“From 1975 to 1979 - through execution, starvation, disease, and forced labor - the Khmer Rouge systematically killed an estimated two million Cambodians, almost a fourth of the country's population” (Ung 5). This is a quote from Ung, a survivor of the Cambodian genocide and the author of the book First They Killed My Father. In this quote, Ung talks about four horrific years of her life living under the reign of the Khmer Rouge. During the reign of the Khmer Rouge, millions of innocent lives and those who survived, such as Ung, were left traumatized. Just like Ung, in the book The Gangster We Were All Looking For, the protagonist, a young Vietnamese girl is also left traumatized due to the wake of war in Vietnam. The protagonist later immigrates to San Diego, …show more content…
This is important due to the fact that Ung is alone this time and her father's memories play a key role in supporting her. When Ung says “his arms holding me, protecting me” inside of her mind, the memories of her father cause Ung to subconsciously think about surviving because of words being used such as “protecting.” The memories of Ung’s father give her support and comfort, which causes Ung to adapt to living in a lonely environment, which motivates her to survive. Like Ung, the narrator of the book The Gangster We Were All Looking For also lives in a lonely environment. When the protagonist is thinking about another time in her life when her father and her had a comforting relationship she says, “Ba and I would go for walks around the neighborhood and stop to look at the window displays”(Thy 111). In this memory, the narrator and ba are spending time with each other and bonding at night. This memory plays a key role in the protagonist adapting to her lonely surroundings in a new country. Every time the protagonist says “Ba and I” the narrator refers to her father and her
This novel uttered this through the reoccurring theme of mateship between the two main characters. Throughout the novel, the author has expressed no one will be able to overcome stress and mishaps in life, without a hold of mateship with one another. The relationships with people are interesting as many people in society go through the same thing. The author wrote this for the reason that it is the way humanity was born. No matter if ones cheat or get someone pregnant, people can always related and help you.
In the story of the Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale possesses more guilt and fear than any other character portrayed within this fascinating book by Nathaniel Hawthorne. There are many examples that make this theory evident: by him putting off his confession about his act of passion, it results in a woman being punished and set apart from the rest of civilization, all while dealing with his moral obligations as a pastor and finally comparing him to the other major male character within the story. Even with his abundant knowledge of what is right and wrong, Dimmesdale attempts to rationalize his mistakes and reason to himself throughout the story that what he is doing is best for everyone. Is this a only a sign of just fear or hypocrisy
“To Kill a Mockingbird” is a novel by Harper Lee, that teaches many themes, one of which being very important is courage. Many people think that courage is a man with a gun in his hand, but Lee’s definition is much different. She thinks that courage is when you know that you’re beaten before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. The first quote I have to further explain this is early in the story when Atticus tells Jem and Scout about the court case he is handling. “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win” (Lee 101). Atticus knows he won’t win the court case, but he still tries his best and doesn’t falter whatsoever. Many people scrutinize him for defending a negro, but he ignores them like he should, and shows maturity and courage.
...an forget” to poignantly highlight the protagonist’s struggle to reclaim these memories. The protagonist’s suggestion to his brother, “We can find a new place” metaphorically represents recognition that he is unable to reignite his passion for the river. Like Billy, the protagonist must re-establish his personal sense of belonging as he begins his journey into adulthood. Therefore, experiences can initiate change contributing to one’s understanding and relationship with people and the environment.
Between 1975 and 1979, Pol Pot-the leader of the Khmer Rouge followed Maoist communism, which they thought they could create an agrarian utopia. Agrarian means that the society was based on agriculture. They wanted all members of society to be rural agricultural workers and killed intellectuals, who had been depraved by western capitalist ideas. A utopia means a perfect society. This idea went to extremes when The Khmer Rouge resumed that only pure people were qualified to build the revolution. They killed Cambodians without reasons by uncivilized actions such as: cutting heads, burying alive… There were about 1.7 million people killed by the Khmer Rouge.
“When we had first seen the apartment, I created stories in my head of The relationship we’d establish with our cohabitants.” (Schmitt 128). This she found to be strictly imagined shortly after moving. Schmitt took in many considerations as to why she could not form a relationship with her neighbors and she pulled the reader in with how persistent she was to wanting to have a connection with the different people around her. Schmitt told details of the ceremony. The emotions of the reader is tied when she attends the funeral of the old man. “ She wailed, her voice broke, and then she repeated it, “Baba, Baba.” In the front row, her three sisters joined the chorus.” (Schmitt 130) , this shows the loss of someone who was clearly loved by many. Schmitt mentions that this drags her emotions in as well (Schmitt 130), she made the grandfather a part of her own feelings and put into perspective how hard it is to lose someone. This also connects emotion to the reader because it helps the reader connect to the story. Everyone has lost someone and putting in her input and not just the input of the chinese really makes a connection with one who is reading. By the end of the story Schmitt ends up making friendships finally with the people around her. She explains everything that she begins doing with her
In the commencement of the story, the narrator is shocked and in disbelief about the news of his brother’s incarceration, “It was not to be believed” (83). It had been over a year since he had seen his brother, but all he had was memories of him, “This would always be at a moment when I was remembering some specific thing Sonny had once said or done” (83). The narrator’s thoughts about Sonny triggered his anxiety that very day. It was difficult to bear the news of what his brother had become, yet at some point he could relate to Sonny on a personal level, “I hear my brother. And myself” (84). After the news had spurred, the narrator experienced extreme anxiety to the point of sweating. Jus...
...arding their personal experience with loneliness. In the end, the novel comes to say that humans are most happy when they are able to confide in others for protection and advice.
reflects upon the theme of the novel. As it highlights the fact that if people in the society
The hope to survive is shown through the author’s use of figurative language. For example, Gerda listening to her parents’ conversation about her father leaving on the train the next morning brings her strength. Her parents’ love and courage sustains Gerda through the happy
The Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975, which lasted until January 1979. For their three-year, eight-month, and twenty-one day rule of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge committed some of the most heinous crimes in current history. The main leader who orchestrated these crimes was a man named Pol Pot. In 1962, Pol Pot had become the coordinator of the Cambodian Communist Party. The Prince of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk, did not approve of the Party and forced Pol Pot to flee to exile in the jungle. There, Pol formed a fortified resistance movement, which became known as the Khmer Rouge, and pursued a guerrilla war against Sihanouk’s government. As Pol Pot began to accumulate power, he ruthlessly imposed an extremist system to restructure Cambodia. Populations of Cambodia's inner-city districts were vacated from their homes and forced to walk into rural areas to work. All intellectuals and educated people were eradicated and together with all un-communist aspects of traditional Cambodian society. The remaining citizens were made to work as laborers in various concentration camps made up of collective farms. On these farms, people would harvest the crops to feed their camps. For every man, woman, and child it was mandatory to labor in the fields for twelve to fifteen hours each day. An estimated two million people, or twenty-one percent of Cambodia's population, lost their lives and many of these victims were brutally executed. Countless more of them died of malnourishment, fatigue, and disease. Ethnic groups such as the Vietnamese, Chinese, and Cham Muslims were attacked, along with twenty other smaller groups. Fifty percent of the estimated 425,000 Chinese living in Cambod...
In the beginning of Beah’s memoir, the tone was suspenseful. When Beah’s village was under attack by rebels, his family had to escape, while he was with his brother and friends in another city. During that time, he had to fend for himself and try to survive out in the open, without his parents, along with his brother and friends. Eventually, Beah was separated from his brother and friends and was all alone. “I walked for two days
... overall themes, and the use of flashbacks. Both of the boys in these two poems reminisce on a past experience that they remember with their fathers. With both poems possessing strong sentimental tones, readers are shown how much of an impact a father can have on a child’s life. Clearly the two main characters experience very different past relationships with their fathers, but in the end they both come to realize the importance of having a father figure in their lives and how their experiences have impacted their futures.
The Cambodian Genocide has the historical context of the Vietnam War and the country’s own civil war. During the Vietnam War, leading up to the conflicts that would contribute to the genocide, Cambodia was used as a U.S. battleground for the Vietnam War. Cambodia would become a battle ground for American troops fighting in Vietnam for four years; the war would kill up to 750,00 Cambodians through U.S. efforts to destroy suspected North Vietnamese supply lines. This devastation would take its toll on the Cambodian peoples’ morale and would later help to contribute that conflicts that caused the Cambodian genocide. In the 1970’s the Khmer rouge guerilla movement would form. The leader of the Khmer rouge, Pol Pot was educated in France and believed in Maoist Communism. These communist ideas would become important foundations for the ideas of the genocide, and which groups would be persecuted. The genocide it’s self, would be based on Pol Pot’s ideas to bring Cambodia back to an agrarian society, starting at the year zero. His main goal was to achieve this, romanticized idea of old Cambodia, based on the ancient Cambodian ruins, with all citizens having agrarian farming lives, and being equal to each other. Due to him wanting society to be equal, and agrarian based, the victims would be those that were educated, intellectuals, professionals, and minority ethnic g...
Together these characters all have been through such unwanted pain, such loss and separation that effect how they interact with their own worlds and the people they meet. These forced separations cause pain, yet also a unifying theme of the formation and the collapse of relationships throughout the