Female Body in Social Incarceration in Han Kang's The Vegetarian - Kamana Aryal - Bog

This book aims to investigate how the issue of body politics works in Han Kang¿s The Vegetarian. The body of the Protagonist, Yeong-hye, is a vital focus in the triptych narrative, where Kang tries to portray the adversities of Yeong-hye due to her strong vow for vegetarianism. Her butchery dream changes her into vegetarianism that is solely different from the rest because, in the beginning, she prefers to eat only green vegetables but slowly and gradually, she stops eating anything. It is because she wants to transform herself into a tree. The people around her stand as obstacle to preclude her from achieving her desire. When her body does not fulfil the demands of others and resists traditional norms then conflict occurs in the plot. The extremity of her zeal, against which the society is standing, forces Mr. Cheong to give divorce to Yeong-hye, allows her sister¿s husband to rape her, compels family to abandon her and finally to get admitted in a psychiatric hospital. Depending on the issues of female body and its politics, societal laws and regulations and power over sex, this research paper explores how a female body is subjugated to these societal conventions.