Human Acts Korean Han Kang

human acts

Gwangju, May 1980. Survivors say in interviews that the experience is similar to radioactive exposure. The exposed substance does not disappear. Even if a person who is exposed to radiation dies, or if he burns himself to leave only bones.

Likewise, it still hasn’t gone away. 36 years later, it sometimes comes back to life. In different places, different times, in the same way. In a world where things that shouldn’t happen should happen once in a while. How should we deal with unhealed memories?

p134 “Some memories don’t heal. They don’t fade away over time, but rather they just leave them and everything else wears off slowly. The world goes dark, like light bulbs going out one by one. I know I’m not a safe person either.”


Author Han Kang decided to stare at the wound again and mourn through the novel The Boy Is Coming. The novel, which consists of six chapters, centers on boy Dong-ho and contains the voices of various people who were in Gwangju in May 1980.




“I was sitting at my desk feeling punished,” the author says while writing the novel. Readers of this book may have to turn over the bookshelves with similar sentiments. It may not be easy to muster up the courage to look again at the festering wounds, but I am writing this with the hope that you will remember them together.


1. Boy Witnesses Death of Friend

The first chapter is about Dong-ho, a boy who witnessed the death of his friend. Dong-ho and Jung-dae, who live in the same house, go to the same middle school. (Jung-dae and Jung-mi live in Dong-ho’s house by rent.) Otherwise, they would have taken a nap and played badminton in the yard.


Boys didn’t know. Why soldiers beat and killed people. I was just out on the street looking for her because Jeong-mi was gone. Adults were demonstrating and told her not to go anywhere, that last night she had shot dead in the station, but they had no idea they were going to die. What did they do.


But Jung-dae died. When the street was in chaos because he was surprised by the sudden sound of the gunshot. Dong-ho lost his hand while running away. The bullet hit Jung-dae on the side, and he became as old as a monster doll. Leaving that friend behind, Dong-ho ran away. I was so scared that I went home thinking about where I could not find the sniper.

When he arrives at home and sees the out-of-pocket room, the boy finally thinks of his friend, who was shot dead. Dong-ho suffers from rising guilt.

p36 “If Jeong-mi suddenly came in through the gate, she would run out and kneel down. She would ask me to go to the provincial government office and find Jeong-dae. Then you’re my friend. And you’re a person. I’ll get beaten up as soon as Jeong-mi hits me. I’ll beg for your forgiveness.”

On the day of his death, the young boy’s soul was shattered. He goes to the provincial government office, searching for his friend and for the help of the corpses. And somehow he ended up staying there to help out the little things. It wasn’t a difficult task. For those who come looking for friends and family, like yourself, open a covering to show their dead bodies and identify themselves.

At the provincial government office, which is full of the smell of dead bodies, Dong-ho vows as he sees the bereaved families sobbing. “I won’t forgive anything. Even myself.”




2. “Who killed me, why?”

The narrator in Chapter 2 is the soul of Zheng He, who died. When I came to my senses, I saw a thin, moistened face that had been bleeding a lot. I was scared to think that I didn’t know anyone among the countless decaying bodies, but Zheng He couldn’t go anywhere. I couldn’t close my eyes or sleep. Zheng He realizes that a soul can only hover around its rotting body.


And I think, I want them to show up in the dreams of the people who killed them. I want them to see their eyes in the nightmares.

But I have no energy in my soul. The life of a third-year middle school boy, Jeong-dae, who wanted to grow up, do push-ups 40 times in a row, and hug a woman one day, ended in vain.

p57 “Think of my side that’s rotting.
Think of the bullet that went through there.





Think of a cold trigger.

Think of the warm fingers that pulled it.
Think of the eyes that aim at me.
Think of the man who ordered you to shoot.”.



human acts

3. “Are all the people left today really going to die?”

Let’s come back to the provincial government office where Dong-ho is. The atmosphere is unusual. Martial law forces will come to the provincial government office tonight, and they will kill all the rest. The older brothers told them to go home, leaving only those who were ready. But Dong-ho didn’t go. My mom came to the provincial government office and asked me to go back home because I was going to die if I stayed here, but I still have until the end.

Why? For the sake of the dead? Because he thought he could live? Or with the faintest conviction that he isn’t afraid to die? Probably not. What made the choice when a child huddled under a window to tell him he was hungry and asked if he could quickly bring back leftover castella from the conference room and eat it.

p114 “I didn’t know that the soldiers were overwhelmingly strong. The only strange thing is that something as strong as their strength was overwhelming me.
Conscience.
Yes, conscience.
That’s the scariest thing in the world.”



Whatever heart they were left in the provincial government, martial law forces entered the provincial government as scheduled, and civil forces were defeated thoroughly. The older brothers, who were on guard with guns, couldn’t pull the trigger even when they saw soldiers coming up the stairs approaching in the dark. They couldn’t do that because they knew that pulling the trigger would kill people. During the crackdown, the soldiers even brutally killed the children who surrendered. And there, Dong-ho died.





4. Since that day, “I fight every day against the disgrace of surviving.”

From chapter 3 of the novel, after Dong-ho dies and the civilian army is defeated by the martial law army, it progresses to the point of view of the survivors. They are taken away with labels ‘extremist’ and ‘red’ and subjected to terrible torture.

p167 “Can you testify that a thirty centimeter tree man has come in dozens of times to the end of the womb? Can you testify that a rifle headboard ripped and killed the entrance to the womb?”

p106 “No matter how I answered it, the hood of the rifle flew towards my face. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around my head and stepped back toward the wall. When I collapsed, they stepped on my back and waist. I flipped over because I thought I was going to lose my breath, and I hit my shin with my boots.”


The victims were released as Christmas special envoys the following year. They are free but the pain is not over. Ten years have passed, but the pain becomes clearer, let alone over. From those who are angry that they will take their tormentors home when they die, to those who cut their wrists six times due to trauma, to those who feel guilty and ashamed that they survived. Everyone is living in hell. Gwangju is not a thing that passed to them, even though no one will shed tears for them anymore.

p126 “In the sleeplessness and nightmares of each day, the painkillers and sleep inducers of each day, we were no longer young. No one cared or shed tears for us anymore. Even ourselves despised us.”

p136 “I am fighting. I fight by myself every day. I fight the disgrace of surviving. I fight the fact that I am a human being. I fight the idea that death is the only way out of that fact.”





5. My friend, my brother, my mother’s story

In fact, there are already enough novels about Gwangju in May. The reason why “The Boy Is Coming” is special is that the characters feel close as if they are my family or friends. Rather than focusing on accusing the case, I think it is thanks to the narrative method that pays attention to the stories of individuals living with wounds. When I read Chapter 6, the monologue of a mother who lost her son, I felt like my heart was breaking down.

p185 “When I visited you on the last day, go into the evening so gentle, I wish I hadn’t told you. I should have gone home with confidence and done that to my father. I lock the door at 6 and come home. We all promised to have dinner together.
That you didn’t come in by seven o’clock Grandi. That’s how I lost you forever.”



When asked which readers would like to read “The Boy Is Coming,” writer Han Kang replied, “I hope young readers and young readers will read it a lot.” Gwangju is now increasingly not being mentioned, and since detailed circumstances do not appear in textbooks and education is not available, everyone naturally does not know.

Not long ago, former President Chun Doo-hwan denied the order to fire and said, “Actually, ‘Gwangju incident’ has nothing to do with me.” While we forgot about them, Gwangju was being killed several times.

In fact, I forgot about Gwangju for a long time until I read this book. It was hard enough to cover the book several times and wipe away my tears, but now I am glad to read it and remember it.

“After losing you, our time has become evening. Our houses and streets have become evening. In the evening, when it is no longer dark or bright again, we eat, walk, and sleep.”

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