Human Acts by Han Kang is a historical fiction novel set in Gwangju, South Korea, in 1980. Human Acts is narrated in the first-person point of view, and the narrator uses a distraught tone and a petrified mood. The novel's central character is Dong-ho, while the adversary is the South Korean Military canon. Han Kang's themes include uprising, military brutality, mishandling of the dead, and life in prison.
In the first chapter, Han Kang explores the themes of uprising and military brutality. The installation of a dictatorship regime in Gwangju, South Korea, fuels a vicious rebellion. Residents are not happy with the new leadership, and they rise to rebel against the new governance system. However, the military arrests and kills protesters, which violates their rights. In addition, there are rampant kidnappings by the military, causing people in South Korea to live in fear. Dong-ho's friend, Jeong-dae, participates in the rebellion. The military kidnaps him and takes him to an unknown location. When Dong-ho goes to the Provincial Office to report the disappearance of his friend, he discovers they killed Jeong-dae and buried him in a mysterious place.
The second chapter looks into how the police handle human corpses. The narrative is told from the perspective of Jeong-dae, who narrates how the police handle his corpse. The dead bodies of protesters in the Provincial Office are piled together and abandoned to rot. The mishandling of corpses is symbolic because it represents how the dictatorship regime suppresses the ordinary people without mercy. Jeong-dae says that the abandoned bodies are burned instead of giving them a decent burial.
The novel concludes by showing how the dictatorship regime represses the freedom of speech and the mistreatment of prisoners. When Eun-sook tries to publish a play that exposes how the government oppresses its citizens, she receives a vicious beating from the investigators who spy on her activities to ensure she does not express herself. In a different incident, an anonymous prisoner narrates how he was treated in prison after participating in the outlawed uprising. The prisoner explains how the inmates are denied their rights in jail. For instance, prison officers sexually abuse prisoners. After leaving prison, the victims find it difficult to adjust to the outside due to the horrifying experiences they endured in prison.
