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Korean writer Han Kang won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2024, and her work The Vegetarian has been widely circulated. The book consists of three parts: The Vegetarian, The Birthmark, and The Tree Fire. The protagonist, Yinghui, an otherwise docile and traditional wife who refuses to eat meat due to a nightmare, embarks on a game between women and the existing social system and discusses the reality of women's destiny. Yinghui's struggle to stop eating meat is a symbol of her resistance to the patriarchal social system and family environment, through which she tries to escape from the constraints of family and society and seeks inner freedom and peace. In this paper, we will start from the imagery of ‘vegetarianism’ and ‘meat-eating’ to analyse the resistance behaviors of women such as Yinghui and Renhui in the patriarchal society, the deeper meanings behind them, and in this way, we will clarify the connotation of women's spirit of resistance in Han's writings.
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Analysing the Spirit of Resistance in The Vegetarian with the Imagery of Meat and Vegetables
How to cite this paper: Yifan Zhang. (2024) Analysing the Spirit of Resistance in The Vegetarian with the Imagery of Meat and Vegetables. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, 8(12), 2742-2747.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2024.12.014