How Hunger, Starving and Relationships Affect Mental Health in The Vegetarian and This Country Must Anonymous College

Although both Kevin and Yeong-hye begin to change their diets for what they believe to be well intentioned reasons, the reality is that as they undergo the process of starving themselves, their behaviors and mental health begin to deteriorate. Throughout The Vegetarian and Everything in This Country Must: A Novella and Two Stories, we see the main characters experience literal hunger strikes while also starving themselves of reason and logic which results in behavioral and mental problems. In conjunction with their diets, the negative relationships around them also cause them to experience detrimental effects on their health. Although they are affected somewhat differently, a similarity between them is that they both begin to experience complications with family and friends.

One of the most interesting relationships that develops is the one between Kevin and his uncle. Kevin never meets his uncle before the novella begins or otherwise; however, as the plot progresses Kevin continues to see his uncle as a brave individual whom he tries to copy. The first instance in which the reader is introduced to some sort of replication of the uncle’s life is Kevin’s own version of a jail cell. “The boy tried to stake out a cell in the...