JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755
Traumatic Spaces and Psychological Loss in The Vegetarian by Han Kang.
Neha N S
MA English
Madras Christian College, Chennai
Email:[email protected]
Phone:9048777172
Abstract
Trauma Studies in literary theory was introduced with the publication of Cathy
Caruth'sUnclaimed Experience, Trauma, Narrative and History (1996) and Kali Tal's Worlds
of Hurt: Reading the Literatures of Trauma(1996). Trauma is considered to be an unsolvable
problem of the unconscious affected by many reasons like serious accidents, natural disasters,
war, terrorism and even the loss of a loved one which later creates inherent contradictions of
experience, memory and language. The theory is relevant and should be explored in a more
contemporary way because the concept of trauma is filled with contradictory theories and
there are several ways to classify different approaches to trauma. Han Kang is a South
Korean novelist. Her novelThe Vegetarian (2015) deals with the life of YoengHye, a
melancholy house wife who stopped eating meat after having a series of dreams. The after
effects of her negligence of eating meat and the alienation she got suffered from the Korean
society which is largely a meat eating society are discussed here. This paper focuses on the
episodes of trauma, its resolution and the possibilities of survival in reference to the
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psychological loss of the female protagonist and other characters presented in this novel. It
even analyses how the immediate changes as a vegetarian shows the impact of trauma and
how it leads to several eating disorders. Her detachment from the people, incidents of
childhood trauma and the episodes of traumatic nightmares are studied here.
Key words; Trauma, Childhood Trauma, Memory, Eating disorders, flashback, nightmares.
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Representation of trauma in fiction is an example of a narrative method. The
speciality of such a narrative method is to help to understand how writers make textual
material and how it engages readers mental states and intuition. The main focus of trauma in
contemporary fiction is to struggle with memory and avoidance that characters suffering. The
classic model of trauma theory engages with the conflict between experience and language.
However, Narrative method goes beyond the classic model far better because of text engages
more sharply to the reader in a range of senses.
The vegetarian is a South Korean novel in which the instances of trauma have been
narrated through the life of the female protagonist. It deals with the story of YoengHye who
starts to avoid all the meat products after having a series of torturing dreams to become
vegetarian and the way she has been isolated from the society. At the later part of the novel
author gives an account of childhood episode where YoengHye witnessed a crime which
contributes largely on her traumatic behaviour. Being a victim of major trauma her survival is
not directly explained and therefore questionable in the conclusion.
The narration takes place in the point of view of the characters, YoengHye‟s husband,
brother in law and sister. They give a detailed account of the incidents and details of the
protagonist on her immediate change. Han Kang intentionally uses such a narration to ensure
the detailed description on the behaviour and problems of the protagonist which traces the
reason behind such a drastic change.
The author gives an account of one of those incidents with YoengHye which happened in
her childhood. It talks about a dog, that soaks its teeth into her leg, got chained up to her father‟s
motorcycle. She was nine years old at that time. Her father said that he heard somewhere that
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driving a dog to keep running until the point of death is considered as a milder punishment. The
motorcycle engine was started and father begins to drive in a circle. The dog runs along behind.
Two laps, three laps, they circle around. YoengHye watched the whitey, eyes rolling and grasping
for breath, gradually exhaust himself. Once it has gone five laps, the dog was frothing at the
mouth. Blood drips from its throat, which is being chocked with the rope. Constantly groaning
through its damaged throat, the dog is dragged along the ground. At six laps, the dog vomited
blackish red blood, trickling from its mouth and open throat. As blood and froth mixed together,
YoengHye stood stiffly upright and stared at those two glittering eyes. At seven laps, and waiting
for the dog to come into view, father looks behind and sees that it is in fact dangling limply from
the motorcycle. YoengHye looked at the dog‟s four legs, its raises eyelids, the blood and water in
its dead eyes. She then remembers the feast which arranged in her house at that same evening. All
the middle aged man from the market came, and everyone her father considered worth knowing.
The saying went that for a wound caused by a dog bite to heal one should have to eat that same
dog and she did scoop up a mouthful for herself. The smell of burnt flesh, which the perilla seeds
couldn‟t wholly mask, pricked her nose at that moment. She remembered the dog, its two eyes
that had watched her, while the dog was made to run on, while it vomited blood mixed with froth
and how later they had seemed to appear, flickering on the surface of the soup. But she didn‟t
care for it.
This particular incident affects her very deeply. Even though, the incident happened a
long years back, when she was nine years old. But these long years she didn‟t recollect all these
things. But her helplessness for that poor animal does penetrate into her subconscious mind. The
image of the dog which was looking at her in a pathetic condition remains within herself. She
didn‟t do anything for that dog but directly looked at it. All these years, she keeps the incident in
her subconscious mind, without reminding about them.
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It is not necessary for people to react immediately to the events which should evoke grief
and trauma. They hold on themselves or may forget about it sometimes. But at certain conditions
they are reminded of the incidents through peoples, situations or things which relate or connect to
the incident. Here YoengHye abandons meat because internally she has this indirect effect of the
childhood incident which has been haunting since she was nine years old. As trauma theorists
explain, trauma that occurs in childhood can bring many different experiences. Trauma that
occurs in childhood can disrupt a child‟s formation of secure attachments, which are important
for survival and contribute to the development of meaningful, rusting relationships in adulthood
(Etherington 26.)
But it indirectly effects the life of YoengHye through the dream in which it is included
the elements of blood, animal, eyes etc. It was such a violent dream that came out of the hidden
feelings of guilt, kindness and helplessness towards the dog. That particular incident which
happened years back effected indirectly throughout her life and these feelings in the form of a
violent dream started to haunt her. The feelings of guilt and regret might have come out of her
mind suddenly after having this dream, and all these feelings towards the animal, towards all
animals, might have led her to be a vegetarian.
YoengHye‟s veganism is a part her mental trauma of the childhood incident where he
witnessed the brutality towards the dog. In the novel Cheong finds her wife standing in the
kitchen at the midnight time at looking at something. When he asks her what is she looking
for her only answer was that she had a dream. The very next day he discovers her disposing
all the meat products from the house by claiming reason that she had a dream.
He narrates; she was crouching, still wearing her nightclothes, her dishevelled, tangled hair a
shapeless mass around her face. Around her, the kitchen floor was covered with plastic bags
and airtight containers, scattered all over so that there was nowhere I could put my feet
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without treading on them. Beef for shabu-shabu , belly pork, two sides of black beef shin,
some squid in a vacuum-packed bag, sliced eel that my mother-in-law had sent us from the
country side ages ago ,dried croaker tied with yellow string ,unopened packs of frozen
dumplings and endless bundles of unidentified stuff dragged from the depths of the fridge.
There was a rustling sound; my wife was busy putting the things around her one by one into
black rubbish bags. Eventually I lost control. (kang9).
In his book Trauma Dissociation and Impulse Dyscontrol in Eating Disorders (1997)
Johan Vanderlinden writes certain foods may be closely associated with the original trauma
situation. Particular foods may elicit memories and feelings related to the childhood
experiences. He writes other patients who have been victim of long lasting sexual abuse may
develop an extreme distaste for meat and become fanatical vegetarians (Vanderlinden92). But
in the case of YoengHye it is not the sexual abuse but witnessing a crime in childhood leads
her to avoid meat and turns to be a vegetarian. The murder of the dog and those memories
haunt her and whenever she happens to see the meat she gets reminded of it. She disposes the
meat products only because of the continuous torture of the childhood trauma. The situation
gets severe when she completely avoids food and doesn‟t eat anything. It shows severity of
the trauma that she experiences which day by day become more intense and which destroys
her body and self.
These all are related to the psychological aspects of human mind. In this novel
YoengHye‟s dream happens in the dark woods where there are no people. A forest or woods
in a dream may represent the unconscious that means, being lost in a forest or woods in a
dream symbolize being lost or confused or may be exploring one‟s unconscious to find
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yourself. Through this dream YoengHye once again re-entering to her deep forest of her mind
itself.
The character YoengHye practices this veganism in the Korean society where meat
eating is encouraged and the veganism is considered as a sin. She stops eating meat not
because of any external pressure but something that is internal that is the haunting memories
of childhood experience and the frequent dreams.According to Melvin. R. Lansky, trauma
suffering people have night mares. People who suffer traumatic experiences will have
terrifying dreams and nightmares. Post traumatic nightmares will not be treated as true
dreams it is an after effect of the traumatic incident or incidents they have undergone (Lansky
03).
At the beginning of the novel it is only the dream which is considered as the reason
behind YoengHye‟s veganism. Her only answer to people who asked about her change
directed up on these faded dreams. Kang writes, there are no other reasons for laughter, but
the fear. “My clothes still wet with blood. Hide, hide behind the trees. Crouch down, don‟t let
anybody see. My bloody hands.My bloody mouth. In that barn, what had I done? Pushed that
raw mass into my mouth, felt it squish against my gums, the roof of my mouth, slick with
crimson blood. Chewing in something real, but couldn‟t have been, it couldn‟t. My face, the
look in my face, undoubtedly, but never seen before. Or no, not mine, but so
familiar....Nothing makes sense. Familiar and yet not... that vivid, strange, horribly uncanny
feeling”(kang12).This description of the dream points out the childhood experience of the
female protagonist where she was asked to chew the meat of the dog which has been killed
by her father. She describes that pathetic scene as a breath taking one.
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This is the dream which changed the entire life of YoengHye. The violent dream
includes the images of meat and its blood. Here YoengHye is like a person who is very bitterly
affected by this particular dream. But it is something more interesting that a single dream could
change a person like this manner. Apart from meat she slowly stops eating eggs and even milk
too. These all food has some connection with some animals which reminds her about the dog and
its cry. Whenever she happens to eat milk, meat or egg, she unknowingly starts thinking about the
meat of that killed dog after got abused by her father. She remembers the dark coloured red
blood which is vomited by the dog, she can smell the same meat when she is about to have any
meat product. Initially it was a dream where she breaks her sleep, stands somewhere and starts to
think. Then she starts to avoid the meat, then eggs, milk finally all kinds of food too. She starts to
behave like so self-centered at some point where she asks her husband to do the same thing. She
needs her husband to be a vegetarian. She is not ready to give the food that he wants, that is the
meat. She astonished him through all these drama.
Choosing a vegetarian diet was not quite as rare as it had been in the past. People turn
vegetarian for all sorts of reasons: to try and alter their genetic predisposition towards certain
allergies, for example, or else because it‟s seen as more environmentally friendly not to eat meat.
Anyway 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 the sleep disturbed by indigestion. In any other case, it was nothing but sheer obstinacy
for a wife to go against her husband‟s wishes. When a person undergoes such a drastic
transformation there should have a believable reason. But in this novel it is the dreams.
Han Kang wonderfully presents all incidents that follow the important element of the
novel, which is the violent dream. This has always been here. It‟s dark. Everything is being
snuffed out in the pitch black darkness. “(Kang28). In this context it is further clearer that the
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dream of YoengHye is an outburst of her inner, suppressed thoughts. She is trying to be a
vegetarian because of the pressure that is given by the dream. But in a very common sense it
cannot believe by the society. It is not at all an easy thing. It is not about the dream but the
changes that brought by that. YoengHye stops eating meat for her entire life. She replies to her
husband when he talked about her decision that she continues to be like this forever. The
description about the dream shows the intensity of violence in it. In this novel Han Kang is not
making it as a fantasy one but she could blend dream with reality which is wounded internally.
Her dreams pave the way for certain reality. In an actual sense it cannot be considered as a single
dream but as a reflection of her psyche which has the wounds of childhood trauma. The mind of
the man is fully satisfied by what happens to him. The agonizing question of possibility is no
longer pertinent. In this context it should be noted that the immediate change of YoengHye is
happened only because of the dream she had. It doesn‟t make sense that a woman turns to be a
vegetarian because of having certain dreams. Han Kang uses a dutiful, common house wife to use
the dream element to this novel. Whichever dream she had, it is unbelievable for the common
mind to believe that a woman starts feeling her meat eating food habit as a repulsive one. There
will be a variety of sources or reasons for having particular dreams. Suppressive thoughts in
the subconscious mind of a person can lead him or her to have such violent dreams. The
reason behind such dreams is clearly presented in the novel which is her childhood episode.
Theorists give more importance on the post traumatic nightmares in the field of
trauma studies. Post traumatic nightmares are usually described in literature, even
psychoanalytic literature, as though they were unmodified reproductions of the traumatic
scene replayed in exact or almost exact details. (Lansky 25).According trauma theorists the
traumatic nightmares usually occur in NREM sleep, in the middle of the night. If it so,
Cheong finds YoengHye standing in the kitchen for the first time was at a midnight time.
Much of the literature views these post traumatic nightmares as markers of stress responses
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and not as products of any imagination. It has a real problem to convey which hides inside the
person. These post traumatic nightmares have a reason or recognizable traumatic event that
had taken place many years ago. These kinds of dreams will be largely disorganized .It has to
do much more on the ideas to Sigmund Freud and his psychoanalysis where he discussed
about traumatic fixations and the reasons for post traumatic nightmares. A careful
interpretation of Freud‟s Interpretation of Dreams (1900) will convince the reader that most
of them were investigated by experiences of shame in the dream day and these dreams can be
seen as attempts to correct those experiences of shame (Lansky15). It‟s all about the human
mind and its complications. Human mind is more complicated and the three realms,
conscious, unconscious and subconscious constitute for it. According to the theories, the
previous incidents that have been recorded in the human mind may take part in the present,
and regret might have come out of her mind suddenly after having this dream, and all these
feelings towards the animal, towards all animals, might have led her to be a vegetarian. It‟s
all related to the psychological aspects of human mind. It is therefore closely connected with
the theory of trauma which is influenced by the psychoanalytical theory of Freud.
In this novel YoengHye‟s dream happens in the dark woods where there are no people.
A forest or woods in a dream may represent the unconscious that means, being lost in a forest or
woods in a dream symbolize being lost or confused or may be exploring one‟s unconscious to
find yourself. Through this dream YoengHye once again re-entering to her deep forest of her
mind itself.
A series of dreams which is considered as flashbacks or triggers in the field of trauma
could change the entire structure of the life of YoengHye. Through changing the way of her
life, it should be noted that the way of progressing if the novel itself got changed into a new
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one. Through describing about the dream sequences, Han Kang, could create a world of
traumatic after effects those are rooted in sad reality. The elements of dreams and the changes
that brought in the life of a young lady lead the novel to be. It is an astonishing fact that a
dream could change the life of a person.
The second chapter called „The Mongolian Mark” discusses more about the unsecured
relationship which grows between Young Hyeand her brother-in-law. Young Hye‟s brother
in-law, who is a video artist, hears from his wife that her sister still has the Mongolian mark
on her buttocks. Mongolian mark is a kind of a birth mark which appears on the buttocks of
children always fading away completely long before adulthood. Her brother- in- law had an
idea of creating a video performance with the naked bodies of men and women which are
brilliantly decorated , covered all over in painted flowers. YoengHye gets sexually aroused
by the flowers. It is contrary to what happens in the previous chapters where she avoids all
kind of physical relationship with her husband. Her comment towards his husband was she
gets the smell of meat from his body.
This condition slightly contributes to the symptoms of traumatised people where they
start to dissociate with others. They start to detach from the people around her. It is quite
unbelievable to the common belief that a woman gets sexually aroused by seeing flowers that
is artificially painted on the body. YoengHye says that she gets the smell of the flowers
where she denies physical relationship with her husband by saying that he smells of meat.
Detachment from people and falling in unsecured relationships are considered as the
characteristics of traumatised persons. Here YoengHye detaches from all the people around
her and falls in relationship with her brother in law that too only because of the painted
flowers. These images of flowers which are connected with nature and she loves it than the
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human body where she gets the smell of the meat. This behaviour brings out the trauma of
her childhood where the dog represents the natural world which got exploited by humans.
The role of the family members and society on treating the traumatised people should be
considered here. According to Maria Root and Laura S Brown, points socio-cultural context
that shapes individual identities often shape how survivor understand the traumatic
experience. Psychological functioning within a social or cultural environment plays an
important role in the characterizations of survivors. If social relations and cultural values
cause for trauma, precisely it forces victims out of denial or guilt. If social relations and
cultural values cause for trauma, it forces victims out of denial or guilt. Traumatized persons
may react to their state of mind differently because of the variations in the individual
responses. It is the emotional support from the family members as well as the people around
the patient is expected. But in the novel the only supporter of the protagonist is her sister.
Korean society is a homogenous one, which largely promotes meat eating but
considered veganism as a sin. Here YoengHye‟s husband, family and the society alienated
her because of her practice of veganism. At some point her father tries to force feed her the
meat, but she resists it. She makes a suicide attempt and gets hospitalised. The tendency to
kill one self or destroy oneself is also one of the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder.
She was alienated by the cultural and societal norms. She stopped eating meat and completely
ignored food to be more plant like. Through the depiction of the character of YoengHye,
Kang presents the psychological loss and how the traumatised person got silenced in the
cultural and social context.
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Jacobs,Selby.C.Traumatic Grief: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention.Taylor&Francis,
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Kleber J. Rolf, Charles R. Figley, Berthold P. R. Gersons. Beyond Trauma:Cultural and
Societal Dynamics.Plenum Press, 1995.
Lansky.R,Melvin. Post Traumatic Nightmares.The Analytic Press,1995
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