The Conflict

I began reading First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung this weekend. So far I've liked this book, yet I feel like it will get better. When you read about things like what Loung is living through on text books you get facts and statistics. I feel like when it's just that, you can't really feel much for the people who went through the terrors that took place. I am not able to connect, or feel empathy for the people who were there. I feel distant because I don't know what happened to any of the people that lived through those things. I don't know what they felt or how they got through them.

Reading about the conflict in Cambodia and Loung Ung's perspective makes it really interesting. It allows us to see what a child's perspective was, we can see the confusion, the struggle, the suffering and the fear. It also gives us an insight to what it was like for many people to live in Cambodia at the time. What they felt and what they lived. I am able to connect with them and understand what happened much better than I would if I were reading a textbook. I also thin that it allows us to know the truth about many things that other books might leave out. I think that I will really enjoy the rest of this book and I know that I will learn a lot.

Smitten: be strongly attracted to something or someone.

Putrid: Dacaying or rotting, emitting a fetid smell.

Wedged: fixed in position or forced into a narrow space.