studentresponses

→First They Killed My Father← First they killed my father was a very moving book. It took me a while to get in to the book but half way through it I was really in to it and didn’t want to put it down. The courage a little girl can have is amazing for what she was going though. I don’t think I would have been able to go on though all of that stuff. And for how she can still go on in life is just even better. For loosing so many family members would kill me inside. If my sister died I don’t know what I would do. She lost nearly her whole family. Im proud of what she’s done and I wished by the end of the book a little girl like that didn’t have to go though that much. It would of been the worst child hood ever. So pretty much what im saying is it’s a great book and I recommend it to many people. By Rosanna

The book First They Killed My Father it was a difficult book at first. It was about this little girl who had it all in the city. Then the Khmer Rouge took hold of the country and then she had to go to the country, to the rice fields. At times it is graphic and times it is sad. There is times where it is hard to read it because of the graphic nature of it. But once you get past that it is a good book to read and is real easy to get into and you will lose track of time. I would read her second book it is about how she went to America and how she survived that. By Lloyd

My thoughts on the novel ‘first they killed my father’ are that it was an extremely sad. Human nature never ceases to surprise, shock or anger me (sometimes all three). I never really got into the book, I found it hard to read because for 1. I find it hard to read about true stories because they are sad and I know that they actually happened which makes it even more sad. 2. I can’t read something that I’m not hooked on first couple of chapters in. Loung had a very hard life since the age of five to the age of nine, this just reminds me of how lucky I am to be able to live in a country that has freedom and choices (but some choices to have consequences). Sometimes people don’t realize how lucky they really are. by Molly Si.

First They Killed My Father
The novel 'First they killed my father' was a very sad and powerful book. I'm quite disappointed that I didn't really get into the novel though. I enjoyed it, but never really got motivated to finish it. I thought Loung Ung's story showed an admirable amount of courage and determination. I would never have survived if I was in her position. It's amazing that she could have been through all this but still had the strength to write this book years later, re-live it all and share her story. I was really moved and sad when Loung's father never returned home. The family waited for him on the steps and it was very sad when he didn't return the next morning. It's sad to read about the malnutrition of the young children that were once so happy. I felt really sorry for her brother when he was bashed by the Khmer Rouge soldiers. It was very interesting to learn about the Pol Pot era and the Khmer Rouge, I had never heard anything about any of it before. It's odd that we don't hear much about Asian history. Using literacy circles was something I'd never done before. It was an interesting and different way to study the book. I think we only really got the hang of it in the final circle. I think that with a bit of practise it would be a good way to talk about the book each week. I think it may be too independant for some people though, and some people need to be pushed to read and finish their jobs. The idea of silent reading with the bean bags was really good. It was much more confortable to be sitting in a bean bag than up in a chair on a hard table for suh a long period of time. It was much more relaxing, I really enjoyed it. I haven't finished the very end of the book, but I'm hoping that the ending is a bit of a happy one. MollyMMS

Before I read the novel ‘First they killed my father’ by Loung Un g, I have to admit that I knew very little about Pol pot, Cambodia or the Vietnam war and I had never even heard of the Khmer Rouge before. I always found it really hard to understand politics and wars, and when we watched the movie ‘The killing fields’ to introduce us to the topic I was really confused and didn’t really understand what was going on. However when I began to read this novel I developed a much clearer understanding of the Pol Pot era. Loung’s writing is very easy to understand, as it is all seen through the eyes of a young girl who is not yet 10. I found her writing technique very straight forward and confronting, which I found made the impact of this novel much more effective. She has the ability of describing the most heart breaking emotions without too many words. She doesn’t drag out any of the scenes, meaning that each scene jumps to the next, never allowing the reader to become bored. This also means that although she allowed readers to be shocked by some of these scenes, she doesn’t allow the sadness of them to become overly heavy The issues explored and demonstrated in the novel are very dark and I had never really come across them before in English. An example of one these issues is the way people are capable of treating each other. The way that people can separate themselves from the horrific acts they commit, and how they can trick themselves into dehumanizing people, seeing them as nothing but objects. And also the way that people can allow themselves to be brainwashed by such hideous propaganda and never question that what they are doing is wrong. It reminds me of what happened during the holocaust, and how they robbed the Jews of their identity and names by giving them numbers, as it is easier to destroy a n umber than a person. Another issue that really scares me about this book is how Loung escaped the pain and desperation of her experiences by transforming her pain into hate and anger. She feed her anger with images of Pol Pots slain body being dragged through the dirt and fantasized of one day avenging her family by killing Pol Pot and his army. Her anger burns inside her keeping her alive. The most disturbing scene in this novel to me, was when the Vietnamese soldiers captured a Khmer Rouge and handed him over to the villagers to kill. The fact that Loung chose to witness this execution, and was actually exited about seeing her hate played out on a Khmer Rouge soldier. “Anger burns inside me. Seeing one of them killed is not enough.” This term we did our evaluation of the book through literature circles, which was a method that I had never done before. At first I didn’t think that they would work very well, as I was unsure that everybody would actually read the book or listen to each other’s opinions. However I was pleasantly surprised at just how well our group worked together and how we all listened to each other and completed the work given to us. Although I think that the literature circles technique worked very well for our group, I am unsure as to whether it worked as well for some of the other groups. However personally I would be very happy to use this technique again. By Holly

First They Killed My Father I really liked reading the novel First They Killed My Father. It took me no time at all to get into it. It really showed us all how lucky we are to have such an easy life. In our own way we are similar to how Loung was at the start of the book. Being only young she took most things for granted such as the food she wouldn’t eat. She had the most important things in life distant from her and had it all; she had money friends and family. As the book moved on however we saw a different side to her. After the Khmer Rouge took over and Loung was kicked out of her home and sent to walk for seven days she really wished she had of eaten her food. Her hatred began to grow and she really hated the Khmer Rouge soldiers, especially after her Pa was murdered because her worked for the government. When she also lost Keav to sickness Loung lost control of her emotions and they became based only on anger and hatred. She wanted revenge and was wishing that the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot were dead. And that she could see them suffer herself. After the Vietnamese Soldiers took back some of what was theirs Loung felt hope that soon everything would go back to the way it was. However when the Vietnamese soldiers caught a stray Khmer Rouge soldiers Loung finally got her chance for revenge. Loung could not help but appreciate the pain that soldier went through; she couldn’t keep her eyes off him being tormented and tortured by two women. Her hatred had built up so much that only at around the age of 10 she was enjoying revenge and the death of her enemy right in front of her eyes. I found this extremely confronting but who would know how I would of felt in her situation, I couldn’t say that I would look away nor could I say I would watch and join in. With everything that Loung has gone through it is surprising she has survived she’s only young but she had family there to care for her and look after her in her times of need. No one could survive such an experience on their own.