Dong-ho is a middle-school boy who volunteers at the Provincial Office during the Gwangju Uprising. He takes on the grim responsibility of keeping a ledger of victims' names and tending to unidentified bodies while searching desperately for his missing friend, Jeong-dae. He is young and requires glasses due to poor eyesight, yet he refuses to return to the safety of his home until he finds his friend.

Jeong-dae is a fifteen-year-old student and Dong-ho's closest friend. He lives with his older sister in the annex of Dong-ho's family home. When violence erupts in Gwangju, he joins the protests. This event violently separates him from Dong-ho, and his perspective provides insight into the connection between the physical body and the human spirit during times of extreme state brutality.

Eun-sook is a high school student who volunteers to prepare bodies at the makeshift morgue. She takes on the physical labor of cleaning corpses and attempts to shield younger volunteers like Dong-ho from the impending military threat. In her later adult life, she works as an editor for a publishing company, where she routinely faces state censorship and police intimidation.

Seon-ju is a former factory worker who helps run the civilian volunteer effort at the Provincial Office. Coming from a background of poverty and harsh labor conditions, she brings resilience to the grim task of handling corpses. She later works as a transcriber for an environmental organization, maintaining a solitary life to cope with her traumatic past and avoiding intimate relationships.

Jin-su is a young university freshman who steps up as a leader for the civilian militia and volunteer groups. He organizes the logistics of the makeshift morgue and instructs the younger volunteers to surrender if the military breaches their compound. He faces harsh conditions in military prison alongside other detainees.

This young man returns to university after completing military service, only to find himself chosen as a militia leader during the uprising's final stand due to his age and experience. He is later detained in a brutal military prison system. He answers questions from an academic researcher, pushing back against attempts to easily categorize the extreme physical and psychological trials he endured.

Serving as a stand-in for the author, The Writer investigates the historical events of Gwangju decades later. She is driven by a personal connection to Dong-ho, whose family moved into her childhood home right before the violence began. She conducts field research in Gwangju, visiting locations like the Research Institute at Jeonnam University to document the victims' stories.

Dong-ho's mother is a devoted parent who desperately tries to keep her youngest son safe during the chaos in Gwangju. She begs him to come home for dinner, unaware of the scale of the impending violence. In her later years, she channels her profound grief into political activism alongside other bereaved families.

Jeong-mi is Jeong-dae's older sister. The siblings live together in the annex of Dong-ho's family home. She is a bright young woman who dreams of becoming a doctor, but her life and ambitions are violently interrupted by the military crackdown on the city.

Kim Seong-hee is a prominent leader in the women's labor movement. She organizes educational meetings for female factory workers, teaching them Chinese characters and advocating for their dignity in the face of poor wages and police crackdowns.

Mr. Seo is a theater producer whose new play focuses on the grief surrounding the Gwangju Uprising. He attempts to publish and stage his work despite severe state censorship that heavily redacts his scripts, painting entirely over his pages with black ink.