First They Killed My Father By Loung Ung

First They Killed My Father Summer Reading Essay

The story, First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung, is one which relies heavily on the use of symbolism. The use of symbolism in the story is necessary to add to the feeling of reading the story. Due to the importance symbolism has in the story, there is a multitude of symbols in the story. Some of the main symbols that changed the reading of the book were things such as Loung’s red dress, Loung’s father, known as Pa and the citizens of Ro Leap.

The first symbol, Loung’s red dress, was one of the most important symbols in the story. In a way, Loung sees the loss of her red dress as the changing of all the things in the story. She believes that if she were to have her red dress back, everything would be reverted to how they were previously. Even though she believed that having her red dress back would make a difference, she got another one and realized it just wasn’t the same. Through getting a new dress and seeing how much less of a value it had to her as her previous one, she sees that it can’t make anything better. Despite the fact that it has no mention in the story, I feel that a quote or theme that would fit this symbol would be a line from George Bernard Shaw, which is, “Progress is …show more content…
The people of Ro Leap could easily be perceived as narcissistic. All they cared about were themselves, and because of that, many people died. However, many found reasoning to be furious, specifically in the fact that they had previously had to live in very tough conditions before Khmer Rouge went into power. On page 18, Pa says, “.....these people are destroyers of things,” when referencing the soldiers of Khmer Rouge. The people of Ro Leap symbolized bitterness to change, and a lot of arrogance. A theme could also be pulled from the symbols given to the people of Ro Leap, which is having a negative attitude towards things normally doesn’t give the best