The main message in “First They Killed My Father” is that life is not always fair. This is abundantly clear to see for Loung Ung and her entire family. She narrowly survived the Khmer Rouge regime of Cambodia, while her father (Sem Im Ung), mother (Ay Choung Ung), sisters (Keav and Geak), and cats were not nearly as lucky. My first example of this being the main message in the book was when they had to leave their five pet cats in the city. Kim tells Loung, when asked what will happen to them, that “Well, somebody is probably having them for dinner by now!” (pg. 25) This instance broke my heart even though he was kidding because I can only imagine that happening to me and my pet cat, Simba. I would be so very sad if I had to leave him helpless while I moved to another city. Surprisingly enough though, she did not seem too distraught when her older brother said that. The second example is when the Ankgar soldiers requested that Pa help them. When he went with them, everybody knew that there was a slim chance of him ever returning again. Loung summed it up best when she said, “We all know that Pa will not return, but no one dares say it out loud for it will shatter our illusion of hope” (pg. 105) This experience was devastating for the entire family, not only …show more content…
She immediately went into shock and lost memory of where she was or what had happened for three entire days. When I read this, it made me want to cry. I cannot imagine my mother and sister being executed by the government for doing absolutely nothing wrong. This situation is emotional to anybody who has even a sliver of a heart. Luong later said that “Now it is all real. How I no longer have to pretend to be an orphan.” (pg. 164) This part in the book best shows the main message because it is the perfect example that life is not fair all the
It was times throughout the book the reader would be unsure if the children would even make it. For example, “Lori was lurching around the living room, her eyebrows and bangs all singed off…she had blisters the length of her thighs”(178).Both Lori and Jeannette caught fire trying to do what a parent is supposed to do for their child. Jeannette caught fire at the age of three trying to make hotdogs because her mother did not cook for her leaving Jeannette to spend weeks hospitalized. She was burnt so bad she had to get a skin graft, the doctors even said she was lucky to be alive. The children never had a stable home. They were very nomadic and a child should be brought up to have one stable home. No child should remember their childhood constantly moving. This even led to Maureen not knowing where she come from because all she can remember is her moving. The children had to explain to her why she looked so different is because where she was born. They told Maureen “she was blond because she’d been born in a state where so much gold have been mined, and she had blue eyes the color of the
The Murderers Are Among Us, directed by Wolfe Gang Staudte, is the first postwar film. The film takes place in Berlin right after the war. Susan Wallner, a young women who has returned from a concentration camp, goes to her old apartment to find Hans Mertens living there. Hans took up there after returning home from war and finding out his house was destroyed. Hans would not leave, even after Susan returned home. Later on in the film we find out Hans was a former surgeon but can no longer deal with human suffering because of his traumatic experience in war. We find out about this traumatic experience when Ferdinand Bruckner comes into the film. Bruckner, Hans’ former captain, was responsible for killing hundreds
Even though this meant that she would not be able to see or interact with her children for all that time. The pain that she feels is evident when she says, “ At last I heard the merry laugh of children, and presently two sweet little faces were looking up at me, as though they knew I were there, and were conscious of the joy that imparted. How I longed to tell them I was there”(97). She tolerated being locked away in an enclosed dark space for 7 long years in order to free her children from the current master that owned them as slaves, showing how having someone to put ahead of yourself makes you stronger and more resilient as a
...cts of the mother and the descriptions, which are presented to us from her, are very conclusive and need to be further examined to draw out any further conclusions on how she ?really? felt. The mother-daughter relationship between the narrator and her daughter bring up many questions as to their exact connection. At times it seems strong, as when the narrator is relating her childhood and recounting the good times. Other times it is very strained. All in all the connection between the two seems to be a very real and lifelike account of an actual mother-daughter relationship.
June-May receives a letter from her twin sisters shortly after her mother’s death. However, her sisters do not know their mother is dead and have been searching for her for years. June-May takes the letter to Auntie Lindo who writes back pretending to be their mother and says that they are coming to visit. June-May protests saying “They’ll think I’m responsible, that she died because I didn’t appreciate her,” (Tan 149). She believes that her sisters will hate her when she shows up without their mother and has to announce her death. As a result, Auntie Lindo writes back announcing the passing of the mother and announces that instead their sister, June-May, will be coming. It is during this trip that June-May fulfills her mother’s dream, “carrying with me her dreams of coming home. I am going to China,” (Tan 147). By doing this she gains another part of her mother. However, it is when June-May reunites with her sisters that she fully becomes one wi...
She honored her parents as she should, but longed for them to pass. In the beginning of the story she said "I had never expected my parents to take so long to die.” She had taken care of them all of her life she was in her fifty’s and her parents in their ninety’s. She was ready to live and break free of all the rules and duties put upon her, they were like chains binding her and holding her down. She was ready to explore to go on journeys and adventures she was already aging all she wanted was to be free. Her parents’ death let her run free, she left Hong Kong to start over and maybe find love, in any way possible, maybe even through food or luxuries. She wanted to be rebellious of her parents I’m sure she knew they wouldn’t approve but she didn’t care she wanted change. All her life she had followed so many rules, she had to fight to teach, to learn, to be with friends, her fight was finally over. She now had no one to rebel against, she now had the freedom to
... her with joy this sense is only experienced while being confined in her bedroom. And as soon as she leaves her room, the freedom she’d just begun to understand is now taken away from her in an instant. She actually died of sorrow and great disappointment of her husband’s return as he waited at the front door.
As the women narrate the harm caused by men, they lose track of the beings that they once were and become different people in order to cause a reaction in others. These women are hurt in ways that cause them to change their way of living. The Lady in Blue becomes afraid of what others will think of her because a man impregnated her: “i cdnt have people [/] lookin at me [/] pregnant [/] I cdnt have my friends see this” (Shange, Abortion Cycle # 1 Lines 14- 16). Instead of worrying about the life of her child, she worries about how her...
I knew that we were taught their language in school; I knew that we went to different churches, but I did not know that we were enemies” (Bagdasarian 9). Loung had a very similar experience at the beginning of her book, First They Killed My Father, where she was asking her dad many questions about what was going on since she did not even know that there was a war at the age of five. Each child had times where they struggled because they were so young during these tough times. Five-year-old, Loung even had trouble in her sleep because of the war she told the reader, “The nights when I do not dream of family, I have nightmares of something or someone trying to kill me” (Ung 140). She is so young that being separated from her family is having some very negative effects and causing her to worry greatly about them and fear that she will be killed in the brutal ways that they were killed. Fictional character Vahan is also very worried in his youth that they will kill him as they killed his father, or his brother, or his grandmother. No one should have to fear this, especially these young children who live with this fear for the rest of their lives. Because of the genocides, both of them lost many friends and family members; this made it so that they had to become more independent than the average child.
On the surface the message is don’t be afraid to be different . The story is told from the perspective of Joy Harjo , which allows the reader to know that the memoir was written with real life experiances .
With the final lines give us a better understanding of her situation, where her life has been devoured by the children. As she is nursing the youngest child, that sits staring at her feet, she murmurs into the wind the words “They have eaten me alive.” A hyperbolic statement symbolizing the entrapment she is experiencing in the depressing world of motherhood.
While reading the poem the reader can imply that the father provides for his wife and son, but deals with the stress of having to work hard in a bad way. He may do what it takes to make sure his family is stable, but while doing so he is getting drunk and beating his son. For example, in lines 1 and 2, “The whisky on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy” symbolizes how much the father was drinking. He was drinking so much, the scent was too much to take. Lines 7 and 8, “My mother’s countenance, Could not unfrown itself.” This helps the reader understand the mother’s perspective on things. She is unhappy seeing what is going on which is why she is frowning. Although she never says anything it can be implied that because of the fact that the mother never speaks up just shows how scared she could be of her drunk husband. Lines 9 and 10, “The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle”, with this line the reader is able to see using imagery that the father is a hard worker because as said above his knuckle was battered. The reader can also take this in a different direction by saying that his hand was battered from beating his child as well. Lastly, lines 13 and 14, “You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt” As well as the quote above this quote shows that the father was beating his child with his dirty hand from all the work the father has
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
Her family life is depicted with contradictions of order and chaos, love and animosity, conventionality and avant-garde. Although the underlying story of her father’s dark secret was troubling, it lends itself to a better understanding of the family dynamics and what was normal for her family. The author doesn’t seem to suggest that her father’s behavior was acceptable or even tolerable. However, the ending of this excerpt leaves the reader with an undeniable sense that the author felt a connection to her father even if it wasn’t one that was desirable. This is best understood with her reaction to his suicide when she states, “But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him. Maybe it was the converse of the way amputees feel pain in a missing limb.” (pg. 399)
“First They Killed My Father” bears upon a happy families world turning upside down when they had to evacuate from their beautiful home in Phnom Penh. The Ung family lived in an apartment building in the uppertown of Phnom Penh were the more wealthy people lived.Father, Sem Im Ung worked for the government so he earned enough money to support 7 of his children and his wife considering she doesn't work. The main character and also the author of this book tells the readers about her tough journey to survive the war.