The dog meat was not what she was forced to eat by her father, but the patriarchal system in which she was forced to breathe. This system neither allowed her to live the life she wanted, nor allowed her to lead the way to death. All she was allowed was to carry the blame on her for trying to break the chain– bounding her– and for being the way she was.

The biggest blame she had to face was the dog which died because of her. It died bleeding from its mouth, staring at her as if blaming her for its painful departure from the world. The question is did it really die because of her, or was it also the victim of the same system. The system which made her run just like the dog was made run after the bike by her father. The run which eventually ended with blood on both their mouths and eyes blaming on someone else.

Irony lay there when she had to meet the same fate as that dog. Little did she know, just the way that dog was made to run behind that motorcycle by her father, would someday be the reality of her life. She was forced into running around with the chain of patriarchy her whole life. Like the dog, she was neither allowed to stop nor allowed to die in peace. There was no fear of death inside her, yet she was not allowed to die. When she was close to her death, bleeding from her mouth– ending similar to the dog– she was staring at her sister as if it was her fault that she ended up like that.

The habit of putting blame on other people is the natural behaviour of every human being. If we look into the novel of Hang Kang “The Vegetarian” then we can find this nature very vividly. But who was it to blame? We cannot get the answer even after the end of the novel. Probably not when it has that sudden ending of where they went and what happened next.

She turned vegetarian, and the blame was to put on the dream that she dreamt every night. It was not even a dream, it was a nightmare, and she kept on trying to run from it, but nothing helped. But is it really the dream that should be blamed?

In the first chapter, we see her through the eyes of her husband. He saw her as an ideal wife doing all the chores for her and making her life easier, but as soon as she stepped out of that good wife role, it was clear that she was actually not the one who he wanted to get married to. In fact, he wanted her sister as his wife, who would not only look after him but also earn for them. But the question lies would he even be able to digest that? The person who grew up in the custom where the wife's parents had to apologize to their son-in-law just because their daughter turned vegetarian, would his pride let him sit back and eat whatever his wife brings to the plate? 

So, maybe the person who took his wife as a comforting woman was to put blame for whatever happened to her. Her husband was not just her partner but symbols of those patriarchy who take the responsibility of keeping up the tradition. No matter what, they would not allow them to be the one who would be blamed for breaking the custom. Little do they care that the customs which were supposed to take care of people were instead breaking the people physically and mentally.

That unnamed brother-in-law was a little bit of light of hope which would have changed the ending of the story. Somehow, he was one step ahead of calling an ideal person but turns out he was leaving all his responsibility for the passion which he harboured. I call him a light of hope because the flower which he drew on Yang Hi had stopped the nightmare. For a while it showed like she was going to be normal again, but it ended up getting worse. He ended up being the symbol of someone who would not care about the system, but wouldn’t think twice if he was to exercise the power of that system. In fact, he would be bolder in doing so. And the question lies: who is to blame here?

And there was her sister, the only person in the novel who is ready to take accountability for what happened. She was only the one who kept on blaming herself for what happened and near the end we can also see her trying to save her sister. However, it was too late. Her sister was almost at the last round of run where death, similar to dog’s, was knocking at the door.