# The Vegetarian > A collection of Han Kang's “The Vegetarian,” “Mongolian Mark,” and “Flaming Trees” (the so-called “trilogy of suffering”). Winner of the 2016 Man Booker, by the 2024 Nobel laureate. Hearing controversy about the English translation, I read it alongside the Korean and compared them. A collection of 's "The Vegetarian," "Mongolian Mark," and "Flaming Trees" (the so-called "trilogy of suffering"). Winner of the 2016 Man Booker, by the 2024 Nobel laureate. Hearing controversy about the English translation, I read it alongside the Korean and compared them. > [!warning] Spoiler warning ## Impressions I first read it when it won the Man Booker in 2016, following the trend. In celebration of the 2024 , I read it again (following the trend again). Perhaps because I've studied a little [veganism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Veganism.txt) and [feminism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Feminism.txt) since then, I think I understood just a little more this time. I hope that in ten years I'll be someone who can feel more from it. I read it through a [vegan feminist](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Vegan%20feminism.txt) lens—as the story of a person resisting the violence of and [carnism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Carnism.txt)—and wrote down my own impressions. Parts 1 and 2 seem understandable this way, but Part 3 was difficult. I'd like to reread it later. Yeong-hye's voice is silenced by multiple layers of violence. Perhaps this is one of the central themes. - Yeong-hye cannot find words that adequately express her thoughts. Groups silenced by the [violent dominant ideologies](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Violent%20ideology.txt) of and [carnism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Carnism.txt) must communicate within forms permitted by the dominant structure ([dominance-mutedness theory](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Dominance-mutedness%20theory.txt)). The author says she could speak about violence "only through violent scenes."[^1] (By Part 3, "Flaming Trees," Yeong-hye herself refuses communication with the world and withdraws from it, even from her own body.) - Other characters shut down her words. They do not try to understand, actively refuse understanding, interrupt her, overwrite her words with theirs, use violence, confine her, and medicate her. Her brother-in-law seems to understand her slightly better than her husband, and her sister slightly better than her brother-in-law, but nobody deeply understands her thoughts or tries to. - The trilogy is never narrated from Yeong-hye's perspective throughout. Readers can glimpse her thoughts only through other characters' distorted observations and occasional monologues. This is deliberate: she is the protagonist, yet "remains an object."[^1] - State power censors the work, while patriarchal Korean society distorts the author's and the work's messages. State and society thereby inadvertently contribute(?) to its theme of multilayered violence.[^2] ## Part 1. The Vegetarian Published in the summer <2004> issue of . First-person narration by Yeong-hye's spouse, interspersed with her monologues. --- The opening: her husband says he married Yeong-hye because she was unremarkable. > Before my wife began eating vegetarian, I had never thought her remarkable. … I married her because she seemed to have no particular faults, just as she had no particular charms. … My belly, growing since my mid-twenties; my thin legs and forearms, which would not gain muscle however hard I tried; even my small penis, a private source of inferiority—none seemed to trouble her much. > > Before my wife turned vegetarian, I'd always thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way. … However, if there wasn't any special attraction, nor did any particular drawbacks present themselves, and there was no reason for the two of us not to get married. … The paunch that started appearing in my mid-twenties, my skinny legs and forearms that steadfastly refused to bulk up in spite of my best efforts, the inferiority complex I used to have about the size of my penis - I could rest assured that I wouldn't have to fret about such things on her account. --- A wife's breast size determines her husband's social standing. In society, women are men's property, valued according to the specific ways male society [objectifies](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Sexual%20objectification.txt) their bodies (for example, breast shape and size). Men with valuable property (large-breasted wives) consequently gain social standing. > Going braless did not even suit her unimpressive breasts. Had she worn a thickly padded bra instead, I could have saved face before my friends. > > I would have preferred her to go around wearing one that was thickly padded, so that I could save face in front of my acquaintances. --- After verbally abusing Yeong-hye, he abruptly asks for his "ironed shirt" as though entitled to it, then complains that she failed to "look after him and see him off." His attitude assumes that her disregard for his feelings sufficiently justifies violence, that he may vent anger freely while she must accept it unconditionally, and that a wife's service is only natural. (See Chapter 4 of [Very Intimate Violence](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/%EC%95%84%EC%A3%BC%20%EC%B9%9C%EB%B0%80%ED%95%9C%20%ED%8F%AD%EB%A0%A5.txt).) > "What are you doing now!" I finally lost control and shouted. Ignoring my existence just as she had last night, she kept putting parcels of meat into the rubbish bag. … > > "Are you out of your mind? Why are you throwing all this away?" … > > "Haven't you ironed a shirt?" No answer. Swearing, I searched the laundry basket outside the bathroom for the shirt I had thrown there yesterday. … For the first time in five years of marriage, I had to leave for work without my wife's assistance and farewell. > > "Crazy. You've completely lost it." > > "What the hell are you up to now?" I shouted. She kept on putting the parcels of meat into the rubbish bags, seemingly no more aware of my existence than she had been last night. … > > "Have you lost your mind? Why on earth are you throwing all this stuff out?" … > > "Haven't you even ironed my white shirt?" There was no answer. I splashed water on myself and rummaged in the laundry basket, searching for yesterday's shirt. … In the five years we'd been married, this was the first time I'd had to go to work without her handing me my things and seeing me off. > > "You're insane! You've completely lost it." --- The scene where Yeong-hye throws away the refrigerator's meat. Her husband calls this "self-centered" disregard for his fondness for meat, considers throwing away expensive meat over "a mere dream" "irrational," and concludes it is behavior fit only for an "adolescent girl." But to Yeong-hye, "meat" is the corpse of an animal killed and dismembered by humans. She realizes that just as society depends on violence while actively concealing it, [carnist](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Carnism.txt) society depends on violence against animals while inventing countless words for "animal corpses"—meat, pork belly, sashimi—to conceal it. The self-centered, irrational person is her husband, not Yeong-hye. Meanwhile, he has no interest in what she dreamed or why she acts this way. His words below combine [speciesism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Speciesism.txt), [sexism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Sexism.txt), and at once. > "Unbelievable. Are you telling me not to eat meat either?" > > "I can't leave those things in the refrigerator. I can't bear it." > > How could she be so self-centered? … Such an irrational woman. … She wasn't an adolescent girl—what was this? Not to lose weight, cure an illness, or because she was possessed, but changing her diet after one nightmare. > > "This is unbelievable. You're telling me not to eat meat?" > > "I couldn't let those things stay in the fridge. It wouldn't be right." > > How on earth could she be so self-centered? … Who would have thought she could be so unreasonable? … but surely not even impressionable young girls take it quite that far. As far as I was concerned, the only reasonable grounds for altering one's eating habits were the desire to lose weight, an attempt to alleviate certain physical ailments, being possessed by an evil spirit, or having your sleep disturbed by indigestion. --- Her husband knows something about Yeong-hye's dream but asks no further because he does not want to hear it. Denial and avoidance. In Chapter 3 of [Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Why%20we%20love%20dogs,%20eat%20pigs,%20and%20wear%20cows.txt), says the most effective distortion of reality is , and is one form of it. > I knew. My wife was growing thin not because of vegetarianism, but because of the dream. … I did not ask what kind of dream. I did not want to hear again about the shed in the dark woods or the face reflected in a pool of blood. > > I was convinced that there was more going on here than a simple case of vegetarianism. No, it had to be that dream she'd mentioned; that was bound to be at the bottom of it all. … I never inquired as to the nature of this dream. I'd already had to listen once to that crazy spiel about the barn in the dark woods, the face reflected in the pool of blood and all the rest of it, and once had been more than enough. --- Yeong-hye remembers. [Carnist](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Carnism.txt) society calls it "food preparation" when an animal raised in cramped confinement and killed (see [factory farming](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Factory%20farming.txt)) is dismembered, frozen, then cut into smaller pieces. In society, this is naturally women's work, so her husband feels entitled to stand beside her and bitch at her to hurry up. He oppressively offloads work onto his wife, and that work is itself human oppression of animals. The knife chips and cuts her finger, mixing dead animal flesh with living human blood. Eating the already dead, dismembered animal, he rages that the knife fragment nearly killed him. His violence toward Yeong-hye overlaps human violence toward animals. Through this incident, she notices everything the [violent dominant ideology](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Violent%20ideology.txt) tried to conceal, and begins dreaming the next day. Yeong-hye's father beat her calves until she was 18. According to In-hye's memories in "Flaming Trees," she had suffered his blows since childhood because she could not "please" him. Once, at nine, when the sisters accidentally got lost in the mountains, she suggested not returning home (the abuse and eating of the dog also occurred that summer). Having felt patriarchal violence with her whole body since childhood, perhaps she was all the more shocked to realize she was both oppressed by and an oppressor within its close counterpart, [carnism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Carnism.txt). Did memories of abusing and eating the dog increasingly fill her with guilt? Is that what appears in her dreams? And, recognizing the similarities between these two [violent dominant ideologies](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Violent%20ideology.txt), did she become more sharply aware of the oppression inflicted on her by father, husband, and society? > The morning before that dream, I was cutting frozen meat. You angrily hurried me. > > Damn it, are you going to dawdle like that? > > You know I lose my composure when you hurry me. I fumble like a different person, tangling things further. Quick, quicker. My knife hand moved so fast my neck grew hot. Suddenly the chopping board slid forward. That was the instant I cut my finger and chipped the knife. > > Lifting my index finger, I saw a red drop rapidly bloom. Round, rounder. Putting it in my mouth calmed me. Along with the bright scarlet, that strangely sweetish taste seemed to soothe me. > > Chewing your second piece of bulgogi, you spat it out. Picking out something glittering, you shouted. > > What's this! A piece of the knife! > > I stared blankly at you raging, your face contorted. > > What if I'd swallowed it! I could have died! > > Why wasn't I startled? Instead, I grew calmer. As though a cool hand touched my forehead. Suddenly everything around me slipped away like an ebbing tide—the table, you, all the kitchen furniture. Only I and my chair seemed to remain in infinite space. > > It was dawn the next day that I first saw the pool of blood in the shed, the face reflected there. > > The morning before I had the dream, I was mincing frozen meat - remember? You got angry. > > "Damn it, what the hell are you doing squirming like that? You've never been squeamish before." > > If you knew how hard I've always worked to keep my nerves in check. Other people just get a bit flustered, but for me everything gets confused, speeds up. Quick, quicker. The hand holding the knife was working so quickly, I felt heat prickle the back of my neck. My hand, the chopping board, the meat, and then the knife, slicing cold into my finger. > > A drop of red blood already blossoming out of the cut. Rounder than round. Sticking the finger in my mouth calmed me. The scarlet color, and now the taste, sweetness masking something else, left me strangely pacified. > > Later that day, when you sat down to a meal of bulgogi, you spat out the second mouthful and pickd out something glittering. > > "What the hell is this?" you yelled. "A chip off the knife?" > > I gazed vacantly at your distorted face as you raged. > > "Just think what would have happended if I'd swallowed it! I was this close to dying!" > > Why didn't this agitate me like it should have done? Instead, I became even calmer. A cool hand on my forehead. Suddenly, everything around me began to slide away, as though pulled back on an ebbing tide. The dining table, you, all the kitchen furniture. I was alone, the only thing remaining in all of of infinite space. > > Dawn of the next day. The pool of blood in the barn … I first saw the face reflected there. --- Her husband calls her family, saying he is worried because she no longer eats meat. Every one of them apologizes to him. They supplied goods (their daughter, through marriage) to the superior party (their son-in-law). When he complains (expresses concern) about a defect (her refusal to eat meat), the subordinate supplier (her family) is expected to apologize to the superior customer. The call with her mother. The mother's "I am ashamed to face you" is softened in the English edition to something like "To think that a daughter of ours…" > "She doesn't eat meat." > > "What?" > > "No meat at all, just plants. It's been months." … > > "…Why would she do something like that… I'm ashamed to face you." > > "The thing is, she's stopped eating meat." > > "What did you say?" > > "She's stopped eating any kind of meat at all, even fish--all she lives on is vegetables. It's been several months now." … > > "…How can that child be so defiant? To think that a daughter of ours…" Next, her father: an apology and a promise of after-sales service. > Even my father-in-law, who never called, shouted at my wife. His excited voice escaped the receiver so I could hear it. > > "What are you doing? Never mind yourself—what about Mr. Cheong, in his prime?" … > > Soup was boiling in the kitchen. Without a word, my wife put the receiver on the table, went to the kitchen, and did not return. Pitying my father-in-law, shouting with no one listening, I picked it up. > > "I'm sorry, Father-in-law." > > "No, I'm ashamed to face you." This patriarchal man surprised me with an apology I had never heard in five years. … > > "…We're coming up next month anyway. I'll sit her down and talk then." > > He'd never once called me himself, and I could hear his excited shouts emerging from the receiver. > > "What d'you think you're playing at, hey? Acting like this at your age, what on earth must Mr. Cheong think?" … > > A pan of soup was boiling on the stove, so my wife put the receiver down on the table without a word and disappeared into the kitchen. I stood there for a moments listening to my father-in-law raging importently, unaware that there was no one on the other end, then took pity on him and picked up the receiver. > > "I'm sorry, Father-in-law." > > "No, I'm the one who's ashamed." It shocked me to hear this patriarchal man apologize--in the five years I'd known him, I'd never once heard such words pass his lips…. > > "In any case, we're coming up next month so let's sit her down and have it out then." --- Dinner with his boss and the boss's wife. They seem to converse elegantly in an expensive restaurant, but their "food" consists of animal corpses killed and dismembered in slaughterhouses, and their conversation enacts [carnist](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Carnism.txt) society's violence. Surrounded by meat, meat eaters demand answers from a vegetarian through reproaches, criticism, and advice disguised as questions (see Chapters 3 and 4 of [The Sexual Politics of Meat](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/The%20sexual%20politics%20of%20meat.txt)). They believe they have thought more deeply than someone practicing vegetarianism or [veganism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Veganism.txt); commit the [naturalistic fallacy](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Naturalistic%20fallacy.txt) of assuming natural means good; and claim meat eating is normal, natural, and necessary (). Of course, they probably mean no harm. > "Even so, can one live without eating any meat?" the boss's wife asked, smiling. … The conversation naturally turned to vegetarianism. > > "They recently found a five-hundred-thousand-year-old human mummy, didn't they? With signs of hunting, too. Meat eating is instinct. Vegetarianism goes against instinct. It isn't natural." > > "But surely it isn't possible to live without eating meat?" his wife asked with smile. … The conversation naturally continued on the topic of vegetarianism. > > "Do you remember those mummified human remains they discovered recently? Five hundred thousand years old, apparently, and even back then humans were hunting for meat -- they could tell that from the skeletons. Meat eating is a fundamental human instinct, which means vegetarianism goes against human nature, right? It just isn't natural." --- The dinner continues. Her husband cuts off Yeong-hye's words. According to [dominance-mutedness theory](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Dominance-mutedness%20theory.txt), silenced groups must express their beliefs in forms the dominant structure permits. But even that is denied here: he shuts her down entirely and takes over the role as he pleases. Her refusal to eat meat makes people uncomfortable. Though she is the oppressed person at the table, she is treated as an oppressor trying to redefine, restrict, and disempower meat eating. In society, Black people oppress white police; in [carnist](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Carnism.txt) society, vegetarians try to take away the "freedom" to eat meat; and in society, there is always a husband "beaten and cowed" by a "domineering wife." How humans feel, express, acknowledge, and empathize with suffering is not independent of society's power relations. > "…I had a dream." > > I quickly talked over her. "My wife has long suffered stomach trouble, so she couldn't sleep soundly. She's improved considerably since giving up meat on a traditional doctor's advice." > > Only then did people nod. > > "I had a dream." > > I hurriedly spoke over her. "For a long time my wife used to suffer from gastroenteritis, which was so acute that it disturbed her sleep, you see. A dietitian advised her to give up meat, and her symptoms got a lot better after that." > > Only then did the others nod in understanding. --- The familiar pattern of committing and imagining it was sex (see Chapter 6 of [Very Intimate Violence](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/%EC%95%84%EC%A3%BC%20%EC%B9%9C%EB%B0%80%ED%95%9C%20%ED%8F%AD%EB%A0%A5.txt)). > On nights I came home late from work dinners, I sometimes attacked my wife emboldened by drink. Pinning her resisting arms and removing her trousers unexpectedly excited me. Muttering curses at her violent struggles, I managed penetration once in three attempts. Then she lay in the dark staring blankly at the ceiling, as though she were a military comfort woman dragged there. > > So yes, on nights when I returned home late and somewhat inebriated after a meal with colleagues, I would grab my wife and push her to the floor. Pinning down her struggling arms and tugging off her trousers, I became unexpectedly aroused. She put up a surprisingly strong resistance and, spitting out vulgar curses all the while, one time in three I would manage to insert myself successfully. Once that had happened, she lay there in the dark staring up at the ceiling, her face blank, as though she were a "comfort woman" dragged in against her will, and I was the Japanese soldier demanding her services. --- Her father forcibly feeds her an animal corpse, while her husband feels "heart-stirring paternal affection" watching. [Carnism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Carnism.txt), human control over animals, and , men's oppression of women, are both [violent dominant ideologies](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Violent%20ideology.txt). The men, household "masters" in society, violently force a piece of animal corpse (sweet-and-sour pork), a symbol of carnism, into Yeong-hye's mouth. Double violence where carnism and patriarchy overlap. But to her husband, the pork is merely food, she "deserves a beating," and the men are merely exercising patriarchs' "rights and duties" to teach wives and daughters (see Chapter 4 of [Very Intimate Violence](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/%EC%95%84%EC%A3%BC%20%EC%B9%9C%EB%B0%80%ED%95%9C%20%ED%8F%AD%EB%A0%A5.txt)). > …My father-in-law thrust sweet-and-sour pork at my wife's face. "Eat. Listen to your father and eat. It's all for you. What if you get sick?" > > Heart-stirring paternal affection brought tears to my eyes despite myself. … > > "Father, I don't eat meat." His powerful palm instantly cut through the air. She held her cheek. … As she struggled painfully, he mashed the pork against her lips. His strong fingers opened her lips but could not force her clenched teeth. Furious again, he slapped her once more. … My sister-in-law rushed to hold his waist, but as my wife's mouth opened he stuffed in the pork. > > My father-in-law stooped slightly as he thrust the pork at my wife's face … "Eat it! Listen to what your father's telling you and eat. Everything I say is for your own good. So why act like this if it makes you ill?" > > The fatherly affection that was almost choking the old man made a powerful impression on me, and I was moved to tears in spite of my self. … > > "Father, I don't eat meat." In an instant, his flat palm cleaved the empty space. My wife cupped her cheek in her hand. … My father-in-law mashed the pork to a pulp on my wife's lips as she struggled in agony. Though he parted her lips with his strong fingers, he could do nothing about her clenched teeth. Eventually he flew into a passion again, and struck her in the face once more. … Though In-hye sprang at him and held him by the waist, in the instant that the force of the slap had knocked my wife's mouth open he'd managed to jam the pork in. --- Yeong-hye's monologue, or thoughts: > However long I breathe out, my chest never feels clear. > > Shouts and howls are packed together in layers, lodged there. Because of meat. I've eaten too much meat. Those lives are all caught there, intact. Surely. Their blood and flesh were digested, scattered through my body, the remains excreted, but the lives cling stubbornly to my solar plexus. > > No matter how deeply I inhale, it doesn't go away. > > Yells and howls, threaded together layer upon layer, are enmeshed to form that lump. Because of meat. I ate too much meat. The lives of the animals I ate have all lodged there. Blood and flesh, all those butchered bodies are scattered in every nook and cranny, and though the physical remnants were excreted, their lives still stick stubbornly to my insides. --- A dead bird appears in the final scene, whose meaning I did not fully understand. She sometimes thinks another self "devours" her ("When I want to kill the pigeon waddling in front of me, … when another person surged up inside me and devoured me"). These thoughts seem to have become actions. > I opened my wife's clenched right hand. A bird with its neck crushed in her grip fell onto the bench. A small white-eye, feathers missing in patches. Beneath rough tooth marks as though torn by a predator, vivid red bloodstains spread. > > I prized open her clenched right hand. A bird, which had been crushed in her grip, tumbled to the bench. It was a small white-eye bird, with feathers missing here and there. Below tooth marks that looked to have been caused by a predator's bite, vivid red bloodstains were spreading. ## Part 2. Mongolian Mark Published in the autumn <2004> issue of . Continues from Yeong-hye's brother-in-law's perspective. Part 1 is first-person; Parts 2 and 3 are third-person. --- Her artist brother-in-law [sexually objectifies](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Sexual%20objectification.txt) Yeong-hye in the name of art, fragments her into body parts such as the "Mongolian mark" on her buttocks, and consumes her visually and physically. This matches the [cycle of objectification, fragmentation, and consumption](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Cycle%20of%20objectification,%20fragmentation,%20and%20consumption.txt) describes in [The Sexual Politics of Meat](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/The%20sexual%20politics%20of%20meat.txt). > The woman in his sketch was his sister-in-law, only her face cut off. No, it had to be her. Imagining her naked body he had never seen, drawing it for the first time, and placing a small blue-petal-like mark in the center of her buttocks, he felt a slight shudder and an erection. … Then who was the faceless man embracing her as though strangling her, penetrating her seated? He knew it was himself, must be himself. > > Though her face was missing, the woman in his sketch was undoubtedly his sister-in-law. No, it had to be her. He'd imagined what her naked body must look like and began to draw, finishing it off with a dot like a small blue petal in the middle of her buttocks, and he's got an erection. … And so who was the faceless man with his arms around her neck, looking as if he were attempting to throttle her, who was thrusting himself into her? He knew that it was himself; that, in fact, it could be none other. --- He masturbates imagining Yeong-hye. Even her bloodied body in a medical emergency is eroticized, strikingly matching and 's definition of pornography: dehumanizing women, physical injury, reduction to body parts (the Mongolian mark on her buttocks), eroticized depictions of bleeding, and so on. > He knew he had not had sex with his wife for almost two months. But he also knew his penis was swelling for someone else. > > Imagining his sister-in-law's room, visited long ago with his wife; her curled up there; her bloodied body on his back still earlier; the full sensation of her breasts and buttocks; and the Mongolian mark, blue as a brand, beneath one layer of trousers—all his blood rushed there. > > Chewing on soft, pulpy disillusionment, he masturbated standing up. > > He was aware that he hadn't had sex with his wife for close on two months. But he also knew that his penis's sudden rigidity was nothing to do with her. > > He'd pictured to himself his sister-in-law's rented studio apartment, the one she'd shared with his wife back when they were young, pictured her curled up there on the bed, then switched to remembering how it had felt to carry her on his back, her body pressed up against his and staining his clothes with her blood, the feel of her chest and buttocks, imagined himself pulling down her trousers just enough to reveal the blue brand of the Mongolian mark. > > He stood there and masterbated. --- In the quotation below, Yeong-hye's husband calls [vegetarianism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Vegetarianism.txt) "abnormal," says her insistence on it created "friction with the family," presents himself as the victim, and thus blames her for the divorce. Her brother-in-law accepts this as "not entirely wrong," while even her sister, instead of defending her, merely says she is indeed the problem but might improve, so they should wait. The person departing from a [violent dominant ideology](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Violent%20ideology.txt) becomes the perpetrator, while its beneficiary becomes the victim—a recurring inversion across [carnism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Carnism.txt), , , and other axes. Notably, although the brother-in-law himself [sexually objectifies](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Sexual%20objectification.txt) her, he is disconcerted that her husband wants to discard her like a broken watch or appliance—that is, [objectifies](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Objectification.txt) her. > Her refusal to eat meat had caused friction with the family from the outset, followed by every strange behavior—even going topless—so his younger brother-in-law insisted her vegetarianism proved she had not returned to normal at all. … > > What disconcerted him was how naturally his brother-in-law wanted to discard her, like a broken watch or appliance. > > "Don't think I'm contemptible. Everyone knows I'm the greatest victim." > > Unable to call this entirely wrong, he remained neutral, unlike his wife. She begged her brother-in-law to postpone the formal divorce and watch how things developed, but he remained cold. > > The only thing that was especially unusual about her was that she didn't eat meat. This had been a source of friction with her family from the start, and since her behavior after this initial change had grown increasingly strange -- culminating in her wandering around topless -- her husband had decided that her vegetarianism was proof that she would never be "normal" again. … > > What threw him was the way that his brother-in-law seemed to consider it perfectly natural to discard his wife as though she were a broken watch or household appliance. > > "Now don't go making me out to be some kind of villain. Anyone can see that I'm the real victim here." > > Unable to deny that there was at least a measure of truth in this, he, unlike his wife, kept a neutral position on the matter. She, on the other hand, begged Mr. Cheong to hold off on the formal divorce proceedings and wait to see how things would pan out, but he remained unmoved. --- For the first time, he asks what she dreamed. But his mind is full of fantasies of sex with her, and she has no expectation that he will understand. > "Why don't you eat meat? I've always wondered but couldn't ask." She stopped her chopsticks over the bean sprouts and looked at him. "You needn't answer if it's difficult." He still fought the sexual images running in part of his mind. > > "No. It isn't difficult. But you won't understand." She spoke calmly, chewing the sprouts. "…Because of dreams." > > "Dreams?" he repeated. > > "I dream… That's why I don't eat meat." > > "What…kind of dreams?" > > "Faces." > > "Faces?" She laughed quietly at his incomprehension, a somehow gloomy laugh. "I told you you wouldn't understand." > > "Wht is it you don't eat meat? I've always wondered, but somehow I could't ask." She lowered her chopsticks and looked across at him. "You don't have to tell me if it's difficult for you," he said, fighting all the time to suppress the sexual images that were running through his head. > > "No," she said calmly. "It isn't difficult. It's just that I don't think you'd understand." She raised her chopsticks again and slowly chewed some seasoned bean sprouts. "It's because of a dream I had." > > "A dream?" he repeated. > > "I had a dream…and that's why I don't eat meat." > > "Well…what kind of dream?" > > "I dreamed of a face." > > "A face?" Seeing how utterly baffled he was, she laughed quietly. A melancholic laugh. "Didn't I say you wouldn't understand?" --- This conversation(?) continues after sex with Yeong-hye. But he falls asleep without properly listening or understanding. It is closer to her monologue than a conversation. > "Dreams? Ah, faces…yes, you said faces." He felt drowsiness slowly rising. … "I thought if I stopped eating meat those faces wouldn't appear. But that wasn't so." He thought he should concentrate on her words, but his eyes closed against his will. … With her incomprehensible words as a lullaby, he fell asleep as though dropping vertically without end. > > "Dreams? Ah, the face…that's right, you said it was a face, no?" he said, feeling drowsiness slowly creep through his body. … "I thought all I had to do was to stop eating meat and then the faces wouldn't come back. But it didn't work." He knew he ought to concentrate on what she was saying, but he couldn't stop his eyes from gradually falling closed. … With her words sounding in his ears like a lullaby, one he could make neither head nor tail of, he plunged over the edge of consciousness and into a seemingly bottomless sleep. ## Part 3. Flaming Trees Published in the winter <2005> issue of . Told from her older sister Kim In-hye's perspective. --- Yeong-hye increasingly longs to be a tree and becomes convinced she is turning into one. Her attention is entirely absorbed by trees, and whatever anyone says to her, trees are all she talks about. In the description below, Yeong-hye is the chief culprit in destroying the family and making her parents ill, while her sister In-hye loses contact with her parents because of her husband's wrongdoing, not her own. > Their parents, suddenly aged and ill, no longer wanted to see their second daughter (Yeong-hye), and cut contact with their eldest, who reminded them of their worse-than-an-animal son-in-law. Their youngest child and his wife did likewise. > > Their parents, whom the whole sorry saga seemed to have grealy aged, didn't make any further effort to visit Yeong-hye, and even severed contact with their elder daughter, In-hye, who reminded them of their animal of a son-in-law. The two sister's younger brother, Yeong-ho, and his wife were no different. --- Memories of Yeong-hye as a child. > Only long afterward did she understand Yeong-hye then. Their father's blows had singled Yeong-hye out. Yeong-ho probably suffered less because he beat neighborhood children as much as he was beaten. She herself, the eldest daughter cooking hangover soup in place of their exhausted mother, was treated with an unconscious caution. Gentle but inflexible, unable to please him, Yeong-hye offered no resistance and must have absorbed it all to her bones. Now she knew: her dutifulness as eldest daughter had been cowardice, not precocity. Merely a way to survive. --- Yeong-hye says nobody tries to understand her. > …You're the same, too. > > What do you mean? I… > > Nobody understands me…the doctors, the nurses, all the same…they don't even try…just give me medicine and stab me with needles. > > "You're just the same," she whispered, her voice barely audible. > > "What are you talking about? I…" / "No one can undertand me…the doctors, the nurses, they're all the same…they don't even try to understand…they just force me to take medication, and stab me with needles." --- Has her younger sister Yeong-hye moved ahead faster than she has? > She was startled by a sudden feeling that she had never lived in this world. It was true. She had never lived. From the earliest childhood she could remember, she had merely endured. … Had Yeong-hye passed through the pain and insomnia she now suffered secretly long ago, faster than ordinary people, and gone further beyond? > > The feeling that she had never really lived in this world caught her by surprise. It was a fact. She had never lived. Even as a child, as far back as she could remember, she had done nothing but endure. … This pain and insomnia that, unbeknownst to others, now has In-hye in its grip -- might Young-hye have passed through this same phase herself, a long time ago and more quickly than most people? ## The author's new afterword > I remember giving it the filename "trilogy of suffering" while writing the final story, "Flaming Trees." ## Author's afterword > In early spring , I wrote a short story, . … I thought then that I wanted to write a variation on it someday. … That was where this novel began. ## Footnotes [^1]: [KBS interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycsBdzxySpg) [^2]: [Time to Meet Han Kang (Hankyoreh 21)](https://n.news.naver.com/article/036/0000050553)