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Book Review 13

Book review

LORD OF THE FLIES

1-2 Park Ye-jin

William Golding received enthusiastic attention from
readers for his first work, Lord of the flies, and this work
has also been filmed. The "Lord of the flies," a story of
students returning to the barbaric state of isolation on written by Han Kang
the coral island, is a fable-like novel in which boys
landed on remote islands and developed their primitive
life. This novel, which delicately portrays human evil and 2-2 Seo Ye-bin
depicts human situations allegorically, expresses in
abundant imagination that social customs can not but Last May, the novel of Novelist Han Kang, The
collapse very quickly. This novel is a work symbolized by Vegetarian won The Man Booker International Prize.
the behavior of the boys who had passed through World The Man Booker International Prize is the prize for
War II and the boys who were hiding on the uninhabited literature which has the highest authority. It’s the first
island were the wickedness of human being hidden time the Korean won this prize. The Vegetarian was
inside. In 1983, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for written in 2007. Deborah Smith has translated the book.
Literature. The plot of this book is that the boys on board It has been translated into nine languages, including
the plane arrive at the coral island with an airplane English, French, Spanish, and Cantonese. It is
crash. They chose a boy named Ralph as his captain and considered as Korean translated literature’s biggest win
decided to smoke a bee to escape from the uninhabited since Kyung-Sook Shin’s Please Look After Mom won
island. Initially, the organization worked well, but a boy the closing Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012.
named Jack organized a hunter and hunted the boar, Han Kang was born in Gwangju, South Korea, and
causing them to clash. Over time, Jack ignores Ralph, moved to Seoul at the age of ten. She studied korean
eventually leading the organization and moving literature at Yonsei University. Her writing has won the
elsewhere. The boys who lose their temper and become Yi Sang literary prize, the today’s young artist award. The
barbarians try to kill Ralph. Ralph is run away, and is Vegetarian, her second novel to be translated into
rescued dramatically by adults who have seen the English, was published in 2015 in the UK and in 2016 in
behemoths, and the boys who want to kill him are the US. She currently teaches creative writing at the
finished as they ride on the boat as though nothing had Seoul Institute of the Arts.
happened. Ralph is a blonde boy with a ‘big and The Vegetarian has three chapters. The Vegetarian,
charming look’. ‘There was a gentle tick at the mouth, Mongolian Mark, and Flaming Trees. The Vegetarian is a
and there was no nasty light in the eye.’ It is elected to be taut novel that tells the story of two sisters, Yeong-hye
the captain of the uninhabited island by getting the seas. and In-hye and their marriages. The novel’s painful
With the hope that it can be rescued from the conflicts begin when Yeong-hye unexpectedly declares
uninhabited island, it is argued that it is most important to be a vegetarian. Her husband can not accept this
to raise the beacon. that can gather people. He can be desire. Yeong-hye’s family is forced to feed the meat but
considered the most rational person on the uninhabited they fail.
island. It also shows the constant thinking about human The chapter 2, Mongolian Mark is about Yeong-hye’s
dignity. As a leader, he is also strong in responsibility, brother-in-law. He is a video artist. He desires Yeong-
suggests discipline that excludes personal greed, and hye’s body and her Mongolian mark. And he pursues
strives to keep it. Eventually he lost control of most of spirit of art. The last chapter, Flaming Trees is about her
his children and became hunted by them. Jack Meredith sister, In-hye. Yeong-hye refuses to eat and is
is the chief conductor and chief of the hunting squad. ‘He hospitalized on the edge of death. In-hye, also separated
is tall, heavily skeleton is thick.’ A boy with red hair who from her husband, works to understand her sister’s
is not handsome, but has no noble nook. He is wearing a motives and desires, though they remain inscrutable.
black uniform and is always connected to shadows or Yeong-hye wants to not to be attack, and she doesn’t
darkness. Show strong power. Unlike Ralph, the most want to attack somebody else, too. She just wants to be
important thing to survive on the uninhabited is to eat, I a innocent being. She says she will be a tree soon. As
think of it as meat, and I am keen on hunting. long as we have life, there is no way to not to desire
On the reverse side of the book, it is described as an something. So Yeong-hye accepts the death with
eerie allegory of finding the source of social defects in disinterested attitude. Imagination about plants which is
the defects of human nature. So when I read this book I represented by Yeong-hye is the esthetics of Han Kang’s
thought it was a bit extreme. It is a book that offers a lot novel. For story, for imagination, for sensation, it is
of lessons, so I would like to recommend this book. considered as a try to extend dimension of our novel.