Learning History From a Memoir Instead of a Textbook

 So far, First They Killed My Father is an intimate and personal account that gives the reader a sense of what it was like to be in Cambodia during the 1970s.When I picked up the memoir with a title as unequivocal as First They Killed My Father, I definitely knew it wasn't going to be funny or comical. Still, I wanted to find out more about the history of the Cambodian civil war that cost the lives of so many people. After I chose the book, I was worried the memoir would be a dry, historical, and objective account of the Cambodian Genocide during the 1970s. Instead, Loung Ung shares the personal and brutal story of what happened to her through the eyes of the innocent child that she was at the time, which makes it so different from other memoirs written by adults who understand the situation.

        The dominant tone of the author throughout the first fifty pages is nostalgic. The author is apparently homesick: she misses Phnom Penh, where she was free, happy, and safe. She is also apprehensive and baffled because she doesn't know where and why her family is leaving and whether she will ever come back to Phnom Penh. Her family is not giving her answers, so she just has to follow her parents and worry to herself.