First They Killed My Father demonstrates that when people live in constant fear they begin to live only for themselves. Discuss:
             The constant fear, which is portrayed by the Ung family, is one which would push any person who experienced this to only fend for themselves, as it is the only way to survive.
             Human adaptability is clearly shown in the text through Pa's sense to become friendly with the chief and the base people, which is a source of procuring enough food for his family.
             The parents of teenagers understand that if the young women are not sent away the soldiers will have their way with them, no matter what, and if the young men are not sent away they will be forcefully conscripted into the Angkar army. Therefor the parents are unselfishly helping their offspring to survive, while placing their own lives at risk.
             The biggest rule that the Angkar enforce is that anything that you own, is the community's also. To survive, this rule needs to be broken, as there is not enough food to go around between the family, let alone the community. Everyone realises this and knows to hide any extra food they may have.
             The soldiers prosecuted a man who caught and ate a stray dog without giving any of it to his community. The dog had virtually no meat on it but the man was still killed for not giving any of it to the Angkar. This is a perfect example of power crazed people. If you were to be killed for this then there is every reason to live in fear. Still, through this fear the Cambodian people had enough sense to see that if they lived by the Angkar's rules, then there was no hope of survival.
             The human ability to change, understand and counter-act life's challenges is an everyday reaction. Who of us has actually had to do this in a tightly regimented, unknown environment? The world, as we know it, may be ordered but is a controlled environment. The Angkar attempted this controlled environment.
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