The Vegetarian By Han Kang: An Analysis

What does it mean to be truly alive? People talk about truly living and being human, but what does this really mean? In her novel, The Vegetarian, Han Kang explores this idea of what it means to be truly alive and human. This novel focuses on Yeong-hye, who turns vegetarian, and the impact it has on her life and on others around her. The novel is told from three different perspectives, her husband, brother-in-law, and sister. Through the eyes of the brother-in-law, the reader observes what it might mean to be alive, though someone that acts on his faults. The brother-in-law's obsession with Yeong-hye leads him down a path with no return. Yeong-hye and the brother-in-law walk on parallel lines in the novel. The brother-in-law’s obsessive and erotic desire over his sister-in-law Yeong-hye leads him to extreme human behavior. From his actions, that show his human faults, Kang shows that the more faulty the person that the closer they are to their humanity.
With the brother-in-law, he is pushed to one extreme of human behavior. When P, the brother-in-law’s ex girlfriend talked about his art, “After Gwangju, your art was to engage, almost as though you are atoning for surviving the May massacre” (74). This act of violence that he survives, leads him to social commentary art. He tried to comment on the injustices that are happening in Korea. He becomes obsessed with what he survived and tries to bring to light other events like the one he endured. He cannot deal with this violence, but unlike Yeong-hye, he does not turn passively from