First They Killed My Father: Chapter 21 Summary & Analysis

A week later the man says he has found a family for the children. Loung is excited to be part of a family again, and even happier when she sees that it is the family of the palm tree boy who once waved to her outside the child soldiers camp. His father—now their foster father—is welcoming and warm at first, but quickly switches to a business-like tone. He says that the girls will help care for his three young daughters and elderly mother, while Kim will help him fish and hunt. Loung understands that this is only “a family of convenience.”

Their new foster mother greets the children coldly and instructs them to sleep in the corner of their hut. One afternoon Loung sees her digging through their things and pulling out Ma’s prized silk shirt, which she had hidden under her black uniform when the Khmer Rouge soldiers burned their clothes. The mother puts it on, but sensing the children’s anger, declares it ugly and tosses it back. Paof, their fourteen-year-old foster brother, is the only one who is kind, though his lingering looks at Loung make her uncomfortable. One day he attacks her in the woods; she says she will tell, but he says no one will believe her and Loung knows he is right. She vows to stay away from him.

While gathering water from a stream one day, Chou and Loung befriend a girl with pretty brown eyes named Pithy. She is the same age as Chou and similarly timid. Pithy’s father was also taken by the Khmer Rouge. She meets them each morning to gather firewood.

One such morning Loung forgets their water canteen. When they come across a Vietnamese soldier in the woods, Loung mimes their need for water and the soldier mimes back for Loung to follow him. As he leads Loung further into the woods, she grows nervous. He suddenly screams at her in Vietnamese to lie down, and though she cannot understand the words she observes that his face has turned “dark and mean” like the faces of the Khmer Rouge. He attempts to rape Loung, but she screams angrily and is able to fight him off before running off into the woods. Having heard her screams, Chou and Pithy come running. They carry their firewood back to the base. When Loung thinks she sees the soldier she rushes toward him for revenge, only to cut her bare foot on a shard of glass.

Upon returning home, their foster mother scolds Loung and Chou for bringing back too little wood and calls Loung stupid and lazy for cutting her foot. When Loung defends herself, the foster mother says she is nothing and will grow up to be a hooker. Despite her bravado, Loung fears she has no future. She hears Pa’s words in her head telling her she is precious, and reflects that she will amount to something because of everything her father taught her.