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The Kite Runner And First They Killed My Father

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Recommended: Racism In American Literature

One thing that all the books we’ve studied in this year's honors world history course have one thing in common. The stories have focused on race relations. In The Kite Runner, it touched on the relationship between the Sunni and the Shia people. Charlotte had centered around the persecution of Jewish people during World War II. The Harlem Hellfighters focused on the discrimination that African American men faced in the military during World War II. First They Killed My Father portrayed the racism from Cambodians against Vietnamese people and those who appeared east asian. Out of these books, the one that influenced my perception of racism the most was First They Killed My Father.

First They Killed My Father’s story focuses on Loung, a five-year-old …show more content…

“[Kim] says the Khmer Rouge government views science, technology, and anything mechanical as evil and therefore must be destroyed. [...] These devices have been imported from foreign countries and thus are contaminated. Imports have been defined as evil because they allowed forgien countries a way to invade Cambodia, not just physically but also culturally. So now these goods are abolished, Only trucks are allowed to operate, to relocate people and carry weapons to silence any voices of dissent against the Angkar.” (58) This quote is from Loung, who reiterates an explanation given to her by her older brother about the Khmer Rouge. This piece of text shows us the deep division that the Khmer Rouge has with other countries and …show more content…

Loung and her sister end up at an all-girls camp where they preach pro-Khmer Rouge propaganda and anti-Youn messages. At her new camp, Loung gets bullied relentlessly because of her race. “The children despise me and consider me inferior because of my light skin. When I walk by them, my ears ring from their cruel words and their spit eats through my skin like acid. They throw mud at me, claiming it will darken my ugly white skin. Other times, they stick their legs out and trip me, causing me to fall and scrape my knees. Met Bong always turns the other way.” (145) The propaganda that the girls chant every day demonizes the “Youns”. The Youns are the Vietnamese enemies of Cambodia. The members of the camp associate light skin with Youns, and as a result are racist to anybody who appears east

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Similarly, in ‘First They Killed My Father’, the significance the father had on the narrator can also be examined. On page 47 of ‘First They Killed My Father’, Loung, and her family have reached a checkpoint where they would need to be questioned by the Angkar. Referring to her father, Loung quoted “He reaches down and puts his hand on top of my head. It stays there as if protecting me from the sun and the soldiers. After a few minutes, my head feels cooler and my heartbeat slows''.

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To start off, Loung had heard some stories about a woman from a nearby village who had turned out to be a cannibal. Most said she was a good woman but the Khmer rouge caused her to be like this monster. Evidence from the memoir Loung explains, “She was so hungry that when her husband died from eating poisonous food, she ate his flesh and fed it to her children. She did not know that the poison in his body would kill her and her children as well.”

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Being kind to other people is part of Arn’s personality, which is a good thing. He shows this kindness to the soldiers because he asks strangers to play with him. Unfortunately, the Khmer Rouge gets rid of this attribute in Arn. Additionally, the author writes, “I don’t do what this tiger in my heart is telling me to do; kill these kid,” (Never Fall Down 195). Instead of being like his old self, Arn changes, and now wants to kill the boys in his school instead of being kind to them.

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