Susan Watkins

She does not obey norms; she is a woman, Humanism and

Feminism in The Vegetarian and The Natural Way of Things

Student ID 77436415

Department of English, LEEDS BECKETT UNIVERSITY

Course Name Literature in Practice

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Susan Watkins

She does not obey norms; she is a woman, Humanism and Feminism in The Vegetarian
and The Natural Way of Things

Abstract

The research will explore the humanism and feminism in the novels The Vegetarian and The
Natural Way of Things. In the world women are not always treated better or considered equal
to men and even sometimes not taken as human beings. In the novels, the characters faced
hardships and separated from society. This study will explore why male characters are so
dominating and mistreat the female characters and related to it the study will examine all the
reasons of such indifferent behaviours towards female protagonists. The study will also
elaborate why society is so misogynistic and even inhumane for women with different
personalities as Yeong Hye in The Vegetarian wanted to be a tree and escape from her real
self and Yolanda in The Natural Way of Things wanted to be a rabbit and the other females
were also turning into hunters or animals. The study will answer all the research questions
with a reliable research method.

Subject Area

Critical, English Literature, Feminist Novels

Classifications

Feminism Analysis, Humanism Analysis, Novels, Feminism and Humanism in Literature

Detailed Project
Aims and Objectives
 The research will analyse patriarchal behaviours and the deprivation of female and
human rights for the female characters and heroines of both novels.
 The research will examine why society cannot accept women protagonists with
different personalities and deprive them of human and female rights.
 The study will define according to humanism and feminism what rights could be
given to these abused female protagonists.
 The study will examine the meat-eating representation and controversy portrayed by
authors in both novels.

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Susan Watkins

Research Questions

 Why male characters trampled female and human rights?

 What are the factors that society cannot accept females with different personalities
and desires?
 According to humanism and feminism, what rights could be given to female
protagonists of both novels?
 Why authors portrayed meat eating as a controversial aspect in both novels?

Research Context

The current research will take two famous novels The Vegetarian and The Natural Ways of
Things to examine feminism and Humanism These novels portrayed feminism prominently
as the protagonists were females and they also suffered being females in both novels. As
Vardhan (2018) described women in the classical period were badly treated and remained a
susceptible group in the society. Women could never enjoy the opportunities as the men did.
Women have always been pathetic in male dominated societies. By the time women realised
that they must have equal rights in life and in every field of life. The study analysed the
feminism in the feministic novel The Vegetarian which is written by Han Kang a South
Korean female, first published in 2007 in Korean language and then translated by Deborah
Smith in 2015 in English. The English translation first published in UK and then USA and
The Vegetarian won multiple awards all over the world critics praised Han Kangs narrative
style and Deobrah Smiths’ accurate perfect translation (Rai, p.2 2021).

The second novel for the humanism and feminism analysis is The Natural Way of Things
written by Charlotte Wood an Australian female novelist in 2015 and she is the author of six
novels and two nonfictional books. The Natural Way of Things in 2016 won awards like
Stella Prize and Indie book of the year and novel of the year award and Prime Minister's
Literary (Good reads). Portar (2023) as the publisher of the novel The Vegetarian states that I
was reading a story of a woman who stopped eating meat, who thought she was turning into a
tree. The story was unforgettable and terrifying and elegant, radical, shocking. The team
portobello books, our team acquired it and commission Deobrah for full translation. All the
team members were agreed that book sample was extraordinary and important. Some
members felt that the book was too much strange and unusual a prospect which is
commercially practical It was like music for my ears and we continued to publish it. George

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& Sunitha (2020, p.1293) described that Han Kang explores the inner psychology of her
Korean heroin Yeong Hye in her novel The Vegetarian, Yeong Hye is not even taken as the
main character and her voice too weak to be heard by anyone, so her actions convey her
message more than words.

Arizti (2020, p.1) said that “The Natural Way of Things tells a story of ten girls in their
twenties who were kept prisoned by a strange corporate organization ‘Hardings International’
because of their physical involvement with multiple powerful men. As, the opposite side of
utopia a dystopia, The Natural Way of Things has its own eccentricities or peculiarities”.
Newman (2016) described about the novel The Natural way of Things is unrestrainedly and
unforgivably feminist novel which resembles to the writers’ feminist writers as Angela Carter
and Joanna Russ who strongly hit the patriarchy without caring about being called as man-
hatters. Undoubtedly men characters appeared to be bad here. The only understanding and
empathetic character is Verla’s father who sit on wheelchair after a stroke and use only one
word in vocabulary which is “Bloody”. All other men including lovers, brothers and male
colleagues were abusers.

In both novels The Vegetarian and The Natural Way of Things eating meat is significant
aspect that directly goes against the feminism and humanism as well that indicates towards
the Adams’ theory of “The sexual politics of meat” (2000) in which she elaborates the
connectivity of meat eating as a symbol of patriarchy and masculinity. As Lockie, Hayward &
Salem (2002) explained that The Sexual Politics of Meat includes the idea of ‘absent referent
that an animal is erased or a woman from a practice that is a violence against animal or
woman is inherited. Like the preparation and consumption of meat present various complex
meanings related to health, masculinity and status a proper meal, power and more. The
animal which provides the meat are not included in the meanings and not associated from the
end product and its digestion.

Ling, Tong & Tarmizi (2014) cited that Stevick (1990, p.23) defined that humanism is to be
critical of aythin that depersonalize, identity, ideology, or individual freedom and laws. Kurtz
(1973,2020) described about humanism that its main concerns revolve around the human
being solely and the completion of human capabilities, and freedom for every human being
for determining his own destiney and identity. Stevick defined five points which are based on
humanism and highly significant for human being to have a better life.

1. Emotions and appreciation of beauty and feelings

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Humanism always tends to reject the factors that hinders the individual gladness
and cause bad feelings.

2. Social Relationships is an important factor which involves friendships, helping

each other and peers should help the newcomers or simply society as whole
should help each other and dissuades the opposites.
3. Responsibilities is another important factor which tells us to be critique,
responsible and as a whole society, reflect, reject and scrutinize the facts.
4. To be intellectual knowledgeful and understanding is an important aspect of
humanism in which human mind exercises freely and believes, seizes what is
logically and intellectually tested.
5. Self-actualization (one’s recognition of his/her deepest and true qualities) The
emphasis believes that liberation is the result of pursuit of exceptionality.

Grudin (2023) described humanism as a system of education that originated in the 13th and
14th centuries in northern Italy and spread in all of Europe and England. Humanism is also
recognised as renaissance and it refers to the development of human qualities like
understanding, dispositioning to do good, kindness, mercy, and to be confident in life to face
harsh realities and challenges and be judgemental about situations, and prude as well.
Humanism is a broader and multifaceted theory and scholars described it in many disciplines
of life Edwords (2008) elaborated on humanism in literature, renaissance, western culture
humanism to religious humanism. The analysis of the vegetarian and the natural way of
things requires humanism in the literature that is devoted to literary culture and humanism in
the Renaissance which completely concentrates on the human and his life, and it is spread
across Europe by Petrarch from 1304 to 1375.

Dayal (2020) stated that primary ideas in humanism represent the reasoning and dignity for
human beings and scholars of humanism also believe in the development of man's special
mental, physical, artistic powers and morals as compared to the technical training only.
Humanism is all about respecting each other and helping each other but the heroines in both
novels are treated inhumanely and violated because they are different than society Rai (2021)
described that in the novel the vegetarian Yeong Hye’s father has always been harsh to her.
He always beat her and imposed values on her. Women in The Vegetarian and in The Natural
Way of Things were not only deprived of human rights but punished by male characters

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because they were females. “Humanism promotes a democratic and moral lifestyle which
confirms that humans have responsibility and all rights to give a meaning to their lives, and
humanism means to build a society which is more human by considering ethical values and
natural in a soul of reason through human abilities. Humanism does not believe in God or
supernatural believes in the real life” (Overmann, 2018).

According to these female characters in both novels, they wanted to make their own choices
like in The Natural Way of Things a female wanted to become a rabbit and the details of her
transformation or metamorphosis curtailed her choices in such an inhumane anti-feminist
society (Beeston, p.683,2020). The Natural Way of Things and The Vegetarian refuse the
sentimental and figurative concept as women are going away from their real personalities and
undoing their real identity and they tend to become part of nature as an animal or plant. These
pieces of literature take us to the earlier times in Western literature history where all the
differences of a person, particularly females were assessed by female madness in feminism
and the identity of a woman with the natural feminism writings (Baker, p.68.2002). The
women in the novel wanted to change their identities completely as they were separating
themselves from conventional ladies following their own will by going against society.

Literature always represents human values that are present in human lives and a reflection of
society. Literary writings are human objects including human factors or cultural factors as
they are human products (Suharto, 2019). Similarly, the novels The Vegetarian and The
Natural Way of Things are the representation of women who at one hand try to maintain their
social values, and in their real selves they are unable to follow the social norms and at some
point, in their lives, they are mistreated and even left alone socially. Suharto, 2019 stated that
humanism must be included in all cultures and religions, everyone regardless of gender, age,
colour of skin and race must be equally socialised and provided help and communication. In
The Natural Way of Things, the females were imprisoned and separated by society so that
their past scandals and sins would disappear over time and they would have their punishment
as well.

Beeston (p.682, 2020) stated that I read both novels The Vegetarian and Natural Way of
Things as the most important novels to review the feminism theory and nature of women in
the twenty-century literature as compared to the more recent literature that depicts the
positive connection between human and nature. In Woods’ and Kangs’ novels, there is a
hostility of the city and people around towards both women who are retreated to nature.

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Feminism is notable in both novels, in The Natural Way of Things the act of the women's
imprisonment in a faraway bush invites feminist critique in myriad manners, in which women
in modern Australia are subordinated and not even allowed to speak by complicit to
perpetuate the social order to set a limit that what a woman is, or she must be (Ryan, 2018).
Wood portrayed an outback prison in The Natural Way of Things because she was inspired by
the Hay Institute for Girls in Soth Wales in which the number of women increased in the
1960s and 1970s.

In that institute, the girls were assaulted and abused sexually, and they talked about it. As
Wood described in an interview in 2016, “The actual purpose was not to punish the
imprisoned women but to keep them locked up and punished” (Wallance,2016). Indirectly,
Wood described the sheep farm which is the confinement of local Australian detention centers
and other institutes from the 19th century up to 2007, through the territory which is called an
intervention a policy that allowed the government to control indigenous people. In The
Natural Way of Things, the brutality of patriarchy and imperialism of Australia is linked to
the brutal industry for the farm was mainly allocated by white invaders. The females are led
by lashes and 9 who is a captivated woman was made to sleep in kennels. The butchering as a
metaphor can be used and it is merged in the discourse of sexual abuse that is as forceful as
the oppression of animals.

The basis for the women's captivity is the objectification, humiliation, and devastation of
animals too (Adams, p.43. 1990) Humanism or feminism always talks about the rights of the
individual and the rights of the women who are being oppressed and abused. Similarly, the
novel The Vegetarian uses language which is androcentrism. At the beginning of the novel,
Yeong-Hye’s husband drags her to dinner at his boss’s home where she refuses to eat the
meat and wants to eat Kimchi or salad which was disapproved or reprobation of the party.
One of the wives of the boss said that meat eating is a human instinct, and vegetarians go
against the human instinct, right? (Kang, p.23 2015). Yeong Hye’s vegetarianism is a
response to her nightmares which shows that meat eating is a murderous act. She woke up to
the same dream a couple of months before the dinner party. Her Husband Cheong discovers
her in the early morning, standing near the opened fridge and her body is still like a ghost
who is silently standing on the floor (7). The next day Cheong was shocked to see that she
was emptying all the eggs, milk, and meat from the fridge and also ignored to press his shirt
and say goodbye for the job (11). Yeong Hye’s refusal to eat any meat was a refusal to submit

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to her husband’s existence which follows the path of a patriarchy (11) which is a universal
phenomenon and criticised by feminism and humanism too.

Griffin (p.148,99, 1984) described that in The Vegetarian and The Natural Way of Things, the
voice is patriarchal and overpowering, endless which narrates Susan Griffin’s work on
feminism writings as women and nature. The patriarchy is visible in the book as the male
character is called a lecturer and gives the woman names just like in Wood’s novel the
imprisoned ladies were called Lady Macbeth, quail, mare, or a harlot. Beeston (p.686, 2020)
In The Vegetarian Yeong Hye’s dreams cause her insomnia and by the time she starts to eat
less in a few months, her body starts to look like a skeleton (Kang, p.18, 2015). Later she was
diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and schizophrenia, and the doctor said that this could be the
result of her struggle with the dominating mother in childhood. Men always blame the
females for whatever happens negatively, in the novel the story proceeds with male
aggression violence and dominance on the women. The misogynistic society always ignores
the values of females and does not consider them as humans. Male characters also caused the
main female character Yolanda Covacs in The Natural Way of Things to turn into an animal.

Hence, she chooses to become a hunter and develops an intimacy with the animals she hunts
and eats. Yolanda has a body that is spectacular and marvellous for the men and for her, it is a
mystery a mare costume of intrusion and property for others. (Wood, p.51,52, 2015). Her
body is a separate thing for her as whatever has been done to that body has nothing to do with
her. Her body was gang rapped by men who were football team players and they rapped her
in a hotel room. Yolanda was blamed for this violence was caused to her because of her
alienation. That night when Yolanda is attached to her body, she feels like it is a rubbish part
of her in which men deplete themselves. This shows that she is the same as Yeong Hye. Then
the managers of the football team paid for Yolanda to be imprisoned on the sheep farm, where
she was treated to become an animal tamed by a leash and made to sleep in kennels forcing
her to completely be turned and return in the dumb body of a dog. When females including
Yolanda were menstruating, two men Boncer and Teddy mocked them and called them pigs,
and sharks, Baits, raw meat, and played with the fears of menstrual blood and the fertility of
females.

Methodology

The research will undertake a qualitative methodology for the research and analyse of the
novels The Vegetarian and The Natural Way of Things by critically evaluating the novels’ text

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by using a theoretical framework of feminism and humanism. As, Laire (p.4, 2009) examined
the feminism theory in the novel Little Women and used the close reading analysis to explore
the feminism in the novel. By close reading and explaining the text under the lenses of
theorise humanism and feminism the research will intend to answer all of the research
questions. The research will completely elaborate the theories in literature and analyse the
novels in the Lense of both theories.

In the research text paragraphs will take and analyse with the close reading method and
explained to answer the research questions. The primary texts for the analysis are novels The
Vegetarian and The Natural Way of Things and for practical analysis the secondary texts are
Stevick’s theory of humanism and feminism along with the Adams theory of sexual
representation of meat for the complete analysis and answering the research questions. At the
end, the research will conclude the research by presenting the research results and conclude
it.

Planned Outputs

This research will consist of a detailed analysis of humanism and feminism this research aims
to explore humanism and feminism in two novels The Vegetarian and The Natural Way of
Things with an extended literature review of 3000 words and a qualitative methodology of
1000 words. The study analysis of the research and conclusion will be around 8000 words
and the other parts of the dissertation will have around 3000 words. The total word count for
the research project will be around 15000.

Action of Plan

April: In April I will complete my detailed literature review.

May: I will write the methodology and collect the data from both novels to showcase the
novel texts and analyse them, I will cover the full novels for the analysis.
June: I will analyse both novels using selected theories and answer my research questions
with detailed answers.
July: I will answer my research questions according to analysis.
August: I will conclude the research and write an introduction and abstract of the study.
September: I will redraft my research project according to the feedback and guidance of my
supervisor, and I will have a complete project in September.

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Ethics Clearance
The ethics clearance application for this project has been submitted had designated risk
category one in Research Ethics Policy and Procedures of Leeds Beckett University.

References

Adams, C. J.& Donovan, J, eds. (1995). Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical
Explorations. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Arizti, B. (2020). “At HomewithZoe”: Becoming Animal in Charlotte Wood’s The Natural
Way of Things. Humanities 2020, 9, 96 Humanities | An Open Access Journal from
MDPI

Baker, S. (2002). “What Does Becoming-Animal Look Like?” In Representing Animals,

edited by Nigel Rothfels,(67–98). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Beeston, A. (2020). The Watch‐Bitch Now: Reassessing the Natural Woman in Han Kang’s
The Vegetarian and Charlotte Wood’s The Natural Way of Things, Journal of Women
in Culture and Society 2020, vol. 45, no. 3.

Dayal, D. (2020). English Literature and Humanism, Pune Research Discovery: An

International Journal of Advanced Studies, Vol 5, Issue 3.

Edwords, F. (2008). What is humanism. American Humanist Association,

https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/edwords-what-is-humanism .

Griffin, S. (1984). Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her. London: Women’s Press.

Good Reads, (2015) The Vegetarian, Retrieved from:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25489025-the-vegetarian?
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Good Reads, (2015) The Natural Way of Things, Retrieved from:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25876358-the-natural-way-of-things?
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George, R & Sunitha, V (2020, p.1293) Exploring Ecopsychological Interactions: A Study of

Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, Journal of Critical Reviews, VOL 7, ISSUE 17

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Grudin, R. (2023, December 4). humanism. Encyclopaedia Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/humanism

Kang, H. (2007, 2015). The Vegetarian. Translated by Deborah Smith. London: Portobello.
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Newman, S. (2016) The Natural Way of Things review – a masterpiece of feminist horror,
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Overmann, A. (2018). Humanism: What it is, Why I Embrace it, and why you should too,
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vegetarian-by-han-kang-deborah-smith

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Rai, U. (2021). Protagonist’s Failure to be Identified as a Radical Feminist in Han Kang’s

The Vegetarian, A Thesis Submitted to the Central Department of English, T.U. In
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