34 pages • 1 hour read
Han KangThe Vegetarian
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Individual Versus Society
Throughout the novel, individual desires and motivations are contrasted with the pressures of social norms. This theme is introduced early on through Mr. Cheong’s critiques of Yeong-hye, who is “unusual” (13) because she doesn’t ever wear a bra. Later, when her behavior becomes more publicly bizarre, Mr. Cheong wonders, frustrated, whether she could “even recognize the situation for what it was” (33). Yeong-hye’s vegetarianism crosses the line of what is acceptable socially and leads her down a path to take further actions deemed wrong by her peers. In-hye later reflects on this, feeling that she is “unable to forgive that magnificent irresponsibility that had enabled Yeong-hye to shuck off social constraints and leave her behind, still a prisoner” (148). In-hye finds herself trapped as a “prisoner” to social constraints while her sister has completely “shuck[ed]” off society’s expectations.
Several other characters also show the tension of having to choose between their own wishes and what society wants. The brother-in-law frequently references what he is supposed to do, like going home to his wife and child, yet instead chooses to stay out at all hours of the night; eventually, this leads him to have sex with his sister-in-law, one of the ultimate societal taboos. Each character, like the brother-in-law, wrestles with the question of whether to follow through on social expectations, and each deals with the ramifications of their choice. The brother-in-law and Yeong-hye end up institutionalized for crossing the boundaries, while In-hye and Mr. Cheong find themselves separated from loved ones because of their adherence to societal expectations.
Patriarchy’s Impact on Women
Men and women follow rigid gender roles in the novel. All the male characters act in patriarchal ways toward the women in their lives; the female characters, in turn, are challenged to figure out how to adjust to this mistreatment. Both In-hye and Yeong-hye experience marital rape, and Yeong-hye also experiences physical abuse by her father. This suggests a larger commentary by Kang on the impacts of patriarchy on women.
After experiencing these violent interactions, both In-hye and Yeong-hye deal with psychological difficulty and breaches in their mental health. After being forced to have sex with her husband, In-hye admits that “at the breakfast table, she would all of a sudden find herself wanting to stab herself in the eyes with her chopsticks, or pour the boiling water from the kettle over her head” (169). In-hye’s suicidal ideations are a direct response to the patriarchal violence she has experienced. Similarly, Yeong-hye’s decision to stop eating meat is linked to her traumatic, recurring nightmares, which make her feel like “only the violence is vivid enough to stick” (35). At the novel’s conclusion, neither woman appears to be mentally stable: In-hye has decided to abandon her child, and Yeong-hye is on the verge of death. In Kang’s vision of society, women cannot survive the impacts of the violence that men inflict upon them.
Methods for Coping with Trauma
The trauma that both In-hye and Yeong-hye experience impacts each woman’s life in different ways. As each woman struggles to figure out how to deal with their traumatic experiences, they show two different possible pathways for healing. On the one hand, In-hye seeks to control every aspect of her life, so that the “sheer inertia of a life lived in this way” can allow her to “conquer everything” (145). Yet toward the end of the novel, it becomes clearer to In-hye that her dedication to persevering has made her life “no more than a ghostly pageant of exhausted endurance” (170). On the other hand, Yeong-hye completely cuts off her connections to the human world, removing herself from responsibility and social constraints. Through her transformation into a more treelike self, Yeong-hye begins to appear like she is regressing toward being “a preadolescent” (156). To some extent, Yeong-hye’s apparent return to a childlike self is a way for her to figuratively remove the trauma she has experienced from her body. As the novel concludes, neither woman has successfully healed—in fact, they both seem more impacted and wounded than before. In the closing lines, In-hye stares at the forest “as if waiting for an answer. As if protesting against something” (188) suggesting that Kang believes that there is no answer yet to how women can deal with the wounds of patriarchal trauma.
