Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

The tree trunks in Kyungha’s dream represent the thousands of Korean citizens who were buried in mass graves during the massacres that Kang explores in this novel. Kyungha herself identifies the trees as symbolic stand-ins for bodies and reflects that she began having this dream after beginning her research into the G—— massacre, a fictionalized version of the Gwangju massacre, which Kang herself wrote about in her novel Human Acts. 

The fact that the trees in Kyungha’s dream are only half buried and thus still readily identifiable speaks to Korean state efforts to conceal the killings: Despite official denial and obfuscation, the atrocities were always public knowledge. Although many Korean citizens participated in governmental denial, out of fear of retribution or fear of confronting the truth, the state-sponsored violence at Jeju, Gwangju, and other sites was never entirely suppressed. 

As such, the tree trunks help the author explore Historical Memory and Collective Trauma. The way that this dream haunts Kyungha, impacting her sleep and emotional well-being, is meant to reflect the profound impact that the only partially “buried” truth of Korean political violence has on Korean individuals, families, and society.