First They Killed My Father: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

Ma and Pa force Khouy to marry a girl from a nearby village, Laine, to decrease the likelihood of his being recruited to the Khmer Rouge army; with a wife, the Khmer Rouge know he can “gives sons to the Angkar.” Laine’s parents meanwhile want to protect her from being raped by soldiers. This happened to Davi, the pretty teen daughter of Loung’s neighbors who was taken by soldiers one night. She returned covered in bruises and refused to meet her parents’ gaze. Now she does not speak to anyone, and villagers grow quiet around her. The soldiers similarly abduct many girls from their homes, asserting that it is their duty to bear sons for the Angkar. If they cannot do so, they are killed. Some girls commit suicide to escape.

Laine and Khouy are married and sent to a labor camp. The soldiers also force Meng to go to the labor camp. The brothers bring extra food home when they are allowed to visit the village, but these visits become increasingly infrequent. Laine never comes to the village, so Loung knows little about her sister-in-law apart from the fact that her marriage is one of convenience rather than love. Khouy is no longer the suave martial artist he was in Phnom Penh; instead, he is already “old and hard, and alone.” Meng is thin and lanky, making the labor camp more difficult for him than it is for Khouy. He gazes intently at his siblings when he returns home, as if afraid he will forget their faces.

Rumors spread of the Youns, or Vietnamese, trying to invade. All teenagers, including the fourteen-year-old Keav, are forced to go to Kong Cha Lat, a work camp. Loung remembers how beautiful Keav seemed in Phnom Penh, and how much pride she took in fussing over her school uniform. Loung laments that with her black uniform and thinning hair, “now the joy of beauty is gone from her life.” Pa says it is good that the family is separated; Kim later explains to Loung that if the Khmer Rouge ever discover that Pa worked for the Lon Nol government, they will not be able to punish the whole family.

Loung worries that the soldiers will kill them because they are educated. Many families commit suicide to end the terror. Loung is frightened of dying, having begun to realize death’s permanence. One evening Kim returns from the chief’s house and tearfully tells the family that the chief told him not to come back. Without his leftovers, Loung worries that the family will starve. Pa suspects Kim’s firing has to do with Pol Pot, a name that has begun to be whispered around the village as the rumored leader of the Angkar. He may have given orders to increase the number of soldiers in villages, which has in turn reduced the power of village chiefs.

Kim explains that the Angkar borrowed money from China for weapons and supplies, and now the Angkar has to pay China back. Loung cannot understand why the villagers hate the Chinese so much. Kim says that they may be confusing them with the Vietnamese, because to people who have never left the village all “white-skinned Asians look alike.” That evening Pa says that the Angkar dreams of ruling over an empire that extends into neighboring Thailand, Laos, and southern Vietnam.