素食者阅读分享

By HanKang, the author describes a woman who swears to never join the human society. "The Vegetarian" is not a book promoting eco-feminism. It is more akin to "Metamorphoses" by Ovid or Kafkas "The Metamorphosis". In Ovids work, many women, whether they be human, gods, elves or demons, are forced or willingly transformed to avoid or dissolve the violation and harm they experience. The most famous example is Daphne, who transforms into a laurel tree to escape Apollos pursuit. In Kafkas "The Metamorphosis", people are alienated by modern society and become a different kind of creature, unlike the original human self, not understood by other people, and unable to communicate with them.

Mrs. Hans novel is an East Asian female version of "The Metamorphosis." The protagonist, Yinghui, transforms because of patriarchy and alienation caused by modern society.

The novel is divided into three parts. In the first part, "The Vegetarian", Yinghui, an ordinary housewife, suddenly refuses to eat meat, which frequently leads to conflicts with her family. In the second part, "The Mongoloid", Yinghui has divorced her husband and lives a life of seclusion, with her mental state gradually deteriorating. In the third part, "Flaming Trees," Yinghui has been sent to a mental hospital. During this process, she increasingly believes that she is a tree and wants to become one. We see two Yinghuis: one as a social person with human flesh; the other as a tree, living in her own spiritual world. The former suffers from schizophrenia and anorexia, gradually becoming crazy, weakened, damaged, and dying. The latter takes root, sprouts, grows leaves, blooms, basks in the sun, and thirsts for rain...the life of the latter comes at the cost of the formers death.

How we wish that one day, Yinghui could really become a tree, her skin turning green, her body becoming a trunk, her fingers reaching out to become new leaves. We hope that there are no boundaries between all things, and that all living and nonliving beings can communicate with each other, whether they be humans, animals, or plants.