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In Human Acts, the trackpants that Dong-ho and Jeong-dae wear symbolize the youthful innocence that was destroyed during the Gwangju massacre. Even for middle schoolers, both Dong-ho and Jeong-dae are small for their age, meaning the exercise suits they wear as gym uniforms hang off them. But these oversized trackpants, initially representative of these boys’ normal, playful, childhood (and of their physical vulnerability) take on new meaning after the 5:18 crackdown. When soldiers shoot down Jeong-dae during a protest, Dong-ho can only identify his friend’s corpse by its pair of “light blue tracksuit bottoms, identical to [his] own.” Later, after Dong-ho has been similarly murdered, everyone from Dong-ho’s mother to the writer herself pictures the beloved boy in his oversized trackpants, an image that speaks to the adolescent phase Dong-ho was in when his was life was taken. Yet if the recurring symbolism of trackpants symbolizes the tragedy of youth cut short, it also provides a sense of strength and continuity to those who outlive Dong-ho. When the writer gets caught in a snowbank, she pictures Dong-ho in his trackpants and finds herself newly able to withstand the cold. And when Eun-sook sees a young male actor wearing a tracksuit, the memories of Dong-ho embolden her: “scalding tears burn from [her] eyes” at the sight, “but she does not look away.” In other words, trackpants represent the inhumanity of Dong-ho and Jeong-dae’s murders, but they also represent the way the boys’ memories ignite and inspire those that survived them.
Trackpants Quotes in Human Acts
The Human Acts quotes below all refer to the symbol of Trackpants. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3: The Editor, 1985
Quotes
Eun-sook closes her eyes. She does not want to see his face.
After you died I couldn’t hold a funeral, so my life became a funeral.
After you were wrapped in a tarpaulin and carted away in a garbage truck.
After sparkling jets of water sprayed unforgivably from the fountain.
Everywhere the lights of the temple shrines are burning.
In the flowers that bloom in spring, in the snowflakes. In the evenings that draw each day to a close. Sparks from the candles, burning in empty drinks bottles.
Scalding tears burn from Eun-sook’s open eyes, but she does not wipe them away. She glares fiercely at the boy’s face, at the movement of his silenced lips.
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Chapter 6: The Boy’s Mother, 2010
Quotes
Middle-school boys all had their hair cut short back then, didn’t they, but it seems to have gone out of fashion now. That’s how I knew it had to be you—I’d know that round little chestnut of a head anywhere. It was you, no mistake. Your brother’s handme-down school uniform was like a sack on you, wasn’t it? It took you till the third year to finally grow into it. In the mornings when you slipped out through the main gate with your book bag, and your clothes so neat and clean, ah, I could have gazed on that sight all day. This kid didn’t have any book bag with him; the hands swinging by his sides were empty. Well, he must have put it down somewhere. There was no mistaking those toothpick arms, poking out of your short shirt sleeves […] It was definitely you.
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Get the entire Human Acts LitChart as a printable PDF.
Trackpants Symbol Timeline in Human Acts
The timeline below shows where the symbol Trackpants appears in Human Acts. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: The Boy, 1980
...cover, but Jeong-dae is toppled. Seeing his friend on the ground, wearing the same blue trackpants that he himself has on, Dong-ho tries to rush to him. But before he can...
(full context)
...up in the fetal position. Dong-ho can’t picture anything other than Jeong-dae’s face, and his trackpants in the dirt. Like Dong-ho, Jeong-dae is unusually small, so much so that his sister...
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Chapter 3: The Editor, 1985
Seon-ju stays behind, as does Dong-ho (“you”), wearing his gym sweater and his blue trackpants. Eun-sook tries to convince the other soldiers to send him home, explaining that he is...
(full context)
...moments, the lights come up on the audience, and Eun-sook sees a little boy wearing trackpants, surrounded by older actors who are shrieking and moaning. The little boy, who is carrying...
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Chapter 6: The Boy’s Mother, 2010
...energetic walk, and the same small bodies that have not yet grown into their hand-me-down trackpants. “You’d come back to me this one time,” Dong-ho’s mother thinks, “and this doddery old...
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Epilogue: The Writer, 2013
...moment, the writer imagines Dong-ho guiding her through the gravestones, the snow melting around his trackpants. In reality, though, the writer simply leaves a note for her brother and heads to...
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