May 13, 2026 · Leah Rachel Von Essen

Rebelling against a Cruel Capitalism in “Hunger”

Choi has written what feels like a tragic elegy for a generation in a world that grew up in a grimly capitalist society and no longer feels like they amount to anything outside of their productivity. Dam feels that consuming Gu is the only way to keep them together, because the body, not the soul, is where our humanity is sized up and weighed. In this oppressive world, their bodies were constantly offered up for others to consume. People they love die before they have any chance to retire, to live for themselves rather than for others, to take their body out of the endless system of productivity and consumption. So what, then, are they working so hard for? Why does our value as bodies continue to be reduced to how hard we work, and how much we owe?