When reading the novel, Human Acts by Han Kang, I frequently found myself confused about which characters were who and their ages/genders. I think this was mainly because of my unfamiliarity with Korean names and how a lot of them seemed quite similar to me. It was also due to the switching of narrators and time periods which meant you had to kind of adjust your mindset to fit the character who was narrating at the time. I had to do some research of my own about the Gwangju Uprising because I was unfamiliar with it. I’m still not 100% clear on the actual events of the Gwangju Uprising, but I think I understand most of the context needed to understand the novel a bit better. The use of memory and recalling events is largely significant in Human Acts because a large portion of the novel is based on recalling the past. Memory can be criticised for not being accurate and having biases subjective to the individual, however the concept of memory provides the reader with a more emotional connection to the characters and the story. There is an argument that can be made for whether a book, or anything, should be told simply based on the facts, but I believe that without some emotional connection, the event loses some significance. The fact that there is significant use of such vivid, detailed memories also suggests the importance of what was happening because we tend not to remember irrelevant details/events in our lives. I think that the novel definitely portrays a lot of sadness in the sense of the innocence which is lost from these such young children as a result of being exposed to mass murder and corpses. There is also the element of human nature both positive and negative which of course links to the title of the novel. The human nature that we are predators and killing is inevitable. And also the human nature that we want to do what we can to make others more content. For example the cleaning of the corpses before family/friends see the body, or the lighting of candles.