What is a memory? What is the point of exploring memories? Why do we hold on to memories? These were just some of the questions we explored in our introductory lessons to Human Acts by Han Kang, the next novel we will be studying in English class. Human Acts revolves around the death of a boy named Dong-Ho during the 1980 Gwangju Uprising in South Korea, and how his death has affected the lives of numerous other people, ranging from his best friend at the time to an activist in the present day. What immediately stood out to me when reading the novel for the first time was Han Kang’s usage of narrative perspective throughout the novel. She uses a combination of first-person, second-person, and third-person, and this helps emphasise the far-reaching impacts of Dong-Ho’s death and the tragedy that Gwangju Uprising. No person; no point of view is free. Another concept that came up, as I suggested in the introduction to this reflection, is the concept of memories, and the impact they have. Human Acts can be better described as a collection of memories as opposed to a singular novel, but what unites these memories are the Gwangju Uprising and the themes they share: betrayal, loss, but also hope. We deliberated upon how the word ‘memory’ differs from the word ‘history’, and though this is something I believe we all intuitively have an idea of, it isn’t something I have explored academically before. I believe that whereas history carries a sense of objectivity, memories are much more personal and subjective. When recalling events that we have experienced in our lives, we don’t say, “I have a history of…” We instead say, “I have a memory of…” Conversely, we don’t study from ‘memory’ textbooks; we use history textbooks. Thus, I was able to conclude that Human Acts can be best described as a subjective memory of an objective history.