The Vegetarian
“The Vegetarian” by Han Kang is a novel that deals with the role of women and the restrictions imposed by Korean society. The story revolves around Yeong-Hye, an ordinary housewife who suddenly decides to become a vegetarian but slowly dissociates more and more as time goes on.
The book is split into three parts, each dealing with the perspective of a different character: the husband, the brother-in-law and the sister. The first two chapters from the perspective of males undermines the decisions and choices of Yeong-Hye, while the last chapter from the perspective of her sister brings forth the abuse that she has endured and speculates on why she might have given in to losing herself completely.
The role of the woman
The first chapter deals with the perspective of the husband, who admits that all he ever wanted from a wife was being “ordinary”, i.e. conforming to the Korean ideals of a traditional wife. The husband quite clearly emphasizes their outward appearance, as evident from the dinner with his co-workers and his view that vegetarianism should only be allowed for reasons acceptable to society rather than being based on personal morals or beliefs. His lack of care for his wife and her feelings is evident in several scenes such as when he blames her for not waking him up or ironing his shirt or when he rapes her while she just accepts it and stops protesting.
The author hints at Yeong-Hye’s longing for freedom and uses her bra as a metaphor for her feeling constrained in life. The memories of her childhood and internalising of the abuse faced by her and others in her childhood such as the dog who bit her eventually propagate into her schizophrenic guilt for eating meat. The scene where her father forces her to eat meat and slaps her, while her mother pays no heed to her preference for not eating meat and tries to feed her black goat soup shows the lack of affection and freedom she received from her family in present and in the past. There is no attempt from her family to even understand her position, which only pushes her further into dissociation as time goes on.
The victim of lust
The second chapter focuses on the perspective of Yeong-Hye’s brother-in-law, after her husband has already left her and she has been discharged from the psychiatric ward.
The brother-in-law is obsessed with Yeong-Hye’s Mongolian mark. The Mongolian mark appears when a person is young; however, as they grow older, usually by their late teenage years, it vanishes. But Yeong-Hye’s Mongolian mark had stayed even as she got older. There is certainly a parallel between the Mongolian mark and childhood abuse in Korean society: usually it fades when they grow up, but Yeong-Hye is still holding onto it. As the brother-in-law fetishizes this mark, he also fetishizes Yeong-Hye’s mental state, abusing her schizophrenic love for the flowers painted on her body to have sex with her.
The married life of the brother-in-law and Yeong-Hye’s sister In-Hye is also described. In-Hye is accepting of the brother-in-law’s behaviour; he doesn’t contribute anything to the family while taking advantage of In-Hye.
The sister who tries to comfort
The last chapter is written from the perspective of In-Hye after Yeong-Hye has been admitted full time in a psychiatric facility. Yeong-Hye has been abandoned by everyone else but In-Hye tries to fulfil her duty by visiting and caring for Yeong-Hye.
In-Hye tries to relate her experiences to understand why Yeong-Hye might have completely given in to her delusions. She recalls her childhood, where her conformity to the Korean Confucian household saves her from her father’s abuse but her sister is not so lucky. She then ponders over what she could have done once her sister’s illness began, to prevent her from being abandoned by everyone else.
Yeong-Hye is undergoing a Kafkaesque transformation, one where she believes she is turning into a tree. She is trying to be one with nature, getting energy through photosynthesis with no need to hurt any other living being.
The philosophy
The blame on the human condition
Yeong-Hye’s transformation into a tree signals a blame on the human condition for causing damage to nature and the abuse of other animals. There is also a possible reading of Yeong-Hye’s transformation, first to a vegetarian and then into a tree, signalling that humans harm not just animals but also plants and nature, an undeniable dilemma for vegetarians who kill plant life while claiming moral superiority for not killing animals.
Bodily autonomy as resistance
Yeong-Hye’s method of resisting by controlling her body in her own way was hinted at from the start with her refusal to wear a bra, as she feels restricted by it. This same concept carries forward into her vegetarianism and her fight against being fed anything once she becomes completely detached from reality. Her attempts to stay completely naked, as she finds it the most comfortable even though it is not acceptable in society, follow the same logic. This brings up the philosophy that for a human to feel free, they must first be able to completely control their body.
Humans can never be fully understood
The primary reason for Yeong-Hye’s worsening condition is that no one attempts to understand and support her. This is a commentary on how humans will always try to perceive the struggles of others from their own perspectives, making it impossible to truly understand others. Even the fact that the entirety of the book is written from the perspective of others instead of her own highlights that Yeong-Hye is completely unheard.