A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Meat Diet and Vegetarian Diet Depicted in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian

Focusing on the increased public attention towards vegetarianism and its symbolic significance following the success of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, which became a bestseller after winning the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, this study tracks the sociolinguistic shifts in the meanings of meat diet and vegetarian diet by analyzing how these phrases are portrayed and transformed within the novel. In the story, non-vegetarians argue that meat consumption is a human instinct and necessary for health, deeming vegetarians to be strange, stubborn, and offending. The protagonist expands the meaning of vegetarianism by relating the violence inherent in meat-eating culture to the violence she experiences as a minority in a patriarchal society. The novel does not address vegetarianism in terms of health or environmental issues; rather, Yeong-hye’s choice of practicing vegetarian diet is framed as a form of resistance to violence. At the same time, the novel presents the paradox that the protagonist may still become a perpetrator herself while resisting violence, which offers a profound reflection on how a minority can become an oppressor to another minority. This study is significant in that the linguistic expressions and portrayals of meat diet and vegetarian diet in The Vegetarian go beyond a simple binary, laying an important foundation for complex socio-cultural discussions.