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Loss of Innocence and Emotional Strength in Patricia McCormick’s Never Fall Down A keen perception of reality is an integral component in one’s life as it dictates the reaction of an individual in the most distressing times. In Patricia McCormick’s Never Fall Down, an accurate perception of reality stems from the loss of innocence. The author uses text, setting, character and conflict to vividly illustrate that loss of innocence breeds emotional strength.
The setting of the novel, the killing fields of Cambodia, thoroughly exhibits the protagonist’s awareness to suffering. Exposed to sorrow at the tender age of 11, Arn Chorn Pond is highly cognisant of his surroundings. When remembering his displaced family, Arn often repeats an analogy
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Bend low, bend low, then bend lower. The wind blow one way, you bow that way. It blow the other way, you do, too. That is the way to survive” (McCormick, 33). The brittle and weak grass represents “survival” in both, literal and metaphoric contexts. Before the reign of the rebel group, Khmer Rouge, Cambodia is described as a close knit ‘village’ of sorts, with children playing freely amongst nature alongside scenic patches of greenery. In a pre-genocide era, this greenery is a representation of safety and survival – whereby the Cambodians had autonomy over their affairs and security matters. Albeit, after the rebellious ‘revolution’, McCormick brilliantly juxtaposes the landscapes. Arn is keen to note the dirt, mud, dry terrain, foul odour and darkness in the fields. Thus, his formula for survival demonstrates a highly aware understanding of the circumstance. ‘Bending like grass’ depicts an erosion of self-will and the fragility of human life. Moreover, Arn’s heightened understanding can also be …show more content…
His perception of reality changes greatly when he is stripped of his innocence. Despite numerous attempts to comply with the multiple tenets of the revolution, he’s obligated to join the Khmer Rouge as a soldier. Heavily burdened by this task, Arn risks losing his morality and humanity for the sake of survival. He states, “Now I have gun. I feel I am one of the Khmer Rouge. It feels powerful” (112). After months of supressing his will under the reign of the revolutionaries, being on the other side of the battlefield allows him to bask in violence and brutality, using it as a channel to release his tide of emotions involving misused vulnerability, fierce ire, oppression and grief. Arn becomes a killing machine – a clear consequence of the excruciating abuse he suffered. His past shaped his perception of reality whereby his supressed emotions crippled his ability to perceive optimistically. He states, “Long time I been on my own, but now really I'm alone. I survive the killing, the starving, all the hate of the Khmer Rouge, but I think maybe now I will die of this, of broken heart” (110). Arn’s crippling unleashes a plethora of feelings, each more overwhelming than the next. His impulsive retaliation by killing and imposing death only cripples him further by clouding his judgement. He’s caught in a blind rage, unable to feel or think clearly. It’s only after discovering that his sister
The definition of compassion: sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. As this definition shows compassion shows concern for other that every person would love to have. In The Chosen written by Chaim Potok, Mr. Potok really presents compassion in his book. Not only does he display compassion in one of his character but in every single one he gives them compassion that is expressed in different ways. He goes into detail example of compassion with each of his characters and really emphasizes the true meaning of compassion. Three main character that he shows compassion through in different ways are, Reuven, Mr. Malter and Reb Sanders.
The Power of an Author Authors have the ability justify the worst actions. Authors have a way of romanticizing certain situations in order to convey a specific message. A good author has power to influence the reader into believing whatever it is the author wants. When it comes to the story of Hannah Dustan, authors such as John Greenleaf Whittier have romanticized her captivity story along with the actions she took throughout her journey. Introducing a character that will be seen in the story is one of the most vital parts when creating a piece of literature.
The violent nature that the soldiers acquired during their tour in Vietnam is one of O'Brien's predominant themes in his novel. By consciously selecting very descriptive details that reveal the drastic change in manner within the men, O'Brien creates within the reader an understanding of the effects of war on its participants. One of the soldiers, "Norman Bowler, otherwise a very gentle person, carried a Thumb. . .The Thumb was dark brown, rubbery to touch. . . It had been cut from a VC corpse, a boy of fifteen or sixteen"(O'Brien 13). Bowler had been a very good-natured person in civilian life, yet war makes him into a very hard-mannered, emotionally devoid soldier, carrying about a severed finger as a trophy, proud of his kill. The transformation shown through Bowler is an excellent indicator of the psychological and emotional change that most of the soldiers undergo. To bring an innocent young man from sensitive to apathetic, from caring to hateful, requires a great force; the war provides this force. However, frequently are the changes more drastic. A soldier named "Ted Lavender adopted an orphaned puppy. . .Azar strapped it to a Claymore antipersonnel mine and squeezed the firing device"(O'Brien 39). Azar has become demented; to kill a puppy that someone else has adopted is horrible. However, the infliction of violence has become the norm of behavior for these men; the fleeting moment of compassion shown by one man is instantly erased by another, setting order back within the group. O'Brien here shows a hint of sensitivity among the men to set up a startling contrast between the past and the present for these men. The effect produced on the reader by this contrast is one of horror; therefore fulfilling O'Brien's purpose, to convince the reader of war's severely negative effects.
Duong’s novel depicts a Vietnam caught up from the 1950’s through the 1980’s in turmoil and chaos. Many of the ‘land owning class’ were forced to flee their homeland or were sentenced to forced labour camps, this is shown in the novel through the characters Aunt Tam and her brother Ton, both dispossessed of their property. Through Paradise of the Blind Duong is able to personalise the struggles of the working class during these times of political change and criticise the Vietnamese government, “Their fate hung from a thread; and just as an overripe fruit hangs from a branch, they could fall at any moment.” The comparison made between one’s fate and an overripe fruit that could fall at any moment depicts the power that the government had over the people and the many injustices that can occur. Despite doing no wrong, their social class is enough for them to be considered the enemy. This mirrors the lives of the Untouchables in The God of Small Things, namely Velutha whose future is determined by his social status. Duong adopts many differing literary techniques to criticise the actions of the Vietnamese government during the 1950s, “You say our dances are decadent. But haven’t you done some dancing yourself? Invisible dances, infinitely more decadent than ours.” Here Duong compares western style dance and music to the fraudulent actions of
by Patricia McCormick there are many similies throughout the book that give more detail and insight into what is happening during the Cambodian Genocide. Arn, a young boy living in Cambodia witnessed many horrible and tragic things throughout the 4 year time period. Arn says, “That pile, now it’s like a mountain” This quote indicates that during the genocide millions of people were brutally murdered and put into mass graves. Arn sees dirt piles and sees them rapidly start to grow which means more and more people are getting killed and put into mass graves. Shortly after Arn describes the growth of the dirt piles as a mountain. Arn’s aunt tells him to, “Be like the grass” Arn’s aunt means that in order to survive you can’t show any emotion. She means to go where ever the wind takes you, Instead of the wind though it’s Khmer Rouge. She is telling Arn to not show any emotion and to do whatever the Khmer Rouge says if you want to have a chance to survive. Arn witnesses the killing of hundrends of innocent people. Arn explains, “Terrible sound, like cracking a coconut, only its a human head.” This quote compares the sound of a coconut being cracked upen to the sound of a human head being hit by an axe. Arn explains that they sound similar. Throughout the entire genocide 3 million people were killed. Arn was one of the lucky ones and listened to what his aunt said and played
“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” ― Albert Einstein. In The Chosen by Chaim Potok, there stands one main character that voices the book and leads the readers through the story. Teenage Reuven Malter is dedicated to his religious studies and at school. In one unlikely event, he meets his new friend who has a different religion from him. Reuven gains a new friend and learns about this other religion. He possesses character qualities that make him a very likeable character. His maturity is generous for his age. The three main character traits that Reuven possesses are curiosity, knowledge, and reflectiveness.
Days at the work camp subjected Arn to some of the worst visuals to ever be seen by a human being. For example one day Arn noticed that some people working with him began to complain about missing family or home, and to sadly say those people were never seen again. Which taught Arn the cruelty of these men, and also to hide any emotion deep inside himself in hopes the Khmer Rouge might let him live. Another thing Arn had to cope with physically, and mentally was the fact that he knew what would happen if he'd stop working. After seeing one of the workers next to him fall down, and be dragged off by the Khmer Rouge Arn began in this next quote to have a phrase he could always look back to if he ever felt like he was going to give up. “Over, and over I tell myself one thing: never fall down” (Patricia McCormick 42). Arn needed to realize this fact very early in his encampment because he knew if he ever fell down he just end up like the rest of the dead boys, and
In the passages “Red Cranes” by Jacey Choy and “The Friefly Hunt” by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, the authors present two characters that share many characteristics. The authors portray two different characters that come together with the main thought of imagination. Through this imagination, the characters can be seen as very similar. After careful analysis of both passages, the reader can decipher how each attribute of each character can be related back to each other.
Martha Gellhorn’s “Civilian Casualties in South Vietnam” is describing the Vietnam war and its effect on South Vietnamese civilians. In the text, Gellhorn describes the psychological and physical effect of napalms and mines on civilians. She is also trying to create empathy among Americans by describing the side effect of napalm bombing
People are defined by the choices they make. In Vietnam, Bruce Weigl was forced to kill the enemy, and although this is bad, he didn’t have a choice. If he hadn’t killed his enemy, then they would have killed him. In “Snowy Egret” by Weigl, a boy kills an innocent bird. Unlike in Vietnam, this boy had no pressure. However, what the two have in common, is how things in life don’t really turn out to be what is expected. The boy shot the bird because he thought it would be fun; instead, he felt regret, anger, and fear for what he had done. Weigl can relate to the boy because in Vietnam they were “destroying” what they “didn’t understand”. Three of the scenes Weigl describes are the boy’s regret, the boy’s family problems, and how the boy changes through this experience; these three scenes cause the reader to feel pity, fear and anger.
We understand that the author’s purpose is to show how degraded he feels by the events that took place that morning in Burma.
“Wake up, wake up, son. We must leave now.” He opened his eyes and looked outside; it was still very dark and rainy. “Where are we going, Mom?” he asked while crawling out of bed sleepily. When they left the house for the train station, it was only four o’ clock in the morning, and the boy thought that his family was going to visit their grandparents whom he had not seen for ten years. The next morning, they arrived in Nha Trang, a coastal city in Central Vietnam, where his father told him that they would stay for a while before going to the next destination. They went to live in the house of an acquaintance near the fish market. Every day they would stay inside the house and would go out only when it was absolutely necessary, especially the kids who now had to learn how to be quiet. They learned how to walk tip-toe and to talk by finger pointing; few sounds were made. Every sound was kept to the minimum so the neighbors and the secret police would not be aware that there were new people in town.
The Killings Fields is a chilling film about the Cambodian genocide and the regime of the Khmer Rouge. Released in 1984, five years after the end of Pol Pot’s reign, the film tries to capture the chaos, devastation, and unrelenting violence that occurred in Cambodia a country that was thrown into conflict by the reverberations of the Vietnam War. Throughout the film, thoughts of fear and violence flood the viewer through scenes of bombings and guerrilla warfare to the dangerous score that plays behind Pran’s time in the labor camp. The Killing Fields uses understated depictions of violence to show the viewer how it affected the Cambodians and to explain how genocides occur as a whole.
Mr. Pointer seems to be yet another good country person who is trying to make a humble living by selling bibles to good country folk like himself. On just another day of his job he is presented with the Hopewell family, an opportunity to fulfill his day job and his desires. During his interaction with the Hopewell family he is indirectly introduced to a blindly prideful woman named Joy. By taking notice of this Pointer is able to play on Joys pride by comforting her and acting as if he is an ignorant man to get what he wants.
First They Killed My Father is a memoir of a survivor who is one of seven children of a important government official. Loung lived a privileged life in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh until the age of 5. Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into the city, forcing Ung's family to flee and, eventually, to disperse or separate. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, her siblings were sent to labor camps, and those who survived the horrors would not be reunited until the Khmer Rouge was destroyed. Loung Ung, the main character and the author of this thrilling yet depressing memoir takes us on an unforgettable journey of being a childhood survivor of the Khmer Rouge killing fields, emphasizing the human capability to survive even at times of crime and war. Innocent children that live in a country torn apart by war are forced to grow up much too quickly because they have to face experiences and bear burdens that no human being ever should.