Transcript First They Killed My Father

First They Killed My Father
By Loung Ung
(C) 2000
Ellen Gotelli
Rustin period 3
5/18/11
Khmer Rouge Ensures YOUR
freedom
Trust in the Angkar! They
will deliver us from the
Youns and the
Americans! Join the many
good people who
support the Angkar!
Return Cambodia to its
former glory under the
Angkar!
Bandwagon propaganda, Glittering
generalities propaganda, Transfer
Propaganda
1975-1980
1975- Khmer Rouge takes over
all government affairs and
evacuates Phnom Penh is
evacuated, Loung is 5 years old
May 1977- Loung is forced to
leave home and find an
orphan camp.
January 1976-loung and
her family are moved to
a labor camp.
January 1979Vietnam invades and
stops the genocide.
November 1977Loung visits her
November 1975- Loung and
mother for the last
her family arrive in Ro leap
time.
April 1975- Loung
December 1976- Loungs
Ung and her family
November 1978father is taken away by
arrive in Krang
Loung’s mother
soldiers and killed.
Truoup
and sister Geak are
August 1976-Loung’s sister
killed by Khmer
Keav dies of food poisoning
Rouge soldiers.
Passion of the Dragon
The father dragon points to world below,
It is yours red dragon,
Passionate young dragon, egotistical in her ways,
The world was hers,
She must grasp it.
Then they came,
They tore her passion,
They stomped on her heart,
they robbed her of herself.
The evil spirits,
They took all of it.
Who is the passionate dragon?
Where did she fly to?
She must not be the battered creature in the corner.
A once passionate soul is stripped of its once exuberant spirit.
Passion of the dragon (continued)
Young dragon where did your fire go?
Where did your sense of ownership of your own being go.
The little dragon did not know.
It was only when the bad spirits left that she was given the chance,
To better understand herself.
little dragon,
Where did you go.
I am still here,
She cries,
Where ever passion lies,
The red dragon is not far behind.
Symbolism
•
The symbolism of the color red is consistent throughout the book, red symbolizes passion. As
the book goes on, red is seen in blood shed making this symbolism almost inverted form of
itself. Red goes from being Loung, the passionate dragon, to blood, lacking the passion of the
soul behind the physical body. As blood runs from the bodies the passion behind living just
one more day. These mass graves with red blood everywhere the people who are dead now
lack the living mortal passion we possess as humans. This makes seeing the passion draining
from the bodies just a little more horrifying in context. These people are no longer dead
people, they are people with their passion stripped of them pouring out into the open.
More symbolism!
•
The symbolism of the color black is also prevalent throughout the book black
is symbolism for evil and the growing evil around Loung. At one point of the
book Loung is attempting to ingest coal, which is black. Loung is also “eating”
or “attempting to eat” the evil thoughts fed to her by the Khmer Rouge and
the Met Bong. Its also worth pointing out that the clothing everyone is forced
to wear is black. This is like the evil that is being forced on them all the time. It
surrounds them all the time, and it becomes as much of daily routine as
putting on their black pants.
Dynamic Characters
Loung starts out the novel as an innocent kind young
child. She quickly matures due to the difficult
circumstances and by the end of the book is filled with
lots of hatred for all the things that hurt her while
Cambodia was ruled by the Khmer Rouge.
Kim at the beginning of the novel, is the second
oldest son. In the novel, Pa passes the father
archetype to Kim. By the end Kim is providing for
himself and his sisters.
Cambodia itself almost becomes a character in its own right.
Cambodia is a mature developing country and by the end its
struggling and war torn. Cambodia acts like a child left with an
immature, possibly even ignorant, babysitter. While with this
care taker, it falls and breaks its leg, it has to now recover. When
Cambodia’s friend Vietnam sees what happened, the
babysitter’s power is taken away. Cambodia must now heal and
learn to live with its past. Cambodia now deals with the
aftermath including mass graves and land mines.