Name: Em DanouGroup: G2
Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter
In the story Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy) note down by Geoff Ryman. Pol Pot, a man who killed millions of people, had such a gorgeous daughter name Sith. However, she had a completely different attitude compared to her father. Most of the parts of the story talked about horror, which is the best theme to describe this storybook. While reading this book, it made me imagine the real action that happened in the story.
The story describes a house in Phnom Penh, which is own by the daughter of the leader of Khmer Rouge regime. By the spirits who have died in the house before. Pol Pot’s daughter, as an exceptionally rich and modern youngster. She likes to go shopping at Soriya mall every day to buy or exchange a mobile phone (Hello) as in 2014 there was no other mobile phone shop available in Phnom Penh. While at the same time, she falls in love with a country boy whose name Dara. He is the businessman who sells a mobile phone at the Soriya Market. Furthermore, in order to conceal her true identity, she lied to Dara but later on, she changed to be a good person. There are also ten simple rules that she created by herself to keep her away from all disagreeableness. And also broke her rules because of her love with Dara. And happened with scenes behind her as the ghosts because all their families and friends died, and having no one left to remember and pay for them, by some of the people killed by her father’s regime haunt her. At the same time, Sith also assembles some of the fact that exposition about Khmer Rouge that appeared with the ghosts by needs her to help them. In the novel, Sith had never thought about her families or her country’s past until the spirit of the people who were killed by her father’s regime visited her. Thus, the ghosts want Sith to preserve their pictures (which popped out of her computer’s printer) and their names, that want sith write on the photograph at the old house at (Monivong Boulevard). By confronting the past, one day she did not go to Soriya Market. On the other hand, she went to the torture museum of Tuol Sleng, she saw the photo of the boy, who she falls in love with, is Dara. That showed by the ghost, so she found the solution to the problem and still the theme resolution of the story end everything. She reversed something with the most beautiful until she became the one who has earned the trust. And Sith gains a future for herself and her boyfriend, is Dara.
Sith was a young teen who loved to go shopping, being fashionable, and acting like a woman on Thai television. Moreover, she was the child who disliked her own father because he had killed tons of people in the Khmer Rouge period. In addition, she did not like being close to someone else. Bases on the actions she did in the story, she had made 10 simple rules for herself to prevent her from awfulness. However, those rules made her life full of unhappiness. As a result, she unintentionally to break all of those rules when she met Dara and the ghosts that kept following her. It made her think about the past that “Why don’t they just let it go?” This made her broke the first rule, which is -Never think about the past or politics. In addition, when she went to the torture museum of Toul Sleng .The ghosts in the photos stared out at her like the faces from her, who was Dara with a faraway situation that made her tears dropped down all over her face and she wanted to be ill. She also broke rule number 2 -Ignore ghosts. They cannot hurt you. Moreover she went to Toul Sleng (that it a high school before) so she broke rule number 3 which is -Do not go to school. Hire Tutors. Don’t do homework. It is disturbing. Another rule she has broken , when she to go Tuol Sleng and The old house , she drove by older Motoboy with a battered, rusty bike -Always be driven everywhere in either the Mercedes or the BMW so she broke rule number 4 . For rule number 5 -Avoid all well-dressed Cambodian boys. They are the sons of the estimated 250,000 new generals created by the regime. Their sons can behave with impunity. And for the rule 6 -Avoid all men with potbellies. They eat too well and therefore must be corrupt, both of this rules are also broke. Another one, she showed off her car again might humiliate Dara, so she bankrupted her rule 7 -Avoid anyone who drives a Toyota Viva or Honda Dream Motorcycle. And when her bag, the telephone rang. She phones out of her bag and pushed the green button and put them her ear. Then she spoke ‘How did you get my number’. -Don’t answer letters or phone calls, she broke her rules number 8. And then -Never make any friends but when Dara’s older brother Yuth came back for lunch. And met her. sith talk with him. The last point, when sith said ‘Tomorrow, can you come early’ his name’s Sovann that living on Monivong like sith too .So she broke rule number 9. For about her broke rule number 10 is -Never love someone, but she loved Dara.
The reason why she broke the rules and she changed because of her love with Dara. Many things happened to her after she met the ghosts and Dara. For instance, the ghosts approaching her for help, contacting her with her phone call, in her bag, the telephone rang, the robot dog climbing the stairs and said to her in a warm, friendly voice. And especially when she went to museum Toul Sleng and went back to the old house. And she has adopted all of this point. For my own real feeling, I think that when I read this novel and learned about her rules I thought she would not change because she was a very stubborn girl. But at the end of the story, she opened herself and accepted changes which made everything about her beautiful and the people around her too. I am so interested in the meaning of the story especially the main character, Sith.
Another main character is Dara who had the static kind of personality, and the person who is honest and love Sith with all his heart. He was a normal person in a family that lived in the tiny house in the countryside because they were poor and most of the people in Cambodia were poor people living in an area with no electricity. Another important character in the story is Yuth and Motoboy .Yuth is Dara’s older brother. He told Sith about the situation in his family living a poor life and let Sith know about Khmer Rouge. Everything he told her made Sith thought about the past. As for Motoboy, he was a man that living in the poor situation and a motor driver in Phnom Penh. Furthermore, for motoboy in the story who waited outside the hotel in baseball caps and bling and drove Sith back to the Hilton and took her to the old house on Monivong Boulevard. He still waited outside, especially helped Sith all situation which is that when she needed.
In my point of view, the story was set in Phnom Penh. Because during the Pol Pot regime is a place that the start of the history. On 17 April 1975, the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh and the evacuation begins. The promise of leaving Phnom Penh only three days became three years. Moreover, this story had described The Toul Sleng Genocide Museum( before Toul Sleng is a high school ) Toul Sleng, before is the place and the darkness with the painful killing of people in Phnom Penh by The Khmer Rouge, That is a museum in Phnom Penh the capital of Cambodia nowadays. And the offer does have history want to remain all the memories that humans in the past killed by the Pol Pot in Phnom Penh. So about the story it set and noted in the Phnom Penh.
In the story, the ghosts existed in order to point out how Sith is like. All of Forty-two of her mobile phones started to ring and it comes from the bathroom and inside closets, absolutely she tried to hide the phone in the pillow in a spare bedroom and put another pillow on top of it and then closed the door. One more thing when she was in the ground-floor garage and she heard a phone call after that she picked it up and a child spoke to her was crying and said ” I’m all alone ” then rang someone else, and said “All my family is dead. I do not know where I am. My name is…” Moreover, the ghost showed up when she went to torture museum of Tuol Sleng and every time she looked at the photograph they stared out at her. Furthermore ‘The ghost rang her phone and spoke to her and showed she about their family are dead’, the last point, the ghost wanted her to write their names in the families and then wrote on the photos. All of this, they needed help because to expose Sith to find their families and relative that died in Pol Pot. For my outlook, the ghosts are the commitment of their purpose that needs.
For the whole story, one of the best part I really appreciate is Sith’s patience and tenacity when she brave enough to face the problems at the old house with Moto boy. Moreover, her persistence helped her to pass through all the obstacles and did not afraid of anything. Another one is when she loved Dara, she never think Dara that he living in a poor family situation but she still loved him until sith gains a future who seems ready to marry her. On the other hand, some parts of this story that I disagree is the fact that she hated her father for his committing a brutal crime toward innocent people and wanted to erase him from the memories. For this reason, I thought that no matter how cruel her father was, she should not hate or want to forget anything about her dad.
To sum up, these whole stories wanted to show us about the suffering of people such as families and relatives who had passed away during the Pol Pot regime. Also, it makes us understand the struggle of living in poor condition. After Khmer Rouge has ended, there are still some effects on the social, especially several of meanings were hidden in the story, which makes us know what is good and bad.
