Reading Response: _Never Fall Down_

Never Fall Down, by Patricia McCormick, is narrated by a young Cambodian boy, Arn, who is 11 in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge comes into power. The novel is based on the true story of Arn Chorn-Pond.  I am embarrassed to admit that I knew very little about the reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and I was truly shocked to learn about the atrocities that occurred in Cambodia at that time.  While many genocides involve one group persecuting another, the brutality of the Khmer Rouge was directed at their own people.  One thing that made the book difficult to read was my inability to understand what would motivate a group to do such awful things.  They seemed to have a vision of a happy Cambodia in mind, but for some reason that vision did not seem to include any Cambodians.

The recent and ongoing violence in Egypt and in Syria are reminders that struggles for power and struggles for ideals (religious, economic) within a nation can result in terrible casualties.  Arn is incredibly lucky to survive the brutal reign of the Khmer Rouge and to be adopted by an American family, but he is permanently scarred by the deaths of his family and friends, the death and torture he witnesses, and the injustices he is forced to commit to survive in Cambodia.  Though his post-Khmer Rouge life in New Hampshire seems like a dream come true, he faces intolerance, ridicule, and suspicion in addition to having to learn a new language and culture and process his own trauma and guilt.  He thinks, "after all the thing I been through, now being rescue [sic] is something I also have to survive" (195).  This part of his story really struck me because as a reader, I was so wrapped up in hoping for his survival that I didn't consider the challenges he would face afterward.  His experience suggests that there are no easy endings to the kind of violence and fear he encounters in Cambodia; there is no return to normal for a child who spends his formative years surviving genocide.  But he still finds a way to make his experience meaningful for others by telling his story and organizing survivors.