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Psychological Effects Of War In First They Killed My Father By Loung Ung

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Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi once said “... no child has ever waged a war; children are victims of war”. Throughout history, wars have continued to go on, but aside from the damage to land and resources, we don’t often look at how the children are affected by the bloodshed. Many times, children are the most impacted by war because they are in the most fragile part of their life. Children growing up during wartime have to struggle with and endure psychological and educational impacts, but somehow, they do grow as a person after it. War time can have a deeper, more mentally involved effect on children. The way that these children have to live and survive during the wartime leaves a psychological imprint on their minds. The author of First they Killed my Father, Loung Ung, has had to deal with these psychological impacts firsthand. When she was about six or seven years old, the Khmer Rouge took in Cambodia had risen to power to form a civilization that has “not been corrupted by the West” (Ung 312). Ung and her family had been sent to an Angkar village to live that type of life. At such a young age, she was told that “capitalists (the people from the city like Ung) should be shot and killed” (Ung 312). Being told that you’re not worthy of life at such a young age can really haunt a child. Just the fact that she was told the way she used to live is not right definitely leaves some sort of impact on a little girl’s mind. However, she’s not the only little girl who was

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