Human Acts Essay Questions

How does Han approach such a politically charged historical event such as the Gwangju Uprising in her novel?

Far from offering a neutral historical perspective, Han Kang posits that the state-sanctioned violence that occurred in Gwangju connects to other instances of human brutality throughout history. Likewise, the civilian-led struggle for democracy embodied in the Gwangju Uprising reflects other liberation movements. Rather than write about history in a cut and dried way, Han enters the perspectives of fictionalized individuals personally impacted by the uprising. In this way, Han chose to approach writing about the Gwangju Uprising through a literary and poetic form. The structure of the novel connects the fractured lives of survivors (and, in Chapters 1 and 2, the existences of those killed).

Discuss the ethics of privacy in the context of the novel.

Han Kang has shared in interviews and in the epilogue of Human Acts about her concern for respecting the privacy of those who experienced the Gwangju Uprising or suffered in its aftermath. She describes poring over documents and asking her acquaintances about what they remember in order to research for the novel. In the epilogue, the writer asks the real Dong-ho's brother for permission to center the novel on Dong-ho. All of this demonstrates Han's intention to respect and honor the memories of those impacted by the uprising.

In Human Acts, the unnamed former prisoner and Seon-ju address a professor named Yoon who seeks their testimonies in order to write about the Gwangju Uprising (Chapters 4 and 5). They both confront Yoon about the ethics of his request. As Seon-ju asks in Chapter 5, "Is it possible to bear witness to the fact of a foot-long wooden ruler being repeatedly thrust" into her body? This reflects how some individuals prefer not to drag up painful and traumatic experiences.

How does the author write about absence?

Absence has its own presence in the novel. Many of the characters relive their memories (which often include traumatic experiences) in the present day. This causes them to experience time in a non-chronological way as memories resurface. Many of the characters strive to forget what haunts them. For example, Eun-sook resolves to forget each slap that an interrogator dealt to her, and Seon-ju keeps herself busy in an attempt to occupy herself and move on. Through it all, Dong-ho visits all the narrators in the novel. Death does not prevent him from appearing to them as a memory or apparition.

How did Han come to realize that Gwangju is connected to other human atrocities?

In the epilogue, the writer recalls watching a TV report about an illegal raid. Riot police conducted this raid on activists and tenants protesting forced evictions in Seoul. The writer's immediate response was to connect what she saw to Gwangju. In that way, "'Gwangju' had become another name for whatever is forcibly isolated, beaten down, and brutalized, for all that has been mutilated beyond repair" (Epilogue). Han also states that Korean government officials deciding how to address democratic uprisings in 1979 were inspired by the murderous way that the Cambodian government treated the Cambodian population. It clicked in Han's mind that she had to research the wider pattern of global human atrocities in order to write Human Acts.

Why might Han have chosen to end Chapter 6 with an image of sunlit flowers?

The title itself, Human Acts, encompasses the idea that the spectrum of human experience is vast. Violence and dignity paradoxically intertwine. While Han did her utmost to reveal the extent of damage done to people after the Gwangju Uprising, she also felt that she needed the novel to "move towards human dignity"(Shin). She calls this "that bright place, where the flowers bloom." In Chapter 6, Dong-ho's mother recalls her young son taking her by the hand and drawing her toward this place. Thus this chapter ends with a focus on human dignity.