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Yeong-hye
The brother-in-law’s wife and Yeong-hye’s older sister, who provides the narrative perspective for the third section of the book. In-hye is four years older than Yeong-hye and is at first described as the saner and more responsible of the two. She is the primary breadwinner for herself and her husband, who is a video artist. She manages a cosmetic store and has a young son, Ji-woo. Of all of the characters, In-hye is the most devoted to her sister as she goes through numerous traumatic experiences, despite the fact that In-hye doesn’t fully understand her sister’s strange behavior. Han also describes In-hye as not fully understanding her husband’s thoughts or motivations: their isolation from each other and the lack of understanding between them is one of the things that prompts her husband to construct fantasy worlds through his art. When she discovers that he has had sex with Yeong-hye on film, she calls emergency services on him and refuses to let him see their son. But even though In-hye is perhaps saner than her sister, she, too, experiences bouts of mental instability. Her isolation from the people around her drives her to think about self-harm, and she even considers abandoning her family and walking into the mountains, never to return. Ultimately, however, In-hye recognizes the deep and dire consequences that face her husband and Yeong-hye for giving up their societal obligations, and she recognizes the importance of remaining tethered to reality.
In-hye Quotes in The Vegetarian
The The Vegetarian quotes below are all either spoken by In-hye or refer to In-hye. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1: The Vegetarian Quotes
Before my wife turned vegetarian, I'd always thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way.
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Though In-hye sprang at him and held him by the waist, in the instant that the force of the slap had knocked my wife's mouth open he'd managed to jam the pork in. As soon as the strength in Yeong-ho's arms was visibly exhausted, my wife growled and spat out the meat. An animal cry of distress burst from her lips.
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Chapter 2: Mongolian Mark Quotes
In precisely that moment he was struck by the image of a blue flower on a woman’s buttocks, its petals opening outward. In his mind, the fact that his sister-in-law still had a Mongolian mark on her buttocks became inexplicably bound up with the image of men and women having sex, their naked bodies completely covered with painted flowers. The causality linking these two things was so clear, so obvious, as to be somehow beyond comprehension, and thus it became etched into his mind.
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When it was all over, she was crying. He couldn't tell what these tears meant—pain, pleasure, passion, disgust, or some inscrutable loneliness that she would have been no more able to explain than he would have been to understand. He didn't know.
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He stood up, stepped close to her and pushed her still-fevered body up against the wall. But when he pressed his lips firmly against hers, probing with his tongue, she shoved him away again.
“Why shouldn't we? Because I'm your brother-in-law?”
“No, it’s nothing to do with that.”
“Then why not? Come on, you said you were all wet!” She was silent. “Did you fancy that kid?”
“It wasn’t him, it was the flowers . . .”
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He had to rush out onto the veranda, now, and throw himself over the railing against which she was leaning. He would fall down three floors and smash his head to pieces.
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Chapter 3: Flaming Trees Quotes
Look, sister, I'm doing a handstand, leaves are growing out of my body, roots are sprouting out of my hands…they delve down into the earth. Endlessly, endlessly…yes, I spread my legs because I wanted flowers to bloom from my crotch, I spread them wide…
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No one can understand me…the doctors, the nurses, they’re all the same…they don't even try to understand…they just force me to take medication, and stab me with needles.
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“I don't know you,” she muttered, tightening her grip on the receiver, which she’d hung back in the cradle but was still clutching. “So there's no need for us to forgive each other. Because I don't know you.”
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It's your body, you can treat it however you please. The only area where you're free to do just as you like. And even that doesn't turn out how you wanted.
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If her husband and Yeong-hye hadn't smashed through all the boundaries, if everything hadn't splintered apart, then perhaps she was the one who would have broken down, and if she'd let that happen, if she'd let go of the thread, she might never have found it again.
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“Perhaps this is all a kind of dream.” She bows her head. But then, as though suddenly struck by something, she brings her mouth right up to Yeong-hye's ear and carries on speaking, forming the words carefully, one by one. “I have dreams too, you know. Dreams…and I could let myself dissolve into them, let them take me over…but surely the dream isn’t all there is? We have to wake up at some point, don’t we?”
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In-hye Character Timeline in The Vegetarian
The timeline below shows where the character In-hye appears in The Vegetarian. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: The Vegetarian
...and agrees to call her daughter the next morning. Mr. Cheong then calls Yeong-hye’s sister In-hye, who is equally astonished, apologizes for her sister’s behavior, and resolves to call Yeong-hye as...
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Yeong-hye’s mother and In-hye’s calls have no effect on Yeong-hye. The next weekend, Yeong-hye’s father calls, bellowing at her...
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At the family gathering at In-hye’s apartment, In-hye and Yeong-hye’s brother-in-law are introduced. Mr. Cheong describes how In-hye is the primary...
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Mr. Cheong, In-hye, the brother-in-law, Yeong-hye’s father and mother, and Yeong-hye’s brother Yeong-ho all make pleasant conversation over...
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...of critical condition after being brought by Mr. Cheong and the brother-in-law. Yeong-ho, his wife In-hye, and Mr. Cheong are all watching her sleep. Yeong-ho’s wife comments that Yeong-hye’s father went...
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Chapter 2: Mongolian Mark
The brother-in-law knows he should go home to Ji-woo and In-hye, but he instead goes to the studio that he and other video artists use. He...
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...conversation: he had noted Ji-woo still had a Mongolian mark while giving him a bath. In-hye had remarked that Yeong-hye still had a Mongolian mark when she was 20, and possibly...
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When the brother-in-law returns home, he finds In-hye, exhausted. She had gone back to a full-time job at work, and only asks him...
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In-hye tells him how overloaded she’s been, as she hadn’t heard from the brother-in-law all day,...
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In the present, the brother-in-law calls Yeong-hye and tells her that In-hye is worried. He recalls how, after she had been hospitalized, Mr. Cheong had commented that...
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...what he is saying. He also asks her if she’ll keep it a secret from In-hye. She gives no sign of assent, but does not refuse.
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...he walks to the train station to meet Yeong-hye there. He receives a call from In-hye telling him that she’s running late at the store, and he’ll have to pick up...
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...prior, after going to see Yeong-hye, the brother-in-law had been overcome by desire and pulled In-hye to him in bed. He put her hand over his mouth and imagined that she...
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...as he lays him down in the bed he can hear Ji-woo sucking his thumb. In-hye calls, and says she’ll be home at 11:00 p.m. The brother-in-law tells her that he...
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The brother-in-law calls In-hye, telling her that he’d be busy until the following night. She simply says, “I see....
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...pants, then realizes that the camcorder is gone. He looks around the studio, and sees In-hye sitting there with the camcorder. She tells him that she hadn’t heard from him or...
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The brother-in-law puts on a shirt as he tries to explain, but In-hye stops him and tells him that she’s called emergency services, as both he and Yeong-hye...
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Chapter 3: Flaming Trees
The final section is narrated by In-hye. Two years later, In-hye is traveling to the psychiatric hospital where Yeong-hye now lives. A...
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In-hye had been taking care of Ji-woo all day, as he had been running a fever...
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The narrative flashes forward to In-hye walking from the bus stop to the psychiatric hospital. As she walks, In-hye thinks about...
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In-hye recalls the day she first met her husband. He had come into her shop, completely...
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In-hye found over their marriage that her husband respected her and was kind, but that his...
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In-hye arrives at the hospital, noticing an old tree in the front garden that glinted on...
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In-hye thinks of how everything fell apart after Yeong-hye became a vegetarian, and what she could...
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In-hye recalls the day she found her husband and Yeong-hye. Paramedics had gotten Yeong-hye into a...
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In-hye’s husband had been held in a police cell after the hospital confirmed he wasn’t mentally...
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A doctor approaches In-hye and brings her to a consulting room. He tells her that Yeong-hye’s is still refusing...
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In-hye walks to Yeong-hye’s room. She remembers the first time she brought Yeong-hye to the ward....
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...time, she had been excited by the trees all around the ward and remarked to In-hye that “all the trees of the world are like brothers and sisters.” Now, as the...
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In-hye remembers another incident when she had visited Yeong-hye, and found her sister doing a handstand....
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In the present, In-hye approaches Yeong-hye’s room. She sees another patient, Hee-joo, on the way. Hee-joo is receiving treatment...
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In-hye approaches Yeong-hye, who is completely emaciated and looks like an “overgrown child,” having lost so...
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After Yeong-hye had been found in the forest, In-hye met with her doctor, who told her that Yeong-hye had become dehydrated and refused to...
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In-hye brings food to Yeong-hye. She wants to convince her to eat, but Yeong-hye appears to...
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In-hye thinks back to when she and Yeong-hye had gotten lost on a mountain as children,...
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In-hye continues to consider what she could have done to prevent all of this from happening....
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Back in the present, In-hye watches Yeong-hye sleeping and thinks about how Yeong-hye told her that she went to the...
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There is one memory In-hye has never told anyone. It had happened two years earlier, in the spring of the ...
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When In-hye finally worked up the courage to go to the doctor, he removed a polyp stuck...
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After that summer had past, one night In-hye’s husband arrived in In-hye’s bed in the middle of the night after several days away...
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Back in the present, time passes of In-hye’s 30 minutes, but Yeong-hye is still asleep. In-hye finally admits that Yeong-hye is actually insane....
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In-hye’s 30 minutes is up, so she packs up the food that she brought for Yeong-hye....
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As Yeong-hye is carried into another ward, she thrashes wildly. In-hye is made to step out of the room, as a nurse tells her that Yeong-hye...
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In-hye shakes off the nurse outside and runs into the room, but a carer grabs her...
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The doctor tells In-hye that they need to transfer Yeong-hye to the main hospital to keep her alive. In-hye...
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In-hye and Yeong-hye sit in the ambulance. In-hye brushes Yeong-hye’s hair with her fingers, which reminds...
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In-hye assures herself, sitting in the ambulance, that it had just been a dream. But she...
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Yeong-hye opens her eyes, but says nothing. In-hye says to Yeong-hye, “Perhaps this is all a kind of dream.” She admits that she...
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