narrated in the present tense, everyone is able to connect with Loung's age when she is going through the horrific events. I have a 5 year old sister myself, and I kept picturing her having to go through what Loung went through. I still can't believe the strength that Loung had at such a young age.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Ung's depiction of her suffering created a candid and believable perspective. I have to admit that when I began reading this book, I "judged it by its cover" and expected to have trouble getting through it because of the title. However, her tone immediately won me over, and her young character captivated my interest throughout the entire story. Despite the tragedy, cruelty and hardship Ung endures, I really enjoyed her memoir, and I hope to read more of the work.
ReplyDeleteI found myself wondering why I was flying through her vivid descriptions with so much interest, and I eventually realized that Ung's constant reiteration of her anger and passion toward the Khmer Rouge allowed me as a reader to admire her and hang tightly to her words. The simplistic repetition of her alarming yet child-like desire to kill actually made her more endearing to me, because she displayed strength, imagination, and emotional perseverance. Ung wrote with a spirited and authentic voice as she described her constant desire to survive and exact revenge, even as she explained the most tragic moments in her story. Ung's voice is so strong that I do not remember the hopeless moments, only the determined insights of a child growing up among atrocity.
Loung's First They Killed My Father was an extremely moving and devastating read. Apart from the tone and voice which have been discussed already, there were a few aspects and scenes in the book which really stuck out. The title bothered me for a while, as the actual death of the father was far from the first tragedy. I later realized that to the young Loung, the loss of her father's jubilant personality was the first event which stood out to her. Although the civil war had been going on for some time before it reached Phnom Penh, Loung was unaware until her father rapidly turned into a serious person. In one of their first locations, Loung's thoughts of her puppy are also shocking, and clearly show how starvation was completely changing her. She remembered the dog's death, but immediately admits how if the puppy was with them then, she would have eaten it. The pictures half-way through the book were quite a relief to me, as I could finally stop stressing over who would survive and die in the Ung family. I also found it interesting how Loung was able to keep her sanity by focusing all thoughts on revenge. She admits several times how without these, she would have completely lost her desire to live.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading, or even thinking about these constant tragedies, it's always difficult to know how to move on. How can we go on normally? Nothing feels as if it has any importance.
"Phnom Penh city wakes early to take advantage of the cool morning breeze before the sun breaks through the haze and invades the country with sweltering heat." I found the first sentence to be both eloquent and foreboding, as having known the basis for the book, I spotted the parallel of the invasion of the red-hot sun into the relative peace of Loung's world.
ReplyDeleteHer diction is simple - uncomplicated diction, straightforward listing and reiteration, almost methodical.
What is most compelling, however, is her amazing sensory acuity. Everything is impressed on this small child, and I know from my own experiences that many memories most vividly recalled are associated with sensory perceptions, and this helps add credibility to Loung's recall. She is as descriptive as a child of five could be - as Alexa says, she does attempt to take on the complex emotions only her matured siblings and parents are able to. However, instead of that being a weakness, it is a great strength. Her emotions possess her, giver her energy, strength. Her straightforward thinking and emotional reactions are lucid and untainted by whimsical wordplay or abstract pondering. I agree that the first-person perspective lends a great deal to her ethos: her manner of 'speaking' to the reader and her ability to recount her life is much more believable and likeable than Seierstad's third-person account.
I completely agree. The dramatic irony that Ung employs in this book evokes the most pathos. The reader knows what is going on politically because of history classes and because Ung describes her brothers' explanations for the Khmer Rouge's actions, which she cannot understand. Ung is ignorant of what is going on, yet she knows that she has to endure and keep quiet in order to save her family, which strengthens the reader's sympathy for her.
ReplyDeleteTo reference what Alexa touched on, this book is definitely an easier and more interesting read than Bookseller, but I had to put it down many times because it was too graphic and painful to read. One can truly comprehend how savagely Ung's family has to live, especially because of the detail Ung goes into when talking about her starvation; it hurt me to read how dreadful her starvation pains were.
Like Carly touched on, I kept trying to relate myself as a five year old to Ung, and I can barely imagine enduring everything she describes throughout this book. To see so many people die right before one's eyes is terrible enough as an adult, let alone as a five year old child. One of the most striking parts to me was when she depicted her numbness to all of the dead people she saw. She experienced so much at such a young age that no one should have to see at any age.
After having read A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Child Soldier by Ishmael Beah last year, the resonance this book has as I read it is noticeably increased. This book reminds me of that one a great deal, particularly in the choice of a child narrator. Where the distinction lies most for me, aside from the fact that these books account two different genocides, is that where Beah becomes a child soldier, Loung is a victim through and through. Her words are almost painful to read as the story progresses. Another effective tool she uses beyond her first person child narrator, is the tone of connection between the people of the land she lives in and the land itself. From the first sentence of the novel, it's clear to the reader that every person in Cambodia, specifically Phnom Penh is connected and the city is nothing more than a culmination of its parts. As the citizens are slaughtered the city descends further into collapse in a terrifying spectacle of self destruction. Her narration manages to keep the reader focused intensely on this one family of individuals, but this undertone of connection between the city and its people allows the scope of this tragedy to take full effect on the reader. This is one of the most moving and impressive uses of ethos I have ever seen. Yet, while all this is happening, I have to agree with Julie. There is an overwhelming amount of logic and pathos in the novel as well. More than anything, the book never stops being unadulterated and extremely real. It's more than a history book about genocide, it's a diary of genocide.
ReplyDeleteI agree. This book was so emotionally extreme: shocking and tragic and at times, deeply joyful. The fact that Ung was five at the time made the book all the more heartwrenching. Ung didn't miss a single detail and recorded the horrors of genocide honestly and bluntly. She didn't sugarcoat anything and readers see the appalling slaughter and starvation in great detail. Ung's startling honesty made this book really hard to read at times- I found myself having to take a break intermittently. Ung's anger and confusion at losing her family members followed by her urge to kill the Khmer Rouge soldiers was also heartwrenching. No child should have to see so many loved ones die at that age. I really admired Ung's scrappy attitude towards life: even after losing her father, mother, and two sisters, and being torn apart from her family, Ung managed to survive and face life. This book really opened my eyes, but unlike Bookseller, it was honest and blunt rather than calculated. It was also written from first-hand experience so it was defnitely more shocking that Seierstad's account of life in Afghanistan.
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