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Since 1948, the Taegukgi (also anglicized as the Taegeuk) has been the national flag of South Korea. The flag’s white background represents the land South Korea sits on, while the blue and red circle at the center is meant to symbolize the Korean people. The four sets of black lines, one in each corner, represent the nation’s government. In the novel, the Taegukgi is used in funerals for murdered protestors, a ritual that confuses Dong-ho, as it was the government of the nation the flags represent that killed the protestors.
Taegukgi Quotes in Human Acts
The Human Acts quotes below are all either spoken by Taegukgi or refer to Taegukgi. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1: The Boy, 1980
Quotes
Why would you sing the national anthem for people who've been killed by soldiers? Why cover the coffin with the Taegukgi? As though it wasn't the nation itself that had murdered them. […]
“But the generals are rebels, they seize power unlawfully. You must have seen it: people being beaten and stabbed in broad daylight, and even shot. The ordinary soldiers were following the orders of their superiors. How can you call them the nation?”
You found this confusing, as though it had answered an entirely different question to the one you wanted to ask. The national anthem rang out like a circular refrain, one verse clashing with another against the constant background of weeping, and you listened with bated breath to the subtle dissonance this created. As though this, finally, might help you understand what the nation really was.
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Chapter 4: The Prisoner, 1990
Quotes
At that moment, I realized what all this was for. The words that this torture and starvation were intended to elicit. We will make you realize how ridiculous it was, the lot of you waving the national flag and singing the national anthem. We will prove to you that you are nothing but filthy, stinking bodies. That you are no better than the carcasses of starving animals.
[…] Watery discharge and sticky puss, foul saliva, blood, tears and snot, piss and shit that soiled your pants. That was all that was left to me. No, that was what I myself had been reduced to. I was nothing but the sum of those parts. The lump of rotting meat from which they oozed was the only “me” there was.
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Taegukgi Term Timeline in Human Acts
The timeline below shows where the term Taegukgi appears in Human Acts. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: The Boy, 1980
...insistence on singing the national anthem. He is also mystified by the fact that the Taegukgi, or the national flag, is placed over the coffins. Dong-ho wonders why his fellow activists...
(full context)
Chapter 5: The Factory Girl, 2002
...from the hospital, she thinks back to Dong-ho asking why she and Eun-sook placed the Taegukgi over the dead bodies in the gym. Seon-ju does not remember Eun-sook’s answer, but privately,...
(full context)
Epilogue: The Writer, 2013
...thing that remains on one of the walls is a large, framed version of the Taegukgi. The writer does her best to conjure the coffins that once filled this space. “I...
(full context)
...burying Dong-ho’s body. The older brother had polished the skull before covering Dong-ho with the Taegukgi, knowing this task would be too painful for their mother.
(full context)
