When Broken Glass Floats

Proverbs and wise sayings appear throughout the text. The central proverb is the book’s title, which comes from a Cambodian saying about “what happens when good and evil are thrown together in the river of life” (19). In this saying, good is represented by a type of squash, klok, and evil by armbaeg, broken glass. Chea explains that while it may appear as if evil is winning, eventually good always triumphs: “The good will win over the evil. Now, klok sinks, and broken glass floats. But armbaeg will not float long. Soon klok will float instead, and then the good will prevail” (19).

Athy relies on this proverb to survive the darkest days of the Khmer Rouge’s regime, the loss of her parents and siblings, and starvation and illness. It previews the text’s content, which describes this period of broken glass floating, the Khmer Rouge regime, and also previews Athy’s basic optimism. She believes that injustice cannot prevail, at least not for long, and is eventually proven right.

Other proverbs guide the story as well. Before the Khmer Rouge come to power, Athy’s parents warn her that there “comes a time when a grain of rice sticks on a dog’s tail, and everyone will fight for it” (51). This saying initially bewilders Athy, but soon enough it makes perfect sense to her, and she realizes what her parents were trying to say: When people are desperate, they will do things they never thought possible. Athy, for example, will eat silkworms and burned rice; Mak will go without food to feed her children.

Other proverbs are used throughout the story to explain Athy’s behavior. When she and Cheng are trapped in the labor camp, she thinks of the proverb that states, “[a]t home there’s a separate mother, in the forest there’s only one mother” (136), to explain the closeness she feels to Cheng. Similarly, when she devours the food Barang gives her, she doesn’t feel guilty over her poor table manners. Instead, she remembers: “Follow the river by its winding path, follow the province/state according to its country” (211). In other words, one’s behavior must be guided by one’s conditions. Table manners may have been necessary once, but not during war or starvation.

Toward the story’s end, Athy relates rumors of purges among the Khmer Rouge leadership, with those from Southwestern Cambodia eliminating other leaders. The people are not supposed to know about these rumors, and they are forbidden to speak of them. Athy uses another proverb to illustrate how that is an impossible task: “Domrei gnob khom yok chon-ey tao kroob,” which means trying to cover a dead elephant with a “flat basket” (219). In many ways this saying encapsulates what the Khmer Rouge are attempting to do over all: to completely change a culture, to eliminate family ties, to turn children against parents and parents against culture. It’s an impossible and cruel process, and Athy relies on traditional Cambodian sayings and wisdom to remind herself of this repeatedly.