Jonah Bolotin
WESTMINSTER — After reading First They Killed My Father, by Loung Ung, my life has been impacted in a profound way.
Loung's heartbreaking story has opened my eyes to the fact that this is not a perfect world, and while I wake each day to simple challenges such as doing chores, some people in the world are waking to the challenge of staying alive. This book tells about the hardships and challenges that one family goes through in the search of freedom.
In my life, I am very privileged to lead such a leisurely life. In this country, we take things for granted, such as simply eating three meals a day and drinking water whenever we want to.
While our loved ones may die, we don't worry on a day-to-day basis that they will be murdered. While some people do sometimes have to move, people do not storm into our houses and evict us. The political systems of this country do not force us to be separated from our families, nor do we need to lie about our family histories.
It's simple: Americans are spoiled, and still we take everything for granted.
In early June I came to this realization when I broke my tibia. I didn't think how something as simple as walking could so easily be taken away. Suddenly, I couldn't play baseball or ride a bike; I couldn't even walk.
While my situation is not near what the Ung family had to endure, it brings me to an even bigger realization of just how privileged I am. I was still drinking when I was thirsty, still eating when I was hungry, still surrounded by my loving family.
Tori Bissell
Loung Ung's memoir First They Killed My Father was very heartbreaking and impacted my life in many ways, such as how I view my own problems.
I look at my situation very differently now, and more positively, because I have learned of the pain, not only physical but emotional, and the starvation that the Khmer Rouge caused Loung's family and many other families living in Cambodia during Pol Pot's reign. I suffer little in comparison, so now I find my own life to be less difficult and more enjoyable than I thought.
The summer after reading this book, I had a chance to visit Poland for a community service project and to visit Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz 2 Birkenau.
As I was walking among the buildings where all of the people were murdered and tortured, I thought of Loung and the Cambodian genocide. I realized that in both places people were starved and killed, and it made me feel so sick.
My eyes were also opened to the idea of starvation for the first time.
Bellows Falls is such a small town that we do not have a noticeable problem with starvation. This book is an amazing way to inform the students at BFUHS about the horrors of not having food in your stomach and still having to work.
This story also made me really appreciate my family. Loung lost most of her family, and I do not think that I could take that emotional stress.
Loung Ung's book made me realize the horrible things Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge did. The part of the book that stuck out the most to me was that the Communists killed all of the educated people and doctors, so when Loung's sister was sick in one of the hospitals, no one could really do anything to help her.
It is so hard for me to understand how the Khmer Rouge would choose to leave themselves without medicine and doctors. This also made me feel very grateful to have good doctors and hospitals around me, because in Cambodia they did not have any.
First They Killed My Father was very inspirational to me because Loung was brave even in the scariest situations. She never gave up her hope, and it made me so happy when she was finally reunited with her sister.
The book made me feel very lucky to have been raised the way that I was and to have my family. I, too, have a sister whom I often take for granted, but more than ever I look forward to seeing her.
This book also made me take a closer look at my life and our society but is also a reminder of many other places where people live in poverty and are starving.
In our society, we make every effort to keep people from going hungry. At the playground near my house, the local community serves lunch during the summer for children to make it easier for families to get by.
It is difficult to imagine the people of our community having to exist in the conditions known by the Cambodians. This book was very well written and I do not think anyone could read it without it impacting their lives in many ways.
Rachel Greenberg
Loung Ung's First They Killed My Father is such an inspiration to people around the world. To overcome such a tragic childhood and share your pain and loss with others shows what a strong person the author is.
Those of us who live a safe and peaceful life in Vermont often take it for granted and don't realize what opportunities we have.
Most people will never have to see someone die or even someone dead, but for years that is all Loung Ung saw. She was separated from her family at such a young age, all alone, and forced to work and starve.
We think that because we are Americans and, living in Vermont, that something like this will never happen to us. But things like this have happened before all over the world and are still happening now - and it could happen to us.
With her book, Loung opens a world that many of us would not have known about, and we learn more about the historic event through the eyes of someone who has lived through it.
Seeing through a child's eyes makes everything much more innocent, truthful, and raw. Reading her book brought up a pool of emotions and sadness that I have never felt.
At first Loung's story makes you feel sad and sorry for her and all the people traumatized by the Cambodian genocide. But then you look at what she has accomplished by showing the world what it was like, and that gives me the strength to do more with my life and become less ignorant of people who struggle more than I do.
So it is important to be aware of not only the good things in the world but also the bad. As students in a small town in Vermont, we sometimes find it hard to learn or see things outside of the classroom, but Loung Ung has brought us a more personal piece of that outside world.
Hayden Noyes
To know that Loung Ung survived all those attacks from the Khmer Rouge, and the deaths of four of her family members, really inspires me. That she could witness all of the terrible things that she saw as a child and be able to use her experiences in a positive way is unbelievable. It's even more exciting that she did indeed survive, and it gives me hope that I would survive if something like that ever happened in this country.
To think that people, including myself, complain about the littlest things in life - pimples, walking the dogs, having to do the dishes, not having the iPod that I want - that seem ridiculous after reading this book.
I have food, a bed, and a loving family whom I can have a meal with every night. Now that I've read this book, it occurs to me that complaining about the small annoyances in life is just a waste of time. I have a good life, and this book helped me realize it. I can't imagine living the life that Loung had to live, especially as a child.
The two themes in this book that stood out the most to me are courage and trust.
I believe courage is the more consistent theme, because Loung and all of her siblings use it throughout the whole story. If she wasn't so determined, Loung wouldn't have been able to stand up to a soldier attempting to rape her; she wouldn't have been able to leave her mother's side to fend for herself; she wouldn't have been able to go out in the woods alone as a little girl and do all of those chores for her foster families.
Kim had to use courage every night when he would go and steal corn for his family, knowing that it was guarded by Khmer soldiers. Most people can't even build up enough courage to stand up for somebody who is being bullied.
Without trust, I don't think any of the children would've survived, and they wouldn't have been so determined to find one another. The children had to trust that their foster families were going to take care of them. They had to trust that the Youn soldiers would protect them from the Khmer Rouge soldiers who killed their mother, father, and two sisters.
If I was in Loung's situation, I think that my biggest struggles would be pretending to praise the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot while knowing that those men killed my family, and that they were the reason my family was forced out of our house.
I can't imagine coming back home to find out the Khmer Rouge took my mother and baby sister and killed them. My siblings get on my nerves, but if I came home to find out that somebody had attacked my family, I wouldn't be able to survive the same way as Loung has.
This book makes me think about my life. It makes me appreciate the smallest things a lot more, like when my mom tells me that she loves me. What if I didn't hear that ever again? Or when my dad teaches me how to do things around the house. It's a way of him showing me he cares and wants me to be responsible. What if I didn't have that?
I might complain about things, but I just need to remember, “It could be worse. At least I'm not fending for food, or fighting for my life.”