English 089 - Somaly Mam Coping with Differences

Mitchelena Homere

professor Cohen

English 089

3-25-14

Somaly Mam Coping With Differences

        In life it can be very difficult to adjust to changes. So far in the story “The Road Of Lost Innocence”, Somaly Mam has lived a horrible lifestyle for a very long time. At this point in the story her lifestyle is beginning to change for the better. She seemed to be having a hard time adjusting to the better things life may have to offer. Due to the fact that she lived a horrible life in Cambodia, she is a bit brainwashed by all of it. She did not enjoy being a prostitute, however she is mentally scarred by her past because of the way she was treated.

        Somaly Mam spent most of her life being treated like dirt. She had to sell her body against her will and was often raped. She stayed at a brothel to pay off her grandfathers debts, and lived the lifestyle of a prostitute. This was her everyday lifestyle, she coped with it by trying to stay strong. She looked at this lifestyle as being temporary. She says “Pain is temporary. It goes away if you let your brain go numb”(Mam 25). Somaly Mam seemed to have her intentions of escaping, however she did get this opportunity.

        When she was about 20 years old she met a French man named Pierre Legros, he was a humanitarian worker who helped her leave prostitition. She says “He asked where I came from, how I had come to prostitution, why I was doing it, and whether I wanted to get out. He listened. And I, who had always been silent, began to find out that I was talking”(Mam 76). This quote explains how Ms. Mam did something different by opening up to someone new. She was not the type to talk about her problems or express her feelings due to the fact that she was raised that way, and it was considered to be the Cambodian culture. She mentions it when she says “ the more you let people know about yourself-- the more  you speak-- the more you expose yourself to danger”(Mam 14).

        Ms. Mam grew up in such a disgusting environment to the point where she did not realize that there can be better environments to live in. For example she says “ but the bathroom was strange too. It was very clean, but I had to look everywhere for the basin of water to wash myself. The only water I could see amid the shiny taps and empty white containers was a tiny amount at the bottom of the toilet. I had never seen a toilet like that, so I thought it must have been the washing bowl”(Mam 68). Somaly Mam was completely brainwashed from her past living conditions, she did not recognize the toilet from the shower. She did not have showers and soap bars like most people, she washed up like a savage, there were no showers for her. This was a rare change for her.