When Broken Glass Floats

Chanrithy Him’s memoir, When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge, was first published in 2000. This study guide refers to the 2001 Kindle edition. In the text Him details her experiences as a young child in Cambodia. Him was only five when the autocratic communist Khmer Rouge took over the country, and she recounts the trauma she endured during the five years the regime remained in power. Him’s father was beaten to death by the Khmer Rouge, and she lost her mother and five siblings to the starvation and illnesses that ran rampant through Cambodia because of the harsh living conditions.

Despite these traumas, however, Him records the triumph of the spirit and the power of human connection in this memoir, which she wrote as part of her “determination,” she noted in Frontline interview, “to overcome the evil forces, the destructive forces of the Khmer Rouge.” (Pike, Amanda. “Pot Pol’s Shadow: Chanrithy Him - The Storyteller.” Frontline/World. Public Broadcasting Service. 2002.) When Broken Glass Floats won the Oregon Book Award and was a finalist for the Koriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize and the PEN USA West Literary Award. Him worked as a research associate on the Khmer Adolescent Project, studying the effects of trauma on Cambodian refugees. She published Rise of the Golden Aura, the first in a series of fiction novels, in 2017. She also travels the world speaking out against injustices like those she suffered as a child.

When Broken Glass Floats tells the story of Chanrithy Him’s childhood and adolescence under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Him was born in the Takeo Province in Cambodia in 1968. She was the fifth of 10 children, and when she was only three years old, war came to Cambodia. War forms her earliest memories and shapes the rest of her life.

This war was the consequence of years of disruption in Southeast Asia, as many countries flirted with communism. Communism marks a response to what many saw as a corrupt and exploitive system of uncontrolled capitalism. Communists believe that the wealthy exploit ordinary workers and contribute nothing of value to society. Communism seeks to dismantle hierarchical societal structures, such as those based on class, race, and wealth. Instead, it favors implementing a system in which every able-bodied individual works to support the community. Resources would be shared and distributed equitably, with no one person receiving more or less than any other.

The Khmer Rouge was a communist organization, and they allied with the North Vietnamese against the Cambodian government, resulting in a civil war. In 1975, when Him was only seven years old, the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia. Their aim was to institute an agricultural utopia based on communist principles. However, as Him’s story confirms, they failed miserably for many reasons. Rather than the radical equality espoused by communist theory, many of the Khmer Rouge used the revolution to inflict revenge on the upper classes. Anyone who was educated, such as Him’s father, became a target for elimination.

The Khmer Rouge, often referred to as Angka, meaning “organization,” executed a million people, often beating them to death to save bullets. In addition, they left the population with no doctors, teachers, or scientists, which meant that many of the new systems the Khmer Rouge wanted to implement failed miserably. At least 2 million more people died due to this failure, which resulted in widespread malnutrition and disease.

Him recounts these events through the eyes of a child, one who witnesses incredible atrocities, including the loss of both parents and five of her siblings. She begins by explaining why she wrote this memoir, which stems from her work as a research assistant with the Khmer Adolescent Project, started by one of Him’s teachers in Oregon, who realized that many Cambodian refugees who attended high school in the early 1980s had experienced terrible trauma under the Khmer Rouge. Him believed her work with the project was important and knew she needed to share her story as well, both to prevent such a tragedy from happening again and to honor all those she lost.

Him recalls a relatively happy childhood prior to the Khmer Rouge’s takeover, despite her early experiences of war. Her parents were relatively nontraditional; they loved and respected each other, and expected just as much from their daughters as from their sons. These early experiences armed Him for life under the Khmer Rouge. She describes how her family were removed from their home and resettled in rural areas, forced to build their own homes and perform hard physical labor.

She describes her father’s execution, a swift and cruel death, as well as the slower deaths of her mother and siblings from starvation, malnutrition, and illnesses caused by poor hygiene and overcrowding. She also shares her own keen intellect and self-sufficiency, treating her own injuries and finding her own food. However, Him never positions herself as a hero, and instead takes pains Chanrithy Him’s memoir, When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge, was first published in 2000. This study guide refers to the 2001 Kindle edition. In the text Him details her experiences as a young child in Cambodia. Him was only five when the autocratic communist Khmer Rouge took over the country, and she recounts the trauma she endured during the five years the regime remained in power. Him’s father was beaten to death by the Khmer Rouge, and she lost her mother and five siblings to the starvation and illnesses that ran rampant through Cambodia because of the harsh living conditions.

Despite these traumas, however, Him records the triumph of the spirit and the power of human connection in this memoir, which she wrote as part of her “determination,” she noted in Frontline interview, “to overcome the evil forces, the destructive forces of the Khmer Rouge.” (Pike, Amanda. “Pot Pol’s Shadow: Chanrithy Him - The Storyteller.” Frontline/World. Public Broadcasting Service. 2002.) When Broken Glass Floats won the Oregon Book Award and was a finalist for the Koriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize and the PEN USA West Literary Award. Him worked as a research associate on the Khmer Adolescent Project, studying the effects of trauma on Cambodian refugees. She published Rise of the Golden Aura, the first in a series of fiction novels, in 2017. She also travels the world speaking out against injustices like those she suffered as a child.

When Broken Glass Floats tells the story of Chanrithy Him’s childhood and adolescence under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Him was born in the Takeo Province in Cambodia in 1968. She was the fifth of 10 children, and when she was only three years old, war came to Cambodia. War forms her earliest memories and shapes the rest of her life.

This war was the consequence of years of disruption in Southeast Asia, as many countries flirted with communism. Communism marks a response to what many saw as a corrupt and exploitive system of uncontrolled capitalism. Communists believe that the wealthy exploit ordinary workers and contribute nothing of value to society. Communism seeks to dismantle hierarchical societal structures, such as those based on class, race, and wealth. Instead, it favors implementing a system in which every able-bodied individual works to support the community. Resources would be shared and distributed equitably, with no one person receiving more or less than any other.

The Khmer Rouge was a communist organization, and they allied with the North Vietnamese against the Cambodian government, resulting in a civil war. In 1975, when Him was only seven years old, the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia. Their aim was to institute an agricultural utopia based on communist principles. However, as Him’s story confirms, they failed miserably for many reasons. Rather than the radical equality espoused by communist theory, many of the Khmer Rouge used the revolution to inflict revenge on the upper classes. Anyone who was educated, such as Him’s father, became a target for elimination.

The Khmer Rouge, often referred to as Angka, meaning “organization,” executed a million people, often beating them to death to save bullets. In addition, they left the population with no doctors, teachers, or scientists, which meant that many of the new systems the Khmer Rouge wanted to implement failed miserably. At least 2 million more people died due to this failure, which resulted in widespread malnutrition and disease.

Him recounts these events through the eyes of a child, one who witnesses incredible atrocities, including the loss of both parents and five of her siblings. She begins by explaining why she wrote this memoir, which stems from her work as a research assistant with the Khmer Adolescent Project, started by one of Him’s teachers in Oregon, who realized that many Cambodian refugees who attended high school in the early 1980s had experienced terrible trauma under the Khmer Rouge. Him believed her work with the project was important and knew she needed to share her story as well, both to prevent such a tragedy from happening again and to honor all those she lost.

Him recalls a relatively happy childhood prior to the Khmer Rouge’s takeover, despite her early experiences of war. Her parents were relatively nontraditional; they loved and respected each other, and expected just as much from their daughters as from their sons. These early experiences armed Him for life under the Khmer Rouge. She describes how her family were removed from their home and resettled in rural areas, forced to build their own homes and perform hard physical labor.

She describes her father’s execution, a swift and cruel death, as well as the slower deaths of her mother and siblings from starvation, malnutrition, and illnesses caused by poor hygiene and overcrowding. She also shares her own keen intellect and self-sufficiency, treating her own injuries and finding her own food. However, Him never positions herself as a hero, and instead takes pains Chanrithy Him’s memoir, When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge, was first published in 2000. This study guide refers to the 2001 Kindle edition. In the text Him details her experiences as a young child in Cambodia. Him was only five when the autocratic communist Khmer Rouge took over the country, and she recounts the trauma she endured during the five years the regime remained in power. Him’s father was beaten to death by the Khmer Rouge, and she lost her mother and five siblings to the starvation and illnesses that ran rampant through Cambodia because of the harsh living conditions.

Despite these traumas, however, Him records the triumph of the spirit and the power of human connection in this memoir, which she wrote as part of her “determination,” she noted in Frontline interview, “to overcome the evil forces, the destructive forces of the Khmer Rouge.” (Pike, Amanda. “Pot Pol’s Shadow: Chanrithy Him - The Storyteller.” Frontline/World. Public Broadcasting Service. 2002.) When Broken Glass Floats won the Oregon Book Award and was a finalist for the Koriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize and the PEN USA West Literary Award. Him worked as a research associate on the Khmer Adolescent Project, studying the effects of trauma on Cambodian refugees. She published Rise of the Golden Aura, the first in a series of fiction novels, in 2017. She also travels the world speaking out against injustices like those she suffered as a child.

When Broken Glass Floats tells the story of Chanrithy Him’s childhood and adolescence under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Him was born in the Takeo Province in Cambodia in 1968. She was the fifth of 10 children, and when she was only three years old, war came to Cambodia. War forms her earliest memories and shapes the rest of her life.

This war was the consequence of years of disruption in Southeast Asia, as many countries flirted with communism. Communism marks a response to what many saw as a corrupt and exploitive system of uncontrolled capitalism. Communists believe that the wealthy exploit ordinary workers and contribute nothing of value to society. Communism seeks to dismantle hierarchical societal structures, such as those based on class, race, and wealth. Instead, it favors implementing a system in which every able-bodied individual works to support the community. Resources would be shared and distributed equitably, with no one person receiving more or less than any other.

The Khmer Rouge was a communist organization, and they allied with the North Vietnamese against the Cambodian government, resulting in a civil war. In 1975, when Him was only seven years old, the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia. Their aim was to institute an agricultural utopia based on communist principles. However, as Him’s story confirms, they failed miserably for many reasons. Rather than the radical equality espoused by communist theory, many of the Khmer Rouge used the revolution to inflict revenge on the upper classes. Anyone who was educated, such as Him’s father, became a target for elimination.

The Khmer Rouge, often referred to as Angka, meaning “organization,” executed a million people, often beating them to death to save bullets. In addition, they left the population with no doctors, teachers, or scientists, which meant that many of the new systems the Khmer Rouge wanted to implement failed miserably. At least 2 million more people died due to this failure, which resulted in widespread malnutrition and disease.

Him recounts these events through the eyes of a child, one who witnesses incredible atrocities, including the loss of both parents and five of her siblings. She begins by explaining why she wrote this memoir, which stems from her work as a research assistant with the Khmer Adolescent Project, started by one of Him’s teachers in Oregon, who realized that many Cambodian refugees who attended high school in the early 1980s had experienced terrible trauma under the Khmer Rouge. Him believed her work with the project was important and knew she needed to share her story as well, both to prevent such a tragedy from happening again and to honor all those she lost.

Him recalls a relatively happy childhood prior to the Khmer Rouge’s takeover, despite her early experiences of war. Her parents were relatively nontraditional; they loved and respected each other, and expected just as much from their daughters as from their sons. These early experiences armed Him for life under the Khmer Rouge. She describes how her family were removed from their home and resettled in rural areas, forced to build their own homes and perform hard physical labor.

She describes her father’s execution, a swift and cruel death, as well as the slower deaths of her mother and siblings from starvation, malnutrition, and illnesses caused by poor hygiene and overcrowding. She also shares her own keen intellect and self-sufficiency, treating her own injuries and finding her own food. However, Him never positions herself as a hero, and instead takes pains to record how she and her siblings take care of each other and how these connections, though sometimes strained, are never broken. The reader is left with a portrait of the triumph of the human spirit and the unbreakable bonds of family and community, which the Khmer Rouge tried and failed to dissolve.