Vegetarian characters in fiction facts for kids
Vegetarians are those who abstain from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, and the flesh of any other animal), and may also include abstention from by-products of animal slaughter. Some scholars have argued that mass media serves as a "source of information for individuals" interested in vegetarianism or veganism, while there are "increasing social sanctions against eating meat" and a continuing trend of less meta consumption in the United States due to a focus on physical health and environmental awareness. Over time, societal attitudes of vegetarianism have changed, as have perceptions of vegetarianism in popular culture, leading to more "vegetarian sentiment." Even so, there are still existing "meat-based" food metaphors which infuse daily speech and those who are vegetarian and vegan are met with "acceptance, tolerance, or hostility" after they divulge they are vegetarian or vegan. Additionally, some argue that veganism has been dismissed in news media or that clickbait culture often portrays feminists and vegans as "irrational extremists." This is because in Western societies, "meat-based diets are the norm" with those who avoid meat still representing "a small minority," with more women than men as vegan and vegetarian, with women being "under-represented in the mass media," the latter influencing more to be vegetarians.
This page examines vegetarian and vegan characters in fictional works, focusing on characters and tropes over time. For more information about other aspects of vegetarianism and veganism, see the pages on Go Vegan, South Asian Veggie Table, environmental vegetarianism, and the ethics of eating meat.
Vegetarian characters and tropes
Food selection, according to scholar Barbara E. Willard, has become more than a matter of choice or preference, becoming embued with "social meaning, cultural practice, and political ideology," with meat and other animal products "rich in social and political meaning." The same applies to vegetarianism and its portrayal in the media as a whole. In Western literature, vegetarianism, and topics that relate to it, have informed a "gamut of literary genres," whether literary fiction or those fictions focusing on utopias, dystopias, or apocalypses, with authors shaped by questions about human identity and "our relation to the environment," implicating vegetarianism and veganism. Often vegan or vegetarian characters who portrayed as "fringe characters," although other novels cast them as protagonists or encourage people to become vegetarians or vegans. Despite this, some have argued that there are more vegan cookbooks than "vegan literature" or pointed to the lack of "memorable characters" who are vegetarian. There are a number of vegan stereotypes, with claims they hate meat-eaters, are always hungry, weak, angry, or moralistic. The hatred of vegans has even been termed as vegaphobia by some individuals. Others pointed to vegetarianism in horror fiction, science fiction and poetry, highlighted books which introduced "vegan identity to children," and encouraged people to "write for" animals. Media critic Adam Johnson also stated that "mocking vegans is the lowest hanging fruit" for comedy, and stated that the vast majority of the media, even left-wing media ignores the issue, which view them as a "punching bag." He also stated that in pop culture animal rights, animal welfare, and veganism is "always played for laughs."
In 1818, Mary Shelley published the novel Frankenstein. Writer and animal rights advocate Carol J. Adams argued in her seminal book, The Sexual Politics of Meat that the unnamed creature in the novel was a vegetarian. She argued that the book was "indebted to the vegetarian climate" of its day and that vegetarianism is a major theme in the novel as a whole. She notes that the creature gives an "emotional speech" talking about its dietary principles, which makes it a "more sympathetic being" than others. She also said that it connected with Vegetarianism in the Romantic Era who believed that the Garden of Eden was meatless, rewrote the myth of Prometheus, the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and feminist symbolism. Adams concludes that it is more likely that the "vegetarian revelations" in the novel are "silenced" due to the lack of a "framework into which we can assimilate them." Apart from Adams, scholar Suzanne Samples pointed to "gendered spaces of eating and consumption" within Victorian England which influenced literary characters of the time. This included works such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem titled The Charge of the Light Brigade, Christina Rossetti's volume of poetry titled Goblin Market and Other Poems, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Mary Seacole's autographical account titled Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, and Anthony Trollope's novel titled Orley Farm, to name a few. Samples also argued that vegetarianism in the Victorian era "presented a unique lifestyle choice that avoided meat but promoted an awareness of health," which initially was seen as rebellious but later became more normalized.
By the early 20th century, various novels included vegetarian characters or themes. For instance, in Irene Clyde's 1909 feminist utopian novel, Beatrice the Sixteenth, Mary Hatherley accidentally travels through time, discovering a lost world, which is a postgender society named Armeria, with the inhabitants following a strict vegetarian diet, having ceased to slaughter animals for over a thousand years. Some reviewers of the book praised the vegetarianism of the Armerians. Some also argued that James Joyce's 1922 novel, Ulysees had vegetarian themes. Scholar Peter Adkins argued that while Joyce was critical of the vegetarianism of George A.E. Russell, the novel engages with "questions of animal ethics through its portrayal of Ireland's cattle industry, animal slaughter and the cultural currency of meat," unlike some of his other novels. He also states that the novel "historicizes and theorizes animal life and death," and that it demonstrates the ways that symbolism and materiality of meat are "co-opted within patriarchal political structures," putting it in the same space as theorists like Carol J. Adams, Donna J. Haraway, Laura Wright, and Cary Wolfe, and writers such as J. M. Coetzee.
In the 1990s, there were various vegetarian and vegan characters in popular media. In 1995, The Simpsons episode "Lisa the Vegetarian" aired. Before recording their lines for the episode, showrunner David Mirkin, who had recently stopped consuming meat, gave Linda and Paul McCartney "a container of his favorite turkey substitute," with both voicing characters in an episode which focused around vegetarianism. Critic Alan Siegel said that before the episode vegetarians had been portrayed as "rarely as anything but one-dimensional hippies" but that this episode was different as it was "told from the point of view of the person becoming a vegetarian." He said that the episode was one of the "first times on television that vegetarians saw an honest depiction of themselves" and of people's reaction to their dietary choices. The idea for the episode was originally proposed by David X. Cohen and the McCartneys agreed on the condition that Lisa remain a vegetarian, with both satisfied with how the episode turned out. Some years later, in September 1998, the King of the Hill episode "And They Call It Bobby Love" aired on FOX. In the episode, "Bobby has a relationship with a vegetarian named Marie. She later dumps him after he eats a steak in front of her. Then, in the 1999 film, Notting Hill, Keziah, played by Emma Bernard is a vegetarian. In one scene, Keziah tells William "Will" Thacker (played by Hugh Grant), that she is a fruitarian. She says she believes that "fruits and vegetables have feeling," meaning she opposes cooking them, only eating things that have "actually fallen off a tree or bush" and that are dead already, leading to what some describe as a negative depiction. A few years earlier, in 1997, S. Reneé Wheeler wrote in the Vegetarian Journal, saying that "finding books with vegetarian themes" is important for helping children "feel legitimate in being vegetarian." In the 1990s and 2000s, there were two books that reviewed the perception of veganism in popular culture: Thinking Veganism in Literature and Culture and The Vegan Studies Project: Food, Animals, and Gender in the Age of Terror. These books talked about themes of vegetarianism in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), True Blood (2008-2014), the Twilight novel (2005-2008) and film franchise (2008-2012), The Road (2006) and The Year of the Flood (2009).
This representation continued into the 21st century. In the series, Supernatural (2005-2017), Lenore, played by Amber Benson, is a vegetarian vampiress who is later killed by Castiel at her own request. In the March 2002 South Park episode "Fun with Veal", Stan Marsh becomes a vegetarian after he learns that veal is made of baby cows, with Cartman makes fun of. The episode ends with the boys, including Stan, getting grounded, but not before going out with their parents for burgers, meaning that Stan is no longer a vegetarian. In the DVD commentary, the creators said they wanted to balance their message of not eating baby animals, by at the same time not advocating people abstain from meat consumption altogether. Later that year, in June, the editor of the Vegetarian Resource Group's newsletter, John L. Cunningham, hoped that there would be "more sympathetic vegetarian characters in the mass media" in 2003 because Nancy Berkoff, an author and nutrition adviser to the organization, had a booth at the "Health and Environmental Expo" hosted by Sony Studios in Culver City, California. Two years later, in 2004, there was also a revealing review with J. M. Coetzee about animals, humans, cruelty, and literature. In the interview, he stated that since the "mode of consciousness of nonhuman species is quite different from human consciousness," it is hard for writers to realize this for animals, with a "temptation to project upon them feelings and thoughts that may belong only to our own human mind and heart," and stated that reviewers have ignored the presence of animals in his books. He also admitted that animals are present in his "fiction either not at all or in a merely subsidiary role" because they occupy "a subsidiary place in our lives" and argued that it is not "possible to write about the inner lives of animals in any complex way." He further stated that he is a vegetarian that he finds the "thought of stuffing fragments of corpses down my throat quite repulsive." On a more positive note, Norville "Shaggy" Rogers in the animated series What's New, Scooby Doo? is vegetarian. Before this animated series, Shaggy, known for having an "enormous appetite" earlier in the Scooby-Doo franchise, "started leaving meat out of his meals" and in one episode it is shown that he is vegetarian. The decision to make Shaggy a vegetarian occurred after his voice actor, Casey Kasem, convinced the producers to do so, since he was a vegan who supported animal rights and opposed factory farming, saying he would refuse to voice Shaggy unless the character was vegetarian.
By the 2010s, social media sites like Instagram became prominent in the promotion of veganism, more than a fad, with people trying to "change the world by being vegan" as stated by various media outlets. In 2012, Marla Rose published her book, Adventures of Vivian Sharpe, Vegan Superhero. Aileen McGraw of the Vegetarian Resource Group praised the book for being an "authentic coming-of-age story" which exposes vegan youth to "teenage challenges" and noted that Rose is also the co-founder of the Chicago Vegan Family Network, starter of the Chicago VeganMania festival, and blogs as Vegan Feminist Agitator. Rose stated that she wanted to write "a compelling story with complex characters" and hoped that eh novel would inspire "readers to think about their own lives" and how they can make changes in the world. Vivian is a character who is deeply empathetic, becomes a superhero and has a pathway that leads her to veganism. Then, in 2014, The New Yorker published a short story by Jonathan Lethem titled "Pending Vegan" which follows "one family, a husband and wife and their four-year-old twin daughters" on a trip to SeaWorld in San Diego, California. The protagonist of the story, Paul Espeseth, renames himself "Pending Vegan" in order to acknowledge his "increasing uneasiness with the relationship between man and beast." Then in 2016, a three-part Korean novel by Han Kang titled The Vegetarian was published in the U.S., which focuses a woman named Young-hye, who "sees vegetarianism as a way of not inflicting harm on anything," with eating meat symbolizing human violence itself, and later identifies as a plant rather than as a human "and stops eating entirely." The novel was widely reviewed, even though some complained it was more about mental illness than vegetarianism, and other compared it to fictional works by Margaret Atwood. Kang said that while writing the book she was harboring "questions about human violence and the (im)possibility of innocence" and noted the extreme attempt by Yeong-hye to turn her "back on violence by casting off her own human body and transforming into a plant." A Netflix original, titled Okja, also focused on vegetarianism and in October 2019, South Park featured a vegetarian character. In the episode, "Let Them Eat Goo," The Goo Man, a parody of Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, comes to town with a goal to "turn everyone in town into vegetarians by consuming his mass-produced goo." While The Goo Man is successful, Randy Marsh's business of selling Tegridy Burgers (parodying Impossible Burgers) to townsfolk fails as it is revealed that they slaughtered cows. The episode also features an unnamed vegan boy and girls protesting for "healthier, environmentally conscious food" at school. Despite this, Farhad Manjoo, in 2019, stated that "preachy vegans are something of a myth," and argued that in pop culture, and generally, it is "still widely acceptable to make fun of vegans."
In the 2020s, some expected a shift in representation. For example, VegNews predicted that 2020 would be the "biggest year yet for veganism," noting cookbooks and literature coming out in the coming year that reflect a "mainstream shift." In March 2020, scholar Nathan Poirer reviewed Thinking Veganism in Literature and Culture: Towards a Vegan Theory, a book edited by Emelia Quinn and Benjamin Westwood, and he concluded that veganism could "infiltrate popular culture without being perceived as threatening," while noting others who contribute to the book examining vegan cinema that "challenges the normality of human supremacy by situating humans as potential prey," and stating that the essays outline ways veganism can be successful in popular culture. He also mentioned the "prevalence of whiteness within mainstream veganism" and the possible role of intersectionality." The following month, in April 2020, a novel by Agustina Bazterrica, titled Tender is the Flesh, portrayed a world where a virus renders "other animals inedible".
Prominent examples
Apart from the unnamed creature in Frankenstein, there are many other prominent characters in animation, comics, film, games, literature, and live-action television who were vegetarian. Most prominent is Lisa Simpson in The Simpsons. In the October 15, 1995 episode, "Lisa the Vegetarian," Lisa decides to stop eating meat after bonding with a lamb at a petting zoo. Her schoolmates and family members ridicule her for her beliefs, but with the help of Apu as well as Paul and Linda McCartney, she commits to vegetarianism. The staff promised that she would remain a vegetarian, resulting in one of the few permanent character changes made in the show. In an August 2020 interview, McCartney said that he and is wife were worried that Lisa "would be a vegetarian for a week, then Homer would persuade her to eat a hot dog," but were assured by the producers that she would remain that way, and he was delighted that they "kept their word." Other than Lisa, Aang, in the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra was vegetarian. According to the show's creators, "Buddhism and Taoism have been huge inspirations behind the idea for Avatar." As shown in "The King of Omashu" and "The Headband", a notable aspect of Aang's character is his vegetarian diet, which is consistent with Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism. In the Brahmajala Sutra, a Buddhist code of ethics, vegetarianism is encouraged. Additionally, Jessica Cruz / Green Lantern, a lead character in the animated series, DC Super Hero Girls is not only pacifist, but also a vegan and environmentalist, resulting in her becoming friends with Pam Isley. She often professes her commitment to the environment and plant-based meals. Apart from the aforementioned examples, Steven Universe, the protagonist in the show Steven Universe and the limited epilogue series, Steven Universe Future, is a vegetarian. In the episode "Snow Day" of Steven Universe Future, Steven tells the Gems he lives with that he has been a vegetarian for a month, drinks protein shakes and mentions that he does "his own skincare routine." There are other characters in animation who are vegetarian and vegan, but they are either not as prominent or represent negative stereotypes of vegetarians. The recent series City of Ghosts featured a chef, Sonya, who runs a vegan cafe in Leimert Park, Los Angeles.
Comics also featured various vegetarian and vegan characters. Most prominent among these many characters were Bruce Banner in Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk, where it is shown that he is vegan, Karolina Dean in Runaways, who is also known as Lucy in the Sky or L.S.D., who is a lesbian, a vegan, and "an ardent animal lover...committed to a life completely free of meat and dairy." and Animal Man / Bernhard "Buddy" Baker in Animal Man. In the latter case, Buddy, otherwise known as Animal Man, argued with his wife "about meat consumption," criticized conditions in factory farms, and opposed scientific testing on animals. He also, in another comic, assists animal rights activists in helping save dolphins, leading some to call him "probably most active in fighting for animal rights" of all the superhero characters. At the same time, Millie in Mutts is a vegan. | In a number of comic strips in Thanksgiving 2013, Millie, who owns a cat, "decides to cook a vegan meal" for Thanksgiving, with her husband not "sold on the idea," but later admits he "didn't miss the turkey." Also, Zatanna Zatara in Hawkman is powerful magician, she is a vegetarian, works with animals in her magic acts, and "has a particular affinity for bunnies." Due to her long history in DC Comics, she has been named as one of DC's best and most powerful female characters and one of the Justice League's greatest and most important characters. Also, there's Persephone in Lore Olympus. A 19-year-old woman, also known as Persie and Kore, she is the goddess of spring, and a naive, warmhearted newcomer to Olympian life, and is searching for her independence. She is revealed to be vegetarian in episode 79 of the webcomic.
Various outwardly vegetarian characters appeared in films and video games. In the 2000 film, But I'm A Cheerleader, before Megan, one of the film's protagonists, is sent to a conversion therapy camp, her parents and others claim she is a lesbian because she is a vegetarian. A film released the following year, Legally Blonde also featured a vegetarian. When Elle Wood introduces herself at Harvard Law School, she describes herself and her dog as "Gemini vegetarians." Then there's Yeong-hye in the 2009 film, Vegetarian, a portrait of a woman, Yeong-hye, who "swears off meat before retreating into a literally vegetative state," based on the book of the same name. Most recently, in the 2018 Hollywood blockbuster, Black Panther, M’Baku (voiced by Winston Duke), the Jabari tribe leader who lives in the mountains of Wakanda, declares to a White CIA agent named Everett Ross (voiced by Martin Freeman), "if you say one more word, I’ll feed you to my children!" After Everett is shaken by these words, he jokes, saying he is kidding because all those in his tribe, including himself, are vegetarians. Some praised this scene for challenging a stereotype of Black culture and the perception of what vegetarians look like. Duke later said that some Black outlets cooked vegan meals for him, and said that the scene is "kind of teaching kids that eating vegetables is cool," which is something he is for. When it comes to video games, Bryce the Cow in Steer Madness is perhaps one of the most prominent vegetarian characters. In this animal rights inspired action-adventure game, the player assumes the role of Bryce the Cow, a walking, talking bovine determined to put an end to animal exploitation and turn everyone vegetarian. During gameplay, the player goes on a series of missions to save the animals using many different tactics. The game is based in an open city environment and features several transportation methods, with gameplay similar to the game Grand Theft Auto III (without the guns or violence), and was given a PETA award.
Finally, there are characters in literature and live-action television who stand out among others. For instance, Elizabeth Costello in J.M. Coetzee's novel of the same name, Hazel Lancaster in Fault of Our Stars, and Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries series to name a few. Another example is Andi Oliver in Martha Grimes 2008 novel, Dakota. Andi is a drifter who suffers from amnesia, comes upon animal abuse, and feels she must do something, pointing out the inconsistency of eating animals when people say they care about animal welfare. The book was praised by the Vegetarian Resource Group for emphasizing the "need of individuals to speak out against factory farms." Although there are other examples in live-action TV series, Spock stands out. Said to be "television's first vegetarian," he and other Vulcans avoided eating meat due to a "philosophy of non-violence."" He is identified as vegetarian following an episode where he was "transported back to pre-civilised times" and ate meat. Richard Marranca, in an issue of the Vegetarian Journal, said that for Spock, like Kwai Chang Caine in Kung Fu, "vegetarianism was something authentic and taken for granted; it was the right thing to do based on compassion and logic."
See also
In Spanish: Simbolismo vegetariano y vegano para niños
