Pol Pot is a name that should evoke negative feelings in an American family similarly Mao Tse-tung or Adolf Hitler will usually do it. During his regime, he escorted many of Cambodia's cities to work on farms, forcibly freeing Cambodia from Western evils and returning to an agrarian culture. Teeda Butt Mam is one of the people forced to abandon a Cambodian city, Phnom Penh. His journey from the city to the camps, then finally to freedom is documented in the book To Destroy You is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family by JoAn D. Criddle. Criddle herself was one of the sponsors who helped her mother and her family reach the United States. Teeda Butt Mam's story is one of desperation and loss, but hope shines through in the end. Through artful and realistic depictions of Pol Pot's regime, the book compellingly impacts and engages readers, ultimately affirming that human hope shines through in the darkest of times. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Hope is a theme in Teeda's story, and human hope shines through, even though "the future seemed like a gaping black tunnel rushing to swallow me" (Criddle 101). This black tunnel is where the hope very often escapes, but black is a theme in and of itself Teeda, during a propaganda session, thinks: “The blouse just looks black Under the dye it is really bright red!” (Criddle 100) The tint can be taken as a symbol: the black tint is the bleak situation that hides their hope, but underneath the hope it really shines bright red, even if it is covered by the black tint book is the story of bright red hope shining through the darkest colors, even though “[they] had to hide [their] humanity, [they] still refused to surrender it to Angka. As long as [they] could laugh, the [they ] kidnappers had not won” (Criddle 85). This serves as a reaffirmation of human hope, and is the author's main argument and why he wrote the story: as a testimony to the power of hope and the will to prevail. As for how the author decides to tell Teeda's story, it is by forming an emotional connection with the reader. By describing grotesque scenes, the author can evoke a feeling of disgust, which is necessary for the reader to experience the events as they happen. For example, take this scene here: “The bodies had been packed into the well and others were scattered on the ground. Horrified, the men then saw a child who died as they watched” (Criddle 142). This description here is obviously something that most readers of the novel have never seen before, so the author describes it briefly, but effectively. Teeda herself was “stunned by the scene. Who were these people? What was their crime?” (Criddle 143), a reaction that many would share if they saw such a scene themselves. The plight of the Cambodian population is often described, as when Teeda states that “they were treated like wrecks, with no practical function in a society that only cared for 'useful' objects” (Criddle 111). Pol Pot treated his population as if they weren't even human. The world didn't particularly care. After all, “By decree, [they] lived in the middle of a utopia” (Criddle 79). The reader, on the other hand, gets a glimpse into the reality of the situation. They see what citizens have had to go through. Please note: this is just an example. Get a customized document from our writers now.