Survival

What makes a survivor?  What characteristics do survivors of mass genocides have that separated them from those who were not so fortunate?  Obviously strength plays a major role, but not an exclusive role.  In Cambodia, during the mass killings, there were many children that survived, even though they were extremely young, sometimes even too young to do any of the work.  Also, some of the strongest people were killed, due to their beliefs.
            In Loung Ung’s book First They Killed My Father, Ung is a young child, only five years old when the Angkar take over power in Cambodia, and tries to implement a Communist society.  Throughout the book, Ung is forced to work long, laborious hours, while she is surrounded by mass killings of her friends and family.  She is one of the lucky Cambodians that does survive, based on her anger, and ability to channel that anger. 
            She uses this anger she has built up towards the Angkar, and Pol Pot to increase her fight to survive, and to give her a reason to live.  She fights on in hopes of one day killing every last Angkar soldier, as well as Pol Pot himself.   While she is training at a child soldier camp, she finds out her mother and little sister have been killed by the soldiers.  She then passes out, and forgets does not remember anything for the next three days.  But then when she regains conscience, her anger has grown even more, and her will to survive is stronger than anyone could imagine.  She says: "In our training the next day, I charge at the dummies even before Met Bong's cue.  My skin vibrates with hate and rage.  I hate the gods for hurting me.  I hate Pol Pot for murdering Pa, Ma, Keav, and Geak.  I stab my wooden steak high into the dummies chest, feeling it puncture the body and hit the tree.  Hard and fast, I stab it, each time envisioning not the body of a Youn but that of Pol Pot" (164).  There are many other instances as well in the book where Ung expresses her hate for the Angkar, and how much she wants to kill them.  After she learns about the soldier who beat her mom, she loudly proclaims “Ma, I want to kill him!” (148).  After an incident in one of the child labor camps, Ung once again expresses her anger through her desire of revenge.  She states “My rage makes me want to live just to come back and take my revenge” (128).  This anger channeled into the desire for revenge is what drives her to keep on working hard, even when the times are extremely hard.   
            Ung may have been small, and not very strong, but she worked hard, and channeled her anger that the Angkar built up inside of her.  She used that anger to work hard, and become one of the best workers, and best fighters.  Hard working individuals are what the Angkar were looking for, and that is how she got the strength to survive.  She was also rewarded, towards the end of her book when the refugees captured an Angkar soldier, and she got to watch them beat the soldier to death.  Although she did not herself get to kill him, she got to watch him suffer which satisfied her to some degree.  Currently, she is using her anger for more humane efforts.  She is currently advocating for a landmine free world, because she saw firsthand just how devastating they can be.