Word of Earth: Crows are black even in Korea

Ajay Singh Chauhan

For the past five-seven years, Korea has been spreading its influence around the world in the fields of music, drama, television, and film. (Here, Korea means South Korea. Because there is no other way to talk about North Korea except for Kim Jong Un, who keeps clapping and firing rockets every now and then.) After the Second World War, most of the countries in the world were united by the US-Russia alliance. Divided into two axes of ideologies. Countries like Vietnam, Germany and Korea were divided in two ways. Over time, Germany and Vietnam became unified; But Korea's luck was not so good. However, South Korea's fortunes rose more than North Korea's after 1990. Before that, military and dictators ruled there sometimes under the guise of democracy and sometimes directly. After the 1990s, a student movement led to the establishment of a true democracy, and Korea experienced unprecedented growth. It has made a breakthrough in electronics or car manufacturing; Art-entertainment was also introduced as a product. It first started with the song 'Gangnam Style'. It was the first song in the world to reach a billion viewers on YouTube. After that, the tsunami of K-Television, BTS, K-pop groups like Black Pink, K-drama has enthralled children and youth all over the world. Before Corona, the Korean film 'Parasite' became the first non-English film to win an Oscar. Today there is a discussion of Korea again in the art world. At the same time we were busy with the home-havan of the eighth, Korean writer Han Kang was announced as the 2024 Nobel laureate. Han Kang's entire family, father and brother, have written novels. Han Kang's novel 'The Vegetarian' became known in world literature due to its English translation. Published in 2007, this novel was translated into English in 2015 and won the International Booker Prize in 2016. The novel 'The Vegetarian' is divided into three parts. In the first part, Yong Hye, the heroine of Vegetarian, dreams of innocent animals and their flesh and blood. One night he suddenly got up and threw all the meat in the house in the trash. Seeing this her husband gets angry; Can't understand anything. He wonders if it's okay to not eat meat for a while to get rid of the body, but not eating meat to avoid having to kill animals doesn't go down the throat of a Korean man who is used to eating any living thing. Her husband does not like Yong Hee's vegetarianism over time. Because he does not get to eat meat at home. Even at the office party, he lives in constant fear that his wife might say something about vegetarianism that would make him look ridiculous in front of everyone. When Yong Hye's father finds out about this, he convinces him to start eating meat. Finally, like an Indian father, he says, 'I am saying this for your own good.' When Yong Hye is not moved by her thoughts, her father beats her. Tries to force feed meat. If an Indian reads this novel, he will immediately relate to it. If a woman from an Indian conservative vegetarian family happens to be a non-vegetarian and the situation that arises here is different. The behavior of Yong Hye's father and husband is no different from patriarchy-minded men in any corner of the world. Reading this work, it seems that crows are black in Korea too. That is, in some respects the world is the same. Yong Hye is divorced when the second part of the novel, 'Mongolian Mark', begins. She lives alone in an apartment. He takes advantage of his fragile mental state. Yong Hye has a birthmark like a flower on her buttock. Banavi stripped her, painted colorful flowers on her body; Making videos. In this part, the thoughts about Yong Hye's body occupy a large part of Banevi's mind. In the third part 'Flaming Tree', Yong Hye himself begins to transform into a plant. Thus, heroine Yong Hye's journey that begins with vegetarianism ends with her own transformation into a vegetable. Yong Hye abstains from any kind of violent activity along with vegetarianism, and because of this, struggles begin in his personal life. The novel intertwines many contexts such as Korean society, gender, nature, morality, violence. Author Han Kang herself was a vegetarian until the age of twenty. After that, due to bone problems, he starts eating meat, but his guilt remains. Han Kang's creation targets the impermanence of human life. The political repressions and movements in Korea are the main themes of his novels. His writing is in poetic prose. Considering all these aspects, he was selected for the Nobel Prize of the year 2024. She is the first female writer from Asia to receive this prize.}