Misogyny: As Seen in The Vegetarian
- Minji Kwak and Jazmin Heckelman
- May 6
- 3 min read
채식주의자 (The Vegetarian) is written by the illustrious Han Kang, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2024. The novel takes place in modern-day Seoul, and has three parts: The Vegetarian, The Mongolian Mark, and Flaming Trees. The story revolves around Yeong-hye, the central protagonist, and her choice to stop eating meat.
The Vegetarian
Her change was abrupt, considering that she was a great cook and meat has always been a part of her life. However, after she has a graphically disturbing dream, Yeong-hye switches to a vegetarian diet (even though she starts eating less and less). Most of this first section is actually narrated by her husband, Mr. Cheong, who has difficulty rationalizing and adjusting to Yeong-hye’s transformation. The pair were ordinary and unremarkable, having led a life that was comfortable but mundane. When Yeong-hye refuses to cook meat, Mr. Cheong gets increasingly frustrated and becomes angry and abusive. Later, he brings in Yeong-hye’s family who tries to intervene. Just like Mr. Cheong, they’re appalled at her choices, and Yeong-hye’s father becomes furious. They then try to force her to eat a piece of pork, which causes her to slit her wrist. The end of The Vegetarian takes place in the hospital, where Yeong-hye is found holding a dead white bird.
In Flaming Trees, the narrator is Yeong-hye’s sister (In-hye), who is the only one who didn’t cut her off. Yeong-hye is currently in a psychiatric hospital, where she’s refusing to eat. Yeong-hye believes that she’s a tree, and that she only needs “water and sunlight”. Although Yeong-hye fully accepted her metamorphosis, despite the danger of starvation, her sister and the hospital staff are unable to understand. As the last part of the novel draws to a close, In-hye feels overwhelming guilt for harboring suicidal thoughts (when thinking of her son), and for allowing Yeong-hye to be in the hospital. She realizes that Yeong-hye can treat her body however she wants, since it's hers alone. In-hye is the only one in the family that decided to respect her sister’s choices. Coincidence or not, she’s also a woman who understands Yeong-hye’s struggles.
A theme that stuck out to me was the idea of autonomy. Throughout the whole novel, the people around Yeong-hye continued to violate her boundaries. Yeong-hye’s choice to be a vegetarian was an effort for her to establish a sense of agency. Yet, both her husband and her family viewed it as an affront to themselves. Her choice became an act of resistance, and was the catalyst for their anger. When Yeong-hye broke away from conformity (eating meat), it triggered a cascade of tragic events. Reading The Vegetarian was like watching a train wreck, since I knew that everything was going to derail. It was a unique sort of thrill, one that's different from reading a book like Anna Karenina. If I was asked to describe the experience, I would say that it's like the world closing in on you, in which only one path is left open for the reader (Yeong-hye's dream).
Moreover, I felt that Kang’s writing was a commentary on the position of women within Korean society. Even now, gender equality is a pressing matter that has yet to be resolved. People disregard the effects that societal expectations have, and when there’s a pressure to behave in a certain way, it acts as constraints. Like many other cultures, Korean society is largely patriarchal, and women are expected to be subservient. As Nobel Peace Prize recipient Leymah Gbowee mentioned in her Barnard commencement address, “ We are socialized as women to be humble.” Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist whose work helped end the Second Lberian Civil War. Her extraordinary accomplishments define who she is, not her gender. Ironically, the author of The Vegetarian, faced censorship in her country despite her own literary achievements. It is a common reality for women all over the world to be silenced. Though traits like humility and meekness are not flawed, they’re characteristics that uphold traditional gender roles. Why aren't women allowed to be as confident as men? Yeong-hye was an ideal wife when she was quiet and passive, and an anomaly when she used her voice. It's evident that misogyny is a pervasive system that emphasizes the need for women to stay within their lanes, and to not create waves. In The Vegetarian, ideas such as consent and violence encircles Yeong-hye’s journey, values that are dominant in bigotry. Yeong-hye faced oppression by the very people that should have supported her.
And her only sin was choosing deviance.
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