After finishing reading the book “Human Acts” by Han Kang, we wrote a personal response that captured our raw emotions and feelings towards the book. By answering a few prompts, I summarised my initial thoughts towards how Han Kang depicted the characters, how she used narrative perspectives, and the significance of using graphic imagery. Here is my response:

1. What are your immediate thoughts and feelings?
I am genuinely very shocked and disturbed by how brutal and inhumane people can act towards other innocent people, and it makes me question how they can behave in such a way. It made me wonder at first what was the soldiers’ motivation to keep on going, but then I started to notice that most of them had no other choice as it was either to kill or to be killed. I was especially speechless when the soldier killed Dong-Ho and the rest of the teenagers while laughing, even though the boys were doing everything they were told to do. Also, the last few chapters which portrayed the mother’s perspective towards Dong-Ho’s death really made me emotional – when she started blaming herself for his death, I started feeling angry towards how unfair the situation is, but also for the many other families who had to experience this feeling.

2. Why do you think the writer has included these moments?
I think one thing that was very interesting about the book was that she included various perspectives – not just the first point of view from Dong-Ho, but of others that somehow had a connection to him. I think it was to show readers that everyone was affected by what was happening at that time – how the effect kept on going throughout long periods of time. Every single chapter with different perspectives had varying degrees of brutality (both mentally and physically) but all of the moments together. One moment that made me very shocked was when the author revealed the severely harmed short-haired girl that was described at the start, turned out to be Jeong-mi. All the sweet moments with her brother that were described earlier made it even more distressing.

3. Do you think the book would have worked better with fewer graphic details? Why? Why not?

No, I personally don’t think it would have worked better with less. The graphical elements add to the intimacy that the author creates, and builds onto the severity of what actually happened – without it, it wouldn’t generate this much anger and sadness in readers. Without the immense details of the descriptions of the corpses and the inhumane harm caused by the soldiers, readers wouldn’t be able to ever imagine these scenes and wouldn’t understand the full extent of it. By forcing the readers to be exposed to these, it makes the book a lot more moving and memorable. The author also makes sure that the corpses all are quite distinct – as she describes the hairstyle, the figure, the scars, etc, which shows that she is trying to attach an identity to these dead bodies instead of turning them into “lumps of meat”.

4. What goodness is shown in the book?
One thought that comes to mind would be the goodness of people supporting one another, and the amount of care they can have for each other. I think the relationships such as Dong-Ho and his mother, Jeong-Dae and his sister, and the way that the elders would teach and support the younger ones – all showed that there was still adoration and care that could be seen in humans.  Also, the action of volunteering to identify the corpses, lighting candles for them, singing the national anthem, and wrapping them with the Taegukgi was one of the few specks of hope in the book of people showing any signs of goodness.