First they killed my father
...e also officious and wanted to know what secrets they were hiding. But keeping their distance from them would prove to be a better idea rather than be meddling in their private and miserable lives. So as a solution, the Khmer villagers allocated a different section of the village just for themselves. There they lived their own live and started to alienate the newcomers. They never enjoyed dining with other neighbors so they ate in none other than their own houses. Loung gradually understood the life of these people when she mouthed, 'Then there are the base people. They live in their own houses outside the village, separate from us. The base people do not eat communally or work with new people' (67). There was another party of people who avoided the new recruits. They were the doctors and the nurses in the infirmary. They never usually cared for their patients. Whenever a patient would arrive in the infirmary, they would let them rest on an unkempt and dingy cot and offer some fake medicine to them and would make false promises of finding a cure for their diseases. They were disgusted by the sight of the patients and didn't help them. Such was the state with the incredibly sick Keav. 'Without taking her pulse or touching her, the nurse asks Keav a few brief questions about her symptoms and hurries away saying that she will return later to check on her and bring her some medicine' (96), remembered Loung when she thought of her long gone sister. Anyone brought to the infirmary was already assumed as dead because he or she wouldn't ever be attended to and would eventually die. This was the second step of the ladder of prejudice and these steps just wouldn't stop. Day by day, the rancor in the hearts of the base villagers grew rapidly and that caused the third step of the ladder to trigger. As the weary, sunny hot days passed, the city folks kept on living in the Khmer village. What else could they do but stay there and work as hard as they could. This had enraged the base people a lot. They couldn't stand living with those city folk. Their fury sequentially started to exhibit itself. Now every time a base villager walked passed a capitalist, he or she would spit upon the hard working villager and often curse them. Loung remembered what happened to her family many times in the village. She confessed, 'The Chief spits in the dirt in front of us again and walks away' (61) and also, 'Another villager walks over and spits at Pa's feet. Their black eyes stare at me full of contempt' (57). This just went to demonstrate that the base people didn't want the new villagers around any more and would resort to greater extents to try and remove the weaklings from their village. When Loung reluctantly went to her new labor camp, she found out how mean her fellow mates were. The Khmer children would always tease Loung and Chou for their lighter skin. Loung could never forget those days as she had once said, 'The children despise me and consider me inferior because of my light skin. When I walk by them, my ears ring from their cruel words and their spit eats through my skin like acid. They throw mud at me claiming that it will darken my white ugly skin' (126). Thus Loung and her sister Chou were mainly targeted as the laughing stock of the cluster of children in the labor camp. At times, the bullies in her camp would trip Loung by sticking their legs in between Loung's legs causing her to fall and scrape her knees. All of this was witnessed by Met Bong, but she had the same intentions of crushing these new people who invaded their villages in swarms. So she reacted as if nothing ever happened. This proves to us that Khmer citizens were sick and tired of these innocent souls who worked day in and day out only to get a meager amount of food to live on. They had come so far from cursing them and talking foully about them. Now they would simply mock the assiduous people. What would stop them from proceeding towards attack or even murder? A firm step of the ladder of prejudice was now created and there was no telling when this reign of tyranny would stop. The Khmer Rouge were one of the topmost tyrants during that time period. Under the leadership of the truculent Pol Pot, they followed every of his commands. The Khmer Rouge had growing rancor in their stone cold hearts for the city people. They had the power to chastise anyone they wished. They would always try to find a minor mistake in their work so that they could get their ice-cold hands on them and beat the living daylights out of them. Once Kim, Loung's elder brother had gone to fetch some corn for his family during the night. At that time a Khmer Rouge Soldier came up from behind him and started brutally attacking him. This was one of the most gruesome attacks on one of Loung's family members. Kim remembered every single moment of these few minutes when he shared his thought with his family. Loung was extremely sad when she heard what had happened to her brother. 'One soldier grabs him by the hand and pulls him of the ground, but his knees buckle. A hand slaps him hard on the face. "You bastard!" they yell at him, "You worthless shit!" More hands push him down. He is on all fours now and following their orders when a hard booted foot kicks him in the stomach knocking his breath away. Another foot stomps him in the back. The soldier turns the rifle around and smashes its butt into Kim's skull' (117) remembered Loung in every explicit detail. This attacking didn't stop here. There were many more attacks on the villagers by the Khmer Rouge. There were victims of Khmer Rouge assaults. Ma was one of them. As Geak was emaciated, Ma wanted to get her some meat. So she went to a lady with a chicken farm and offered her her ruby earrings in exchange for a chicken. The lady accepted and told Ma to arrive there the next day. But on that uneventful day, there was a Khmer Rouge Soldier waiting for Ma. Reminding herself what had happened to Ma, she exclaimed, ' "Give me the earrings", the man commanded. He balled up his fist and punched her in the stomach. His foot kicked her thigh, then many kicks landed on her body. He dragged her to the door and pushed her out the steps' (148). By trying to help his own family live through those harsh days, Kim himself was senselessly attacked. Ma also wanted Geak to live but she ended up getting battered by the Khmer Rouge Soldiers. Loung now understood that survival was extremely tough and even the slightest mistake would mean her getting brutally trampled by the Khmer Rouge Soldiers. Now the step of the ladder that remained was that of extermination. But soon it would be joined to this growing ladder and would complete this ladder. Thus the life of each city villager was in jeopardy. The last part of the ladder of prejudice was swiftly being created. The main objective of the Khmer Rouge was to expunge every villager as fast as they could. These sick and ignominious martinets killed numerous people day by day. Pol Pot was a ruthless killer who didn't want anyone to try and stop his insensate genoc...