Can a simple decision to give up on eating meat transform into a catastrophic torment that haunts an entire family? This is the question Han Kang’s award-winning book The Vegetarian asks you, in its most unabashed, graphic, and hauntingly poetic ways. Winning the Booker International Prize in 2016, the book put modern Korean literature into the international limelight. Booktok (Tiktok’s book corner) and global media finally made us pick up the book and we totally understood the hype. Here’s an unfiltered, unbiased, and spoiler-free review of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, translated into English by Deborah Smith.
About Han Kang, Author Of The Vegetarian
Born in 1970, Han Kang is one of the most celebrated South Korean writers in contemporary times. Her writings mainly focus on themes of trauma, violence, and the fragility of human life, often highlighting the experiences of being a woman in South Korean society.
She has authored several best-selling books such as Human Acts, The White Book, and Greek Lessons.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang is often considered her most successful work till date. The second chapter of the three-chapter novel won the coveted Yi Sang Literary Award, one of South Korea’s most prestigious literary awards.
Han Kang’s The Vegetarian also happened to be her first work to be translated into English. The translated work, by Deborah Smith, won the International Booker Prize in 2016 for both Kang and Smith. Han Kang became the first Korean writer to win the coveted award. The novel was also the first Korean language novel to win the International Booker Prize for fiction.
After her 2016 win, Han Kang went on to win several literary awards and was nominated for some more, however, her most prolific achievement came in 2024. That year, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature by the Swedish Academy for her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” This monumental achievement made her the first Korean writer and the first female Asian writer to be bestowed upon with the honor.
The Vegetarian By Han Kang: Plot Synopsis
A graphic nightmare leads Yeong-hye to give up on eating meat entirely. This seemingly trivial decision leads to a series of troubling, and eventually disturbing, events that affect Yeong-hye and her family.
The novel is narrated by the three people closest to her – her husband, her brother-in-law, and her elder sister. The three lend a unique perspective to the series of events that unfold in Yeong-hye’s life.
Why The ‘No-Protagonist’ Point Of View Works In The Vegetarian’s Favor
It is common knowledge that a story is best told through the point of view (POVs) of the protagonist at the center of it all, however, Han Kang’s writing turns this notion on its head, shifting the POV to three characters closest to the protagonist.
By doing so, Kang manages to make the protagonist more mysterious. The readers hardly get a glimpse into the inner mind of the protagonist, also symbolizing how none of the characters ever understand her inside out.
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The Vegetarian: A Hauntingly Poetic Glimpse Into Being A Woman In Korea
Chapter One: Of Infantilization And Obligation
Han Kang fluidly elucidates Yeong-hye’s downfall in three hard-hitting chapters. In the first chapter, we see her through the eyes of her husband, a typical, good-for-nothing man for whom a marriage is nothing more than a social obligation and a trivial responsibility.
To him, a wife is not a partner but a mechanism of order, a figure to be managed, controlled, and gently infantilized. He does not love her dearly nor despises her, and this emotional vacancy for his wife is what makes their relationship nothing more than a performance.
However, after her disturbing nightmares, he sees her in a different light. He is worried, not for her, but his image that would get affected when the world gets to know about her vegetarianism. Through his eyes, Kang underlines how obligation often masquerades as care, and gently highlights the infantilizing nature of men in a patriarchal society.
Chapter Two: Of Obsession And Lust
The second chapter is what can be considered to be the most polarizing chapters, focusing on the perspective of her brother-in-law. A struggling artist, he develops an uncontrollable obsession for the Mongolian mark (a kind of a birthmark) on her bottom when he accidentally spots it. He strives to get closer to her, but not out of concern for her deteriorating mental health, but his self-serving art.
This results in him spiralling into an obsession, rather, an infatuation, with the mark. He romanticizes the mark, imbuing it with imagined symbolism, and gradually begins to sexualize Yeong-hye under the pretense of viewing her as a muse. Though a series of events, difficult to be categorized into either ‘disturbing’ or ‘erotic’ leads to the second chapter concluding on an unexpected cliffhanger. This chapter highlights how the human mind can blur the thin line between artistic obsession and downright objectification.
Chapter Three: Of Bonded Grief And Unhealed Wounds
The third chapter focuses on In-hye, her elder sister. She’s been a silent witness to all of Yeong-hye’s wounds, both mental and physical. In the closing moments of the book, she stands by her sister’s saddening metamorphosis as the latter struggles to remain alive.
This chapter is what we believe to be the core of the novel. It gently touches upon the bonded grief and the emotional turmoil both have been through as a woman.
While Yeong-hye internalizes this trauma until it consumes her body and mind, her elder sister channels it into stoic responsibility and silent survival. In the final chapter, Han Kang offers no easy closure, unsettling readers with an ambiguous, mysterious ending that delves on the theme of grief, trauma, and destruction.
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Vegetarianism As A Metaphor Of Choice
Yeong-hye’s decision to turn vegetarian seems trivial at first glance, and it is. Yeong-hye does not turn vegetarian due to religious reasons or health reasons but simply out of choice. However, the resistance her decision meets highlights how women meet with consequences when they assert their choice.
She refuses to justify her decision and refuses to conform by consuming meat. She gains autonomy through a simple decision and that is what irks the most to those around her. Han Kang unravels how a woman’s choice is often met with suppression, forcing her to conform and fall back into what’s ‘acceptable’.
