HAN KANG
Yeong-hye turns vegetarian overnight after having a weird dream and this decision to cut meat out of her life so drastically has devastating effects on her relationships. I laughed to myself when her frustrated husband asked her why she no longer desired him sexually and her response was something along the lines of "you stink of meat." Her obsession and behaviour in her vegetarianism is an act of subversion and slowly manifests itself into mental illness and quickly gets dark.
The Vegetarian is split into three acts: the first being Yeong-hye's decision to become a vegetarian and how her family react, the second part focuses on her brother in-law, an artist who is obsessed with Yeong-hye sexually because of her Mongolian mark. The third part is her sister In-hye's experience in dealing with her husbands incomprehensible obsession with her sister and all the craziness around her. This book won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016. Absolutely well deserved. It is a short thriller, incredibly written (translated from Korean by Deborah Smith) and the story is one you cannot predict.
What does the book make you think about the relationship between power and food ?
If you take away someones ability to make decisions about the food they consume then you take away their power.
Obviously, eating disorders are real and certain precautions should be taken to make sure people have a healthy relationship with food. However, the supernatural element to this story means that even without food, Yeong-hye still has superhuman physical strength and power. Thus making it hard to distinguish where the line blurs between mental stability and normal preference.
When you are able to unlock the power of your mind, you are able to be yourself and make a difference. Yeong-hye's relationship with food made her a resilient character.
How is imprisonment represented throughout the book ?
The theme of imprisonment is so pertinent in this novel as well as the failure to comprehend the very people we should be closest with. Yeong-hye is happy living her life with her aspirations of becoming a tree and at one with nature. ("A tree?" I hear you ask. Read the book is my response.) But it seems that in life, there is a way of doing things and a way of living and if you want to do anything out of what is deemed "normal behaviour" the people around you will try and steer you towards what they think is right for you. This is evident when her and her husband go to dinner and she decides to not wear a bra because she finds them uncomfortable and restricting. If the girl doesn't want to wear a bra... who is anyone else to tell her she has to? Society has a way of making people conform to standards by not giving you a chance to take a minute to ask yourself if you agree with them! Character wise, Yeong-hye's fearlessness is inspirational.
The reality of this story is that Yeong-hye is imprisoned in her body. Not a lot of people will understand that. She does not care about what people think and even though towards the end of the book she was definitely imprisoned physically. She still lived freely within her imprisonment. Standing upside down against a wall because her head is the roots and her body is the trunk of her tree...
