Choose one of the following questions and comment on this post. Please reference the question in your answer so that it is obvious which one you are addressing.
1. In some parts of the book Loung Ung chooses to use italics to tell her story. Why does she do this? In these pages she recounts the murders of her mother and little sister Geak. The chapter ends, “Now it is all real. Now I no longer have to pretend to be an orphan.” Is this a use of irony?
2. What has happened to Cambodia? What is the political discussion about?
3. Loung, Kim and Chou find a “new family” or do they? What is a foster family? Loung uses the expression “a family of convenience”. What does she mean by this?
**Due Monday Dec. 2
Loung uses italics to show what she imagines what happened and how Keav, Pa, Ma, and Geak died based on her knowledge of what is the common way of dying. Loung does this to show just how awful the killing and torture really was like. To express the agony that her family and her went through during this time. I guess in a way this could be a sort of irony but it is also the TRUTH. The truth is, is that the war has caused her family to be torn apart and now half of her family is dead.
ReplyDeleteLoung, Kim and Chou find a “new family” or do they? What is a foster family? Loung uses the expression “a family of convenience”. What does she mean by this?
ReplyDelete-During this time in history, you were forced away from your family and "farmed off" to another. A foster family is someone who "takes care of you" while no one else can. They are literally a family of convenience. When they need you or you need them, they are there only because they were told they had to be.
In Cambodia, the political discussion is all about who is in charge, and what people should be given more rights than others. According to the Khmer, the base people are the more deserving ones, and the city people have to prove themselves through hard labor under harsh conditions. The Khmer Rouge has taken over under the hand of Pol Pot, and the Youns are working to push the Khmer back out.
ReplyDeleteLoung uses italics in her novel to give insight into her imagination weaver with knowledge of how the Khmer Rouge soldiers killed family's. It also explain the horrible thoughts that her mind would run through, knowing that your family was murdered in such a way is something you must explore I guess to receive peace of there dealth. Yes I believe it's a use of irony and also for shadowing. Early on when she arrives at the orphan camp she says her parents are both dead. Lung Ung (2000) explains that within the Chinese culture once you have stated "someone's dealth out loud, it will come true."
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