The Vegetarian Themes

The Vegetarian centers on Yeong-hye, a young woman living in modern-day Seoul, South Korea. The novel begins with her choice to become a vegetarian before tracking the fallout of this decision on Yeong-hye’s relationships with her family and husband. However, it is not so much the fact that Yeong-hye no longer wants to eat meat that troubles her husband, Mr. Cheong, and the rest of her family. Rather, it is the fact that…

Yeong-hye’s abrupt change in character does not only include her choice to become a vegetarian. Over the course of the novel, the book tracks her journey away from reality as she expresses a desire to both figuratively and literally become a plant. This desire is spurred by the terrible and violent nightmares that she has, from which she starts to understand that humans are inherently abusive and she wants to avoid that kind…

Throughout the novel, characters try to grasp each other’s drives, particularly Yeong-hye’s decisions and the brother-in-law’s motives. Characters are constantly attempting to understand what others might be thinking and feeling, but they are often unsuccessful, and as a result feel isolated from one another. Han sketches a complicated relationship among this lack of understanding, isolation, and madness. Both Yeong-hye and the brother-in-law are misunderstood and labeled as crazy by those around them, but…