Summary
Part 2 begins with the end of a dance performance as the unnamed narrator (referred to as "he") waits for the applause to subside. He bought a ticket for the performance after seeing a poster showcasing the performers decorated with flowers painted on their bodies. Disappointed, the man departs the theater and heads to his studio instead of going home to his wife and son.
The narrator is struggling to get out of a period of artistic stagnation. When his wife (In-hye) shares that her sister (Yeong-hye) had a Mongolian mark (a blue-grey spot on the skin that usually disappears before puberty) even as a twenty-year-old, the narrator is gripped by an intense erotic image. The concept involves himself violently having sex with Yeong-hye, who has the Mongolian mark like a blue flower painted on her buttock.
Back at home, In-hye voices her desire for her husband to spend Sundays at home with the family. The narrator, though grateful for everything his wife does, prefers Yeong-hye over In-hye. In-hye reveals that Mr. Cheong began the paperwork to divorce Yeong-hye.
The narrator visits Yeong-hye at her studio apartment, where he finds her walking around naked the way she likes to when alone. She calmly dresses and they eat fruit. In-hye's husband eventually plucks up the courage to ask Yeong-hye to take part in his video project. Without telling In-hye, he arranges to meet Yeong-hye at a friend's rented studio to do the project.
Analysis
Part 2 is told from the third-person perspective of In-hye's husband. Han does not immediately reveal the identity of the narrator, instead following him in the close third person and referring to him only with "he / him" pronouns. The reader only discerns the narrator's identity in relation to the story told in Part 1 when the narrator describes how his wife shared that her sister, Yeong-hye, had a "Mongolian mark" even in her twenties. This narrator remains unnamed throughout the novel, diminishing his importance despite the upheaval he causes in Yeong-hye and In-hye's lives.
The term "Mongolian mark" was coined in 1883 by the German physician and anthropologist Erwin Bälz, who erroneously attributed the mark to people only of Mongolian descent. In reality, this cutaneous condition (known as congenital dermal melanocytosis, or CDM for short) can appear on infants of all racial backgrounds, though it does appear more commonly on Asian and Black infants. Today, many people consider the term to be "disparaging and marginalizing to a group of people" (Yale et. al.). Han's choice to use the name "Mongolian mark" reinforces the way that the narrator's fantasy has potentially harmful consequences.
In-hye's offhand remark about Mongolian marks stimulates her husband's artistic vision and sexually arouses him. As both a man and an artist, he forms an obsession with Yeong-hye that clearly objectifies her. This is evident when he states that this is the first time in years that he felt intense sexual desire "focused on a clear object," with the object being Yeong-hye. Gripped by this fantasy, the narrator feels unable to move on unless he realizes the vision or replaces the energy it gives him with something else. The narrator uses the word "object" twice to describe Yeong-hye, first in a sexual way and then as an "object of pity."
As the narrator deliberates on the pros and cons of making his movie (which many people would perceive as pornography), he faces a personal moral dilemma. Creating the film would violate social taboos and likely cause him to lose "everything he'd achieved...even his family." However, not making the piece would betray his devotion to his artistic vision. Either way, the narrator would transgress one of his moral principles.
Carnal imagery floods this chapter. The narrator's lust for his wife's sister takes on a violent edge when he imagines throttling her. After the disastrous family lunch two years prior (in which Yeong-hye attempted to commit suicide), the narrator became obsessed with how her blood stained his clothes. To him, this "felt like a shocking, indecipherable premonition of his own eventual fate." Physicality, sexual desire, death, and violence intertwine in the narrator's conception of Yeong-hye. In terms of imagery, Han subtly connects these things to food when she evokes red beans to describe Yeong-hye's ice cream as well as the color of her dried blood.
