Death Price is a short story by Outhine Bounyavong, a famous Lao writer, published in 1960 along

with other famous short stories, in addition to being translated into English. The whole setting of this
story is drawn at a military airport, about a woman named Thongsy who waited for days there with
the hopeless of later meeting her soldier husband on the battlefield, but she was repeatedly canceled
due to lack of money to bribe officials. The story has many sublime emotions, from the reader's
perspective, I find this story very good and very meaningful.

This story has a lot of psychological struggles of the main character from anger to despair and finally
to joy. The story opens with the mention of an unnamed man who successfully passed a test and
quickly won a job in the government, he worked for an airport serving the military. He can be seen as
an important figure at this airport, who can get on a plane depending on whether he call name or not.
Everyone worries about forgetting their name, Thongsy is one of them. Thongsy was introduced by
the author as the wife of a low-ranking soldier in the army. Thongsy has been canceled 3 times. On
the first flight, Thongsy and the children were looking forward to being called, but it did not happen.
She was forced to wait for the next flight until 12 noon because the first flight was announced to be
full. Without food or drink, she waited patiently and at 12 o'clock came. Again, she expected to be
called, but the answer was no and continued to wait until the next trip and the reason was because
the wife of a certain high-ranking military official had bribed him. With the hot sun of the summer of
May and the fatigue of mother and daughter, Thongsy's poverty is reflected in the detail that she had
to bite her teeth to spend 2000 kip out of the total 5000 kip borrowed to carry around. She tried to
save as much as she could so she could wait patiently for the 3rd trip. Because she waited so long, she
had the idea of selling her last property, her parents' earrings, to turned back to bribe the lieutenant
to get on the plane. However, she did not do so. The reader can easily spot her waiting with anger and
despair. With a glimmer of hope, she and the others continued to choose to wait. In the end, the third
flight of the day was delayed until tomorrow, and Thosy left regretfully after a long day of injustice
she had spent at the airport. The psychological struggle is once again shown by her decision to go to
the lieutenant's office to bribe him 500 kip. His refusal to accept her bribe is predictable because the
meager amount is not enough for him to trade his luck. It seemed like luck had come to Thongsy and
her son the next day because they were the last passengers to be called to board the plane. When
hope was budding, she had to receive a disappointing ending when everything was ready to be
replaced by other powerful people. The injustice for Thongsy at this time makes the reader feel
uncomfortable and angry. However, in the end, Thongsy went from regret, anger to sadness and luck,
because the plane went and did not return due to technical problems in flight. Thongsy is protected
by god, she's almost grateful that even her 500 kip can't buy death.

This story is quite close to the reality of society not only in the 1960s but also today, corruption is also
widespread, especially for those with titles in the government. They often abuse their positions of
power to take money from the people and only give priority to those who have minted coins. And the
poor can only hope that God will help them. Thongsy's story is really real because it almost exposes
the corrupt and helps the reader realize that without money, only injustice can be tolerated. The story
also tells the reader that society has always had two classes: the rich and the poor. The man with a
high position in the military airport does not have a specific name, possibly a hint to help the reader
understand that there are many other cases of corruption, using other important positions. in which
they take people's money as a form of entertainment for themselves. They care about those who
have money, and what the poor receive is considered almsgiving because they are completely
ignored.

The story makes the reader initially angry and resentful at the injustice that thongsy has to endure,
the reader's anger culminates when the lucky moment that thongsy has been waiting for was stolen
in an instant. However, in the end what made me feel the most gloating was when the flight she
missed was 500 kip can't buy death either.

This story is quite close to the reality of society not only in the 1960s but also today, corruption is also
widespread, especially for those with titles in the government. They often abuse their positions of
power to take money from the people and only give priority to those who have minted coins. And the
poor can only hope that God will help them. Thongsy's story is really real because it almost exposes
the corrupt and helps the reader realize that without money, only injustice can be tolerated. The story
also tells the reader that society has always had two classes: the rich and the poor. The man with a
high position in the military airport does not have a specific name, possibly a hint to help the reader
understand that there are many other cases of corruption, using other important positions. in which
they take people's money as a form of entertainment for themselves. They care about those who
have money, and what the poor receive is considered almsgiving because they are completely
ignored.

The story makes the reader initially angry and resentful at the injustice that thongsy has to endure,
the reader's anger culminates when the lucky moment that thongsy has been waiting for. was stolen
in an instant. However, in the end, the thing that made me gloat the most was when the flight she
paid for 500 kip still had no problems. Through the story, I found it quite meaningful, carrying many
emotions that made me feel interesting, angry and even happy.