Keav Character Analysis

Loung’s fourteen-year-old sister is beautiful but a gossip, a quality Ma does not consider very ladylike. Loung considers Keav similar to herself in that both are “headstrong and ready to fight.” They argue as sisters do, but Keav, like all of Loung’s siblings, is ultimately a loving, protective force in Loung’s life. When Pa explains Cambodia’s violent history, for example, Keav comforts Loung and says she will protect her. While living in the village of Ro Long, Keav is forced to go to the teen labor camp of Kong Cha Lat. As she walks away, Loung laments that her sister—who took such pride in her clothes and appearance in Phnom Penh—no longer has the joy of beauty in her life. Keav promises she will survive, but Loung wonders if she will ever see her again. Six months later, Ma gets word that Keav is very ill and in the infirmary. Though Ma is able to see her daughter one last time, by the time she returns the next day with Pa, Keav has died of dysentery. The nurse throws out her body before Ma and Pa can collect it. Loung imagines her sister’s lonely, terrifying final hours in the infirmary and continues to think of Keav often after her death.