Themes Chapter 7
This theme is captured when Kang’s research plunges her into recurring nightmares that overwhelm her in the dark.
The persistence of trauma.
The narrative perspective chosen to lend authenticity and intimacy to the chapter.
What is the first person POV.
The year in which Han Kang returns to Gwangju to retrace her childhood memories.
What is 2013
In Human Acts, this toxic‑decay metaphor describes how torture’s damage “lingers for decades in muscle and bone.
What does fire in the novel symbolize in regards to the state
Powerful destructive force of state control.
Explain the theme present here: what theme would be expressed here: “It was a typical old-style hanok, with the rooms arranged around a central courtyard, sliding paper doors, and a tiled roof. In the center of the courtyard was a flower bed with a stumpy camellia plant. Every year when the hot weather set in, rose creepers swept their carpet of blossoms up the wall, the petals so dark red they were almost black. Later, when the roses withered, the white hollyhocks surged up the wall of the annex to the height of a grown adult. The iron bars of the main gate were painted a pale straw color; when you pushed it open to go out, you could see the top of the battery factory. I remember the morning we moved: my father and uncle padding the corners of the paulownia wardrobe with a quilt, their movements deft and skillful.
Seoul, January 1980—I wouldn’t have believed anywhere could be so cold. Before moving out to Suyuri we spent three months in a tenement building, where the walls might as well have been made of plywood for all the good they did retaining heat. It was barely any warmer inside than out, and our breath puffed out of our bodies."
What is The lingering chill of collective trauma
or The soul’s sorrow radiates outward, chilling its surroundings
This passage is an example of what literary device: There were soldiers who were especially cruel.
There were paratroopers who carried the wounded on their backs all the way to the hospital…
There were soldiers who, when the order was given to fire on the crowd, pointed the barrels of their guns up into the air…
Anaphora for the repeating There were.
What now stands on the site of Kang’s childhood hanok?
A store selling home fixtures.
Who is the tallest teacher at Xisong?
Mr. Taylor
What do Dong-ho's and Jeong-Dae's tracksuits symbolize?
Youthful Innocence
This theme is also seen a lot in Nightsky with Exit wounds: In the first weeks of that winter, two strange men arrived at the house in Seoul in the middle of the night. They searched the house, and though the writer’s parents never explained what was happening, she knew that her parents’ attempts to be calm concealed their panic. In the next few months, relatives warned her parents that their phone lines might be tapped. And the writer learned that soldiers had shot Dong-ho, the youngest boy in the family who’d bought the Gwangju house from them.
What is Intergenerational trauma
The use of recurring nightmares and dream sequences to convey the psychological weight of her research.
What is Vivid imagery.
How many of the writer's family members were killed during the uprising?
What is 0.
The first book from Han kang that became popular was..
The Vegetarian
What does the Photograph of Chun Doo-hwan symbolize
Symbolizes the pain/trauma from the uprising lingers on
Think of a theme explored here:
“At night, though, when the grown-ups were all sitting in the kitchen and I knew I’d be safe at least until the end of the nine o’clock news, I crept into the main room in search of that book. I scanned every spine until finally I got to the top shelf; I still remember the moment when my gaze fell upon the mutilated face of a young woman, her features slashed through with a bayonet. Soundlessly, and without fuss, some tender thing deep inside me broke. Something that, until then, I hadn’t even realized was there.”
What is:
“Innocence shattered by the sudden shock of violence.”
Placing a vibrant 2013 wedding scene alongside memories of massacre to heighten emotional dissonance, is an example of what literary device?
What is Juxtaposition.
How many candles did the writer place at Dong-ho's grave?
What was, three candles.
What is the fastest animal in the world.
Falcon
“The woman in school uniform wiped the face of a young man whose throat had been sliced open by a bayonet, his red uvula poking out.”
symbolizes...
The brutality of the act is heightened by the contrast
between the innocence of the woman’s school uniform and the horrific nature of the man’s
death.
What theme is represented here:
“Her death was every bit as quiet and understated as she herself had been. Something seemed to flutter up from her face, like a bird escaping from her shuttered eyes above the oxygen mask. You stood there gaping at her wrinkled face, suddenly that of a corpse, and wondered where that fluttering, winged thing had disappeared to.”
“The candles burned steadily. Their orange flames undulating soundlessly, gradually being sucked into the center and hollowed out. Only then did I notice how incredibly cold my ankles were. Without realizing it, I’d been kneeling in a snowdrift that covered Dong-ho’s grave. The snow had soaked through my socks, seeping in right through to my skin. I stared, mute, at that flame’s wavering outline, fluttering like a bird’s translucent wing.”
What is, the nature of the Soul?
The soul is a delicate, transient presence that escapes the body like a bird, fragile yet capable of transcending physical confines.
What do the EM-Dashes represent? What effect are they meant to have on the reader?
They’re section breaks are marked by em‑dashes, creating deliberate pauses that fragment the narrative into discrete vignettes. each pause heightens suspense and gives emotional weight to each memory.
Why did Dong-ho's brother as the writer to write the novel?
What was in order to preserve Dong‑ho’s dignity and ensure that his story—and by extension, the stories of all those who suffered in Gwangju—cannot be forgotten, distorted, or dishonored.
Which City in Korea is Han Kang's hometown?
What is Gwangju
What do the candles symbolize?
The souls of the dead.