Human Acts is a novel written by South Korean author Han Kang, first published in 2014. The novel explores the events of the Gwangju Uprising in 1980, an uprising in South Korea that was brutally suppressed by the government. It follows the experiences of several characters who are impacted by the event, and centers on Dong-ho, a middle-school boy who is killed by the army during the uprising. Through the perspectives of these characters, the novel touches on themes of trauma, grief, and the long-lasting effects of state violence on individuals and society as a whole. Human Acts has been widely praised for its lyrical and evocative writing, as well as its powerful portrayal of the human cost of political violence.

Content Warning: Human Acts features graphic depictions of violence, sexual violence, and death. It also mentions a death by suicide.

Plot Summary

Divided into six chapters and an epilogue, Human Acts explores the Gwangju Uprising and its aftermath through the eyes of seven characters.

Chapter 1 follows Dong-ho, a middle-school boy who becomes involved in the civilian militia when he shows up at the Provincial Office searching for the body of his friend, Jeong-dae. A group of volunteers set up a makeshift morgue at the Provincial Office, cleaning the corpses, putting out posters to help their families find the bodies, and holding group funeral services. Dong-ho volunteers to assist with these administrations, working alongside two young women: Eun-sook and Seon-ju. While he carries out these duties, he wonders about the human soul and struggles to understand why his own country is attacking his city. The civilians receive intelligence that the army will be entering the city that night, and knowing that they may all face death, many of the other characters tell Dong-ho to return home. His own mother shows up to plead with him, and he assures her that he’ll be home in time for dinner. However, in later sections, it is revealed that he stays behind and is killed.

Chapter 2 follows Jeong-dae after his death. His body is loaded into a military truck with others and stacked in an empty lot, left to rot and decay in the sun. Jeong-dae’s soul narrates this section, revealing that he still has a consciousness after death, but cannot communicate with other souls or even leave his body. He learns to sense whether other souls are alive or dead, and thus realizes his sister has also been killed. He feels horror at being trapped near his damaged, abused corpse, and continually questions why the soldiers took him and his sister’s life. Finally, the soldiers return and burn the pile of bodies, releasing Jeong-dae’s soul from his corpse; he resolves to find Dong-ho. However, at that moment, he hears a loud noise and realizes that Dong-ho has died.

Chapter 3 takes place 5 years later and follows Eun-sook, who works as an editor for a publishing company. After the trauma she endured at the Gwangju Uprising, Eun-sook dropped out of college to support her family, but continues to see signs of state oppression and violence everywhere. Because she worked with a translator who is wanted by the police, Eun-sook is brought in for interrogation and slapped seven times across the face, leaving it bloody and swollen. That week, she goes to pick up a proof of a play from the censor’s office and sees that it has been so censored that it is unpublishable. In the final scene, she attends the play, wondering if the police will shut it down. However, the actors mouth or scream the censored lines, rendering them unintelligible. Eun-sook cries as she watches the play, which focuses on the grief of the Gwangju Uprising, and mouths Dong-ho’s name.

Chapter 4 takes place in 1990, and an unnamed prisoner of the Gwangju Uprising shares his memories of prison and his life after with a professor who is writing a dissertation about the Gwangju Uprising. The prisoner provides horrifying details of the torture he and the other prisoners endured, as well as the inhumane conditions of their imprisonment. After prison, the narrator runs into Jin-su one day on the street. Much like the narrator himself, Jin-su struggles to adapt to ordinary life after the trauma he has endured. Both of them self-medicate with alcohol, and struggle to hold meaningful relationships or employment. After seven years of occasional meetups between the two, Jin-su takes his life. The narrator tells the professor that he has no answers for why any of these things have happened, and suggests that he examine his own sense of humanity instead.

Chapter 5 follows Seon-ju in 2002 as she works as a transcriber for an environmental organization. She debates sharing her testimony about the Gwangju Uprising, after a request for an interview from a professor named Yoon. She ultimately decides against it, finding the past too painful to recall. Seon-ju also reflects on her history with the labor movement, and her friendship with a prominent leader of the movement named Seong-hee. In the present, Seon-ju decides to visit Seong-hee in the hospital where she is dying.

Chapter 6 turns to the perspective of Dong-ho’s mother, now an old and feeble woman. Decades after Dong-ho’s death, she still struggles with feelings of guilt and grief, while the tragedy destroys her remaining two son’s relationship with each other. She reminisces on how she also became involved in activism following Dong-ho’s death, protesting dictator Chun Doo-hwan’s authoritarian rule with other bereaved families.

In the Epilogue, a character known as “The Writer,” who serves as a stand-in for author Han Kang, explains her motivations behind writing Human Acts. She remembers that when she was nine years old, her family moved out of her childhood home and relocated to Seoul. Dong-ho’s family moved into this home, and that summer, the Gwangju Uprising took place and Dong-ho was killed. As a child, she overheard her parents talking about the violence, and saw photographs of the horrific treatment of bodies slain by soldiers, which forever impacted her. In her research for the book, the Writer meets with Dong-ho’s brother who gives her permission to tell Dong-ho’s story.