First They Killed My Father

The Ungs arrive in the mountain village of Anlungthmor where 300 of the 800 villagers are new arrivals. Their first night in the village, Ung becomes ill with a fever and a stomachache. Because there are not any doctors, Ung’s family has to help her get well themselves. Her father and brothers work in the fields, but the family is given less and less food. They end up eating leaves from the garden. Throughout their time in Anlungthmor, the men catch some animals, which are treats for the family. While they are there, the rainy season comes and the land floods. Although the children have some fun playing in the mud, they are still hungry. When a pair of rabbits float by, Loung’s father catches the rabbits, but because the land is so wet, they cannot cook them. They eat the rabbits raw. Once the rainy season ends, the villagers panic because the new people eat too much food and the Khmer Rouge begins killing educated urbanites. The Ungs repeat their process of leaving early in the morning and moving to a new village, this time to Ro Leap.

After traveling for seven months, the family reach Ro Leap, the third village on their journey. When they arrive, the people of Ro Leap insult the Ungs by spitting at Loung’s father’s feet. Loung describes the people as “hungry tigers ready to pounce on us” (57). The people of Ro Leap shout, “Capitalists should be shot and killed” (57), which scares Loung. Most of the small village’s 500 base people are uneducated farmers and peasants who never had Western luxuries. The Khmer Rouge think these people are the ideal citizens; they are allowed to live in their village homes while the people from cities are forced to move on when the Khmer Rouge says so.

Once the family gets off of the truck, they join the other new people in the town square. There, the soldiers empty every bag into a pile. The soldiers then set fire to all of the bright, colorful clothes as they explain that the new people will all wear the same Khmer uniform of black pants and tops. The soldiers also explain how the new people will address each other, what children will call their parents, and how the communist ration plan will work. Loung realizes quickly that the people in Ro Leap are not equal, because the soldiers and village chief are above the native villagers who are above the new arrivals. She realizes that the native villagers serve as informants to the chief , reporting the new arrivals’ infractions of the Khmer Rouge’s rules.

The Ungs quickly adapt to their daily life in Ro Leap and learn their place in society. They receive their own hut and eat their meals together. Loung’s father arranges work for Loung’s brother Kim in the home of the chief. This allows the Ungs to have leftovers from the chief’s home. Unfortunately, Kim is mistreated by the chief’s young sons, who spit on him and beat him for their personal enjoyment. This makes it difficult for the family to enjoy the extra food he brings to them.

Because the Ungs are so busy working, they are able to keep to themselves. Loung’s father attends village meetings where he learns about the Angkar and their goal to build a perfect agricultural society so that Cambodia could be a self-sustaining country. The families all work so hard and are fed so little that newborn babies die right after being born and women are unable to become pregnant.

Loung learns that the Angkar are destroying religious artifacts and traditional practices in the country. They kill monks and deface temples like the ones at Angkor Wat. As Loung recalls her early memories of her family’s time visiting the ancient ruins. she questions what the gods will do without their homes.

Three months into Loung’s stay at Ro Leap, life gets worse. To avoid sending his oldest sons to become Khmer Rouge soldiers, Loung’s father arranges marriages for them. This helps his sons and the women they will marry because the women will not be taken by the soldiers. Loung then tells the story of Davi, a beautiful 16-year-old girl in the camp. One night, soldiers approach her hut and tell the family that they are taking her for the night for special work against her mother’s protests. When they return her the next day, Davi is no longer the same. She has been physically abused, with visible scars and bruises. The people of the village look down when she walks by, and it is evident that she is a broken person. The soldiers continue to take other girls, marrying some of them.

After Ung’s brothers Khouy and Meng marry, the soldiers tell them they need to leave the camp because they are too old to live with their parents. They leave for a camp that is full of young men and their wives. The brothers often visit Ro Leap and bring food for their family. When they visit, the brothers sit quietly with their father and share stories.

Shortly after the brothers leave, rumors about the Vietnamese—whom the Cambodians refer to as “Youns”—spread around Ro Leap. The Khmer Rouge take more sons and daughters to fight in the army. One of the teens they take is Keav, Loung’s beautiful older sister. This is a painful event for Loung who spent her childhood looking up to her. Meanwhile, the family continues to starve as rations become scarce despite the fact that the family works even harder in the fields. To make matters worse, Kim is fired from his job at the chief’s home, and the family loses out on the extra food he brought each night.

Loung shares a memory of her life in Phnom Penh. When Loung was disobedient, her mother would spank her. As Loung sulked in her room, she wished she was dead to make her mother feel guilty. Now that Loung and her family have spent so much time in the camps, she realizes that death is permanent and that families work hard to avoid it.

In April, Cambodians celebrate the New Year. In the past, the celebrations included beautiful clothes, delicious food, and noisy fireworks. Now that the Khmer Rouge lead the country, there is no significance to this time of year. As Loung remembers the joy of the last New Year’s celebration, she gets hungry thinking about the sweet cakes and roasted meats she enjoyed.

On the topic of hunger, Loung tells the story of a man who ate a dog that he encountered on the road. She writes about her New Year’s meal of rice soup and how she could count the grains of rice in the bowl because there were so few of them. She describes how families eat turtles, rats, and anything else they can catch. She even eats a piece of charcoal that she finds on the ground.

Loung describes her physical condition in this chapter. She shares vivid images of her protruding belly and the fact that she could count the ribs on her body. She writes about the dents she can make on her bloated feet. The images are disturbing, especially since Loung shares them with a matter-of-fact nonchalance.

Even though April was traditionally a lucky month, it is not lucky for those living in Cambodia and Ro Leap. While out on a walk, Loung comes across a bloated, dead body. When the streams dry up, villagers die of malnutrition and dehydration. One of the mothers in the camp copes with the death of her two children who ate poisonous mushrooms on their search for something to eat. The woman eventually loses her sanity. To get more food for his family, Loung’s father trades more of his wife’s jewelry. This chapter is also the first place where the author reveals the name of the infamous Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia’s head of state.

The family finally gets more food when Loung’s father befriends the chef. They get a little extra rice that they store in a container in their hut. One morning, the family realizes that someone took some of their rice. The perpetrator was Loung, but she does not tell her family. When Loung gets in trouble for fighting with her sister Chou, her mother punishes her by throwing a coconut shell at her head. This is uncharacteristic of her mother who was usually levelheaded when it came to punishing her children. That night, Ung thinks about what her family was once like and how much she hates the Angkar. In order to fit in, she has to rub charcoal on her body to make her skin look darker, like the skin of the native villagers.