Revised Response to Never Fall Down

    I’ve recently just finished the book Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick.  The main character in this book, Arn, was an eleven year old boy when the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia.  The book is told from Arn’s point of view, who like all the other people from Cambodia became enslaved by the Khmer Rouge.  In this book there’s two interesting perspectives missing though.  Those perspectives are the Khmer Rouge’s and Peter Pond’s, the man who adopted Arn.  These two perspectives could differ greatly from each others and Arn's, making the story much more intriguing.
   
     I think seeing the story from the Khmer Rouge’s view would be so interesting because they’re the “bad guys” in this situation.  They killed so many people ruthlessly, including fellow soldiers.  Lots of these Khmer Rouge were teenagers and carried out orders because of fear.  When Arn was finished practicing on his instrument, he asked the soldier who supervised him, why the Khmer Rouge killed.  The soldier answered by saying, “They kill only so they won’t be killed themselves.” (McCormick 96).  This shows me that the Khmer Rouge were just as scared of dying as the slaves were.  They may have not wanted to slaughter people, but they did to protect their own lives.

     Peter Pond is an american dad of three who adopted Arn, and two other kids from the orphanage in Thailand.  One thing I wonder is, why did Peter even cared so much about those kids from the orphanage in Thailand?  He cared so much about the kids he got “very worry about the sick kid, very angry if one dies.” (159).  This strikes me odd because he didn’t even have to be in Thailand, he could’ve be in America living the good life with his wife and kids.  If we would have been able to see through Peter's eyes his motives would have seemed more clear and less confusing.  

     Overall this is a great book, and is written so you could see through Arn’s eyes.  But I also think having these two other important people(s) view of what was going on would have made this book better.  You could see how the enemies saw the war and enslavement, and how Arn looked through a wealthier american’s eyes.