Human Acts
Human ActsHan Kang
Characters in Human Acts
6 characters, main characters first.Main characters
Dong-ho
A young boy who stays behind at a memorial site to help with the bodies of the dead, and around whom the novel turns.
Supporting characters
Dong-ho's mother
Dong-ho's mother, whose present-day soliloquy forms the novel's penultimate chapter and carries his loss across the decades.
Jeong-dae
Dong-ho's friend, who was beside him when the soldiers opened fire; the second chapter is told from his point of view.
Eun-sook
A young woman who helped tend the bodies after the uprising and later works as an editor facing state censorship in the mid-1980s.
Kim Jin-su
A survivor imprisoned and tortured for his part in the uprising, whose chapter follows the long aftermath.
Seon-ju
A survivor of torture during the uprising who becomes an activist and gives voice to what the state tried to silence.