When I was younger I used to go to a summer camp near my home. An older Cambodian immigrant named Rithipol, or Ria for short, was employed to tend the gardens around the buildings. Often the campers would go and help the man with the gardens around the camp, and in return he would tell stories. Sometimes he would speak of the small village he was born, at other times he might elucidate on how he came to America. One story I only ever hear him tell once has stuck with me over the last eight years; how he drove over a two mile long minefield to help the resistance in Cambodia. One day as the rain started to pour, Ria took us into a nearby barn. Sitting us down the man leaned forward and began to weave his tale. During the late 70’s Ria was part of a resistance movement in Cambodia made of Cham Muslims (Muslims who were mainly concentrated in the Cambodia Kampong Cham Province). Although he
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Caught by the Khmer Rouge soldiers while trying to covertly take corn from the fields, he is then beaten close to death and barely makes it to his home. This lies in direct contrast to his earlier statement of what it was like taking food. “Ma, it’s so easy. I never knew stealing could be so easy! No one can guard the fields at once’ (115). Of course, the irony of Kim’s capture and beating was that from the Khemmer and Angkar’s perspectives, Kim was a thief who sought to undermine their authority. “How dare you steal from the Angkar, you little shit!” (117). Cut loose and allowed to return home alive, Kim stumbles back, broken of any possible convictions that he could help his family. His family upon seeing him treats him as a child, rather than the man he had tried to act like. Numb and quiet, Kim withdraws into himself. “With Pa gone, and my brothers at their camp, Kim is the man of the house. But in reality he is only a little boy, a little boy who feels helpless and unable to protect his own family.”
Caught by the Khmer Rouge soldiers while trying to covertly take corn from the fields, he is then beaten close to death and barely makes it to his home. This lies in direct contrast to his earlier statement of what it was like taking food. “Ma, it’s so easy. I never knew stealing could be so easy! No one can guard the fields at once’ (115). Of course, the irony of Kim’s capture and beating was that from the Khemmer and Angkar’s perspectives, Kim was a thief who sought to undermine their authority. “How dare you steal from the Angkar, you little shit!” (117). Cut loose and allowed to return home alive, Kim stumbles back, broken of any possible convictions that he could help his family. His family upon seeing him treats him as a child, rather than the man he had tried to act like. Numb and quiet, Kim withdraws into himself. “With Pa gone, and my brothers at their camp, Kim is the man of the house. But in reality he is only a little boy, a little boy who feels helpless and unable to protect his own family.”