Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Individual
Group Discount
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews December 8, 2023 December 1, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan - Group Discount
Qty: 00
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
The memoir First They Killed My Father exposes the horrors of the Killing Fields and Cambodian genocide from the perspective of a young girl. Although the events are organized chronologically and unfold in a concrete way, the book emphasizes Luong Ung’s feelings and reactions to events that she is not able to fully understand. The author’s decision to retell her family’s story using the present tense gives the events of the book an immediacy and intimacy that foster a direct emotional connection with the protagonist, Luong. This is balanced with moments of reflection that give Luong space to consider thoughts and conclusions that a young child would not typically be able to appreciate. The narrative style and the story that unfolds a allow readers to grasp what it was like to navigate the horrors of the Khmer Rouge’s totalitarian regime and genocide.
The work’s title misrepresents the story’s events in an interesting way because Luong’s father is not the first member of the Ung family to die under the Khmer Rouge. Ung’s decision to characterize the father’s death as the “first” reflects her special relationship to her father. It also acknowledges the fact that he is the first member of the family to be executed by the soldiers. Months before Pa’s death, Luong’s sister Keav dies of dysentery and food poisoning while working at a labor camp. Keav’s death is the result of the Khmer Rouge’s policies, but no one directly murders her. When Keav becomes ill, she does not receive medical care because the regime does not prioritize the health and well-being of its citizens. By contrast, Pa is executed because the Khmer Rouge discover that he worked for the previous government.
There is a second, less literal, way to think about the title. Soon after the family is forced to leave their home in Phnom Penh, Ung’s father changes how he engages with people. The ways he dissembles, concealing his personality and occupation to protect the family, suggests a form of erasure that one might liken to death. In hiding his identity and his character, the new regime “killed” who he had been before they murder him.
Luong’s emotional account of her family’s daily struggles are presented along with a set of abstract antagonists, including the Angkar, the Khmer Rouge, and their leader, Pol Pot. While her account of starvation can apply to many families, she shares her family member’s experiences and responses on an individual level. This gives the reader a clear sense of what each of them suffered and how it has affected their character. By contrast, the soldiers, the government, and even Pol Pot, remain remote and abstract. They are never given specific qualities or descriptions, Pol Pot is the only one who is named. Even Met Bong, the woman who runs the camp where Luong lives, is referenced by a generic title not a personal name. These details and characterization help the reader to identify with the Ung family as they struggle against the faceless forces of hate and prejudice. Unnamed characters exist in the background of Luong’s world, even when they are driving the story’s events, as is the case with the Khmer Rouge soldiers and the Youns. This heightens the contrast between the comfortable world she has lost and the new one into which she has been thrust.
Equally powerful is Luong Ung’s careful inclusion of details from Cambodian culture. The book opens with a rich description of the Ung family’s hometown, Phnom Penh. Ung describes a vibrant city full of children playing hopscotch, families going to the movie theater, people celebrating holidays, vendors selling tasty snacks, and various modes of transportation zooming past. Not long after the Khmer Rouge arrive, it becomes clear that their goal is to eliminate all of Phnom Penh’s hustle and bustle. In its place, they want to build a new society based on old-fashioned farming techniques. The Angkar outlaws holidays and religion, foreign influences, and modern technology. They force citizens to wear black uniforms and enslave anyone suspected of being influenced by western culture. They efface this world, the good as well as the bad. First They Killed My Father acts as a memorial for the people the Khmer Rouge executed and for the culture they attempted to destroy.
While it tells a historical story, the memoir also provides an account of a girl’s journey toward maturity. It chronicles her life from age five to nine but, unlike most young children, Luong experiences a fast-changing environment that drives a coming-of-age story. Even though Luong is still a child when she boards the plane to Vermont, the ordeal she endures has made her grow older than her years. Her story details the forces and events that force her to quickly mature from a curious and playful child into a resilient and thoughtful adolescent. When the story ends, she is aware of her strengths and learning about her weaknesses, and she finds confidence and comfort as she remembers Pa.
Please wait while we process your payment