Kafka's The Hunger Artist

At the beginning of the story, The Hunger Artist, the fasting profession was headed on a downward slope; much like all the other fads that disappear after a certain period. For much of his life, the hunger artist went around trying to show people about his art. He would stage performances with his fellow impresario, and quite often would do very well. Unfortunately for the hunger artist, mankind has a very limited, miniscule, or almost none existent attention. This is why so many of his forty hours performances were often stopped short. At the center of this narrative lies the theme of hunger. Hunger, in this story, is not the act of going hungry. Instead, Hunger represents the ultimate withering away of what is the human condition; to be something …show more content…
5). Making this one of the biggest twist at the end of a story since M. Knight Shyamalan. This guy spent his entire life trying to prove to other people that he was capable of fasting for more than forty days, just because he couldn’t find food that he liked? No. The hunger artist had lived a life of fame before he withered away and died. Even though he was dissatisfied with the outcome that his art had produce, the hunger artist did, even if unintentionally, proved a point. He proved that the human condition to consume is never ending. Humanity, since its fall from grace, has had to face one of the worst punishments. Hunger, is a deep, dark, unquenchable thirst for things. By performing and drawing attention in a crowd, the hunger artist was able to reveal that humanity’s hunger for entertainment, and other temporal goods is never-ending. The simplicity of man our only virtue. It doesn’t take much to draw our attention, but once something does; it is only a matter of time until humanity curiosity get the better of it. Kafka makes light of this when he says that, “He might fast as much as he could, and he did so; but nothing could save him now, people passed him by,” (Kafka Pg. 4). which shows just how much people just stopped paying attention. The hunger artist however, had always been in control. He could have ended his “melancholy,” had he just spoken up and said that there was no food he