Category: A Hunger Artist

The story “A Hunger Artist” talks about a man who was a professional hunger artist and was really dedicated to his profession. He believed that fasting is not such a difficult task and decided to embark on a forty days fasting journey to prove that to the world. The character according to the description of the writer would be in his late 40s to fifty and had a strong appetite for fasting. The character can be said to be a very determined person who is willing to go to greater lengths to achieve his intended goal.

Even with the distractions, suspicion of having food hidden in his cage and temptations from the guards; the character always gets the motivation to go on with his act from the visitors who lurk around in the morning till day break. This made him stand firm and sailed through his forty days of fasting which was the limit by his Impresario. But even after the forty days fasting, he exhibited a behavior trait of discontent and asked himself questions like “Why stop fasting at this particular moment, after forty days of it?” “Why stop now, when he was in his best fasting form, or rather, not yet quite in is best fasting form?”(Kafka 641). He was so much interested in reviving people’s interest in professional fasting. Feeling he has failed in his mission to revive the interest of the people and the world at large, he was driven into a state of dilemma with questions like “What comfort could he possibly need?” “What more could he possibly wish for?” (Kafka 641) . This led to the manifestation of anger on those who felt pity for him and tried to console him.

Furthermore, the thought that he could do more to gain the attention needed made him join a circus so that once again he can prove to the people that he can break his own record by going beyond what is known to be the possible limit. He requested that his cage be situated beside the animals so that when people come to see the animals, they will turn to spend a little time looking at him. He was an optimist and a desperate one. His optimism leads him to a cognitive state of self-deception that people will come his way and watches him. “People grew familiar with the strange idea that they could be expected, in times like these, to take an interest in a hunger artist, and with this familiarity the verdict went out against him”(Kafka 644). As time went on, the interest of people who by chance come to watch him in his cage dwindled and shifted to other acts and performances leaving the hunger artist deserted. Regardless of this, he didn’t stop but push on until he couldn’t anymore and fell.

Stop trying so hard to fill my void for I have started loving the way it makes me ache.” What does this mean to you? In my opinion, this was the thought process the Hunger Artist had. When you have a void that you want to fill you start filling it with superficial things, in the Hunger Artist case his void was filled with fasting. The theme of this story is how he goes about his journey. The artist shows his journey through his voids, pride, and denial.

Kafka shapes this character into someone slightly misunderstood, I didn’t understand exactly why he was starving himself. The artist had a journey, he was the questor and in my opinion, his quest was to fill his void, hypothetically he was ​like an addict trying to chase his first high​.​ In the story it begins with the author saying “everybody wanted to see him at least once a day; there were people who bought season tickets for the last few days and sat from morning till night in front of his small barred cage; even in the nighttime there were visiting hours,” This was the artist “high” he wanted to feel wanted again. You tend to see this pattern in the story. In the beginning, he was happy because he had the audience; however, in the story, they say how he was no longer entertaining, he began to fast longer in order to impress people once again.

The artist’s pride is what leads him to his sad ending, His journey in every paragraph ended up getting tougher. It was him against himself, in his eyes, his conquest wasn’t over he was still searching. He knew what fasting was doing to him but his pride wouldn’t let him stop.

Pride turns the hunger artist away from others and into himself, and by imprisoning himself in a cage and intensely meditating, he strengthens his isolation. Ultimately, pride does not guarantee fame and transcendence to the hunger artist, but darkness.

The hunger artist enjoys the whole story in his hunger, hoping it will lead to spiritual satisfaction, but ultimately his fasting leaves him both physically and spiritually empty. The artist of hunger rejects food, but his self-denial shows his need for a different kind of food: public praise and creative perfection. Hunger, physical as well as spiritual. The hunger artist never succeeds in fasting indefinitely while working with the impresario, and this failure results in persistent frustration. But the hunger artist fails to understand why he feels he should abandon the moral fulfillment he yearns for depends on the physical life. The hunger artist is unable to achieve spiritual satisfaction by renouncing his claims to live. The panther who replaces him in the cage has a lust for life, satisfied with ‘all that it needs to burst to the point of bursting.’ Although trapped in a cage, the panther seems to need nothing because, in essence, nothing is missing. The hunger artist dies empty and alone.

Trapped, stuck in the same routine. Anything ranging from anxiety to severe depression can make people feel imprisoned every day. The characters Miss Brill, Chanyi, and The Hunger Artist all have something in common, which is the feeling of being trapped. Katherine Mansfield’s “Miss Brill” portrays the main character, Miss Brill, as someone who enjoys her own little world but, goes through a drastic change that leaves her feeling heavy hearted and confined.

“The Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka, is about a Hunger Artist who starves himself as entertainment for others but lets his obsession keep him captive. Lan Samantha Chang’s “Hangzhou 1925°” introduces Chanyi and her conflict begins when she goes searching for answers. Miss Brill, The Hunger Artist, and Chanyi are prime examples of how sadness, fears, and excessive obsession all contribute to a captivating lifestyle in humans. In Katherine Mansfield’s “Miss Brill” we explore the main character, Miss Brill, and how her imprisoned life affects her actions and feelings. We see at the beginning of the story that Miss Brill has a strong connection towards her fur pelt and is very obsessed with herself and how she looks.

The fur pelt symbolizes herself in the story. In the beginning, she is described taking it out of its box and brushing it back to life (266) which represents Miss Brill because she sits alone in a dark room herself and gets the life brushed back into her every Sunday evening. Towards the end of the story, we see the teenagers make fun of Miss Brill and treat her like she doesn’t belong in the park (268). Since Miss Brill and the fur are a lot alike, we can infer that she is sad at the end of the story because the text refers to the fur crying in its box (269). The teenagers made Miss Brill realize that her life isn’t as lovely as she thought it was which results in her feeling sad and confined. Miss Brill has no one to come back home to or nothing to break the cycle of her boring weekly routine, which ultimately leads to a slippery slope of depression and feeling incarcerated in her daily life. “The Hunger Artist,” by Franz Kafka shows us a glimpse of a man who is obsessed and imprisoned by his fasting. We can see that The Hunger Artist is imprisoned by his passion and obsession for fasting throughout the text. For example, The Hunger Artist is passionate about his fasting because when the forty days were up, The Hunger Artist wanted to continue his form of art and stated that he could go longer, wondering, “Why stop at forty days” (650). The Hunger artist strived for passion through obsession and because of that, he was never satisfied with his work. When he starts losing traction, it results in selling out to a circus where people pass him by.

After this happens, we can see the Hunger Artist starts to take on a depressed state when the story explains how he is being ignored by these swarms of people that are passing his cage at the circus (653). He has no one to appreciate his art anymore and this results in him being depressed and seeking out all the attention he can get. The Hunger Artist is therefore caged within himself; he has only fasting. His fasting caused a monotonous life filled with obsession, depression, and loneliness. In the story “Hangzhou 1925°” by Lan Samantha Chang, it’s easy to observe the fact that Chanyi has a problem with worrying and that keeps her confined. We can infer she is worrisome when the narrator states, “But Chanyi didn’t respond. She sat clutching a package with the fortuneteller’s payment, her eyes bright with fear and resolve” (289). Chanyi has had her feet bound because, in China, this was a popular custom among young Chinese women. This results in her being handicapped. So, one way that Chanyi is trapped is by her brutal past. Chanyi’s whole conflict is that without a son, her husband will not be faithful, so with that, she is wanting to know if she’ll have a son and her future husband will stay faithful. When she asks the fortune-teller, she doesn’t give Chanyi an exact answer. Instead, she says, “There is no point in knowing what will happen” while Chanyi is begging and pleading to know (292). Chanyi is trapped in her thoughts and worries; she needs and wants her husband to be faithful. She would give up all the money in the world just to know her fate but really, it doesn’t matter if she knows her fate or not because that doesn’t change anything.

By the end of the story, she gets what she loathed because that once faithful husband found another woman to have a son with. When the new woman finally had a son, Chanyi grew to hate the child, try to stunt it, thwart it, and ruin it (293). Because of this new wife and son, Chanyi is imprisoned in her own home where she had to see her husband start a different family, which resulted in Chanyi being filled with hatred and sadness. She will always think about her worries no matter what because she is surrounded by uncertainty. In conclusion, through each one of these stories, we can analyze that each of the characters has a different problem but are all the same. Each character falls victim to imprisonment by the end of their stories, whether that be from depression, excessive obsession, or hatred. They all realize that no matter what happens, life constrains them by imprisoning and torturing them through fears. Miss Brill who enjoys her own little world at the beginning of the story, retreats to her lonely room at the end of her day.

The Hunger Artist was so invested in his fasting that his obsession got the best of him and he eventually ended up dying in that cage. Chanyi wanted to know her future, but it didn’t matter for she got what she loathed for. So, in the end, the actions of these characters reveal to us that Miss Brill, The Hunger Artist, and Chanyi let their sadness, fears, and excessive obsession cage them.

Two short stories “Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” by Herman Melville and “The Hunger Artist” by Frank Kafka were both written by two different authors at two different time periods. Even though both stories are separated by over sixty years from one another, character wise both stories share the same main idea which is social acceptance. Both protagonists Barely and the hunger artist were rejected by society just because they chose to act differently than what was expected of them. When you compare the main protagonist Bartley to the Hunger Artist than you can find a couple of similarities and differences between the two protagonists which can help further support the main idea.

The First story “Bartebly the scavenger “is a written in the mid 1800’s. The story is about a lawyer who hires a new employee to his law firm by the name of Bartebly. Bartebly at first seems like an excellent employee, but then he politely began to refuse to work saying that he would prefer not to, and it went as far as him even refusing to leave the office and he inevitably began to live in there. Even when the lawyer shifted his office to another location, Bartebly still remained in the old office building until he got arrested and thrown in jail for vagrancy. Barebelly remained in jail until met his fate and starved himself to death. The second story Is called “A hunger Artist” and its written in the 1900’s. the story (summary)

When you compare Bartebly to the hunger artist, you are able to spot a number of similarities that both protagonists share with each other. Let’s first compare Bartebly. Bartebly can be looked upon by many readers as someone who is finding it difficult to adjust to modern society. At first, Bartebly was a really decent worker and he performed all of his tasks like he was supposed but than you can clearly assume that Bartebly had some sort of a mental breakdown and he simply quit working and refused to move on. I can only assume that It was a mental breakdown since the story itself didn’t clearly state as to why Bartebly stopped working. In the end, Bartebley’s employer gave up on Bartebly and he ended abandon him, leaving new tenants to deal with his employer. When you analyze the story from a different angle, however, than Bartebly can be represented as someone who violates social norms and the lawyer as society itself who is unable to manage a person who is different from the rest of society.

We as human beings owe a large part of the reasoning to our actions to be because of the fact that we are human. The codes ingrained into our species direct our way of living, and more importantly, the reactions we have to different circumstances. Franz Kafka’s “The Hunger Artist” demonstrates the complexity of human desire and how these desires drive us to hold its importance over the basic necessities of life. In the story, a skeletal man struggles for relevance in the world by starving himself for long periods of time, which puts his mental and physical health in danger. The story addresses not only the desire for fame and success but also themes of greed leading to death and isolationism. Kafka’s modernist short story not only expresses the realities of human desires through a desperate artist striving for attention but also reveals the conflicts and psychological needs of the author himself.

Throughout the story, the man is in conflict with people who either don’t understand him or are unimpressed because they think his act is fake. His desire is not only to surpass his record of 40 days but to impress the people witnessing his act, “It was the easiest thing in the world. He made no secret of this, yet people did not believe him, at best they set him down as modest, most of them, however, thought he was out for publicity or else was some kind of cheat who found it easy to fast because he had discovered a way of making it easy, and then had the impudence to admit the fact, more or less. He had to put up with all that, and in the course of time had got used to it, but his inner dissatisfaction always rankled…” Through this quote, it is evident that he holds the opinions and acceptance of others more important than the difficulty of the action itself. Like many people, he works for the outcome and effect of his work rather than the satisfaction of the work itself. The hunger artist is a prime, dark example of the human necessity of social acceptance and understanding. With this piece, Kafka, reveals the id of the hunger artist, who continues to compromise his health and good judgment in order to gain satisfaction, “Why should he be cheated of the fame he would get for fasting longer, for being not only the record hunger artist of all time, which presumably he was already but for beating his own record by a performance beyond human imagination since he felt that there were no limits to his capacity for fasting? His public pretended to admire him so much, why should it have so little patience with him; if he could endure fasting longer, why shouldn’t the public endure it?” His anger stems from the public’s fake admiration and their doubts about his capacity. His goal is to be relevant and known to people, which further supports our human desire for acknowledgment and praise.

Not only does “The Hunger Artist” describe a man at his rawest, greediest form, but it also gives insight into Kafka’s own thoughts on a human’s intangible needs. Throughout his life, Kafka did not have a picturesque relationship with his family. Like “The Hunger Artist”, many of his works have dark themes and deep, psychological meanings. Thus, the worthlessness he felt in his childhood correlates to the artist’s painful journey to reach an understanding with the public. This piece of work truly comes from a dark time in Kafka’s life as he was also struggling with an illness that rendered him unable to speak or eat solid foods. However, even though Kafka was quite literally starving to death, he continued to edit and revise “The Hunger Artist”. His own experiences clearly spread in his work and offered parallels such as the artist compromising his health to gain relevance and Kafka sacrificing his health to continue writing. Their behaviors demonstrate a desperateness for the gratification that comes with their work, a desperateness that surpasses their need to stay alive.

Through the psychoanalytic lens, Kafka is able to demonstrate how desperation for acceptance can completely alter one’s mindset and lifestyle in his short story. Additionally, his work also provides an insight into his own beliefs and motivations regarding his writing. The artist’s frantic behavior intensifies as the story goes on, signifying his need for the fame he believes he deserves. Greed is known to be a human error but is truthfully unavoidable because of everyone’s desire to be content with their life before death. The Hunger Artist, by walking the line between life and death wished to impress others but only receives pity and concern in return. Much like the fictional artist, Kafka was compromising his own physical health at the time to write of this desolate man, who later proves to be more of a reflection to Kafka than a separate entity. Not only does “The Hunger Artist” provide a deep understanding of the struggle for success and acceptance from others, but also of the intricacies of the human mind regarding how far we will go to achieve our deepest desire: to reach happiness.

Human beings go through the life process in search for happiness. it is the constant search for happiness that makes us value all the good memories life throws at us. However, this illusion of happiness does not always seem to be attained throughout the human life. There are periods people go through endless suffering and they have to deal with it, with the hope that all shall pass and a happy moment will come their way again. Being preoccupied to achieve this state that has been idealized may make people realize how the world is a rollercoaster and suffering is just part of the process that can never be escaped.

Isolation can cause an individual so much suffering since it causes an individual to have starvation of expressing oneself without having to hide anything. When an individual is going through issues in life, most people tend to withdraw from the society and keep a lot to themselves. This is normally the case because human beings are conditioned into thinking that they are solely responsible for what they are going through and can get through it after some time. Most cases it is usually not intentional. In where are you going, where have you been, Connie isolates herself from the rest of the family, and friends hiding from her true self. She has to camouflage to so as to fit in wherever she goes depending on the audience because she feels no one can understand her. In a hunger artist, the artist is isolated from his spectators. He seems not to be in a relationship with the audience and feels misunderstood. Laurie Adams refuses to isolate himself from his sexuality, even though people judge him he has made it a point that he will not hide and, in the closet, he therefore lives so happy with little suffering. On the other hand, his friend Rakeem is in constant fear since he wants to isolate his sexuality from the others who do not understand him, this ends up giving him a hard time and suffering to the extent of quitting school

Society is usually a powerful component in a person’s life, and may cause more damage than good to an individual at times. Most of the time a society can be harsh to an individual because of the choices they decide to make if it is not in line with what the majority believes in. the idea that one cannot connect to the other people in a society because of their life choices can lead to so much suffering. In most cases the individual is out to do what makes them happy, however their decision may be akin to the society’s way of life causing them to be castigated for making such a choice. In A Proper Library the society is so much against gay culture. Laurie is castigated by his peers for being gay and is constantly called a faggot. This choice he made is not in life with the society at that particular time, making him be judged harshly. On the other hand, in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been, Connie is seen to have double personality so that she is able to blend in the society depending on her crowd. She doesn’t want to be judged so she has to pretend to be someone she is not (Urbanski 31). In Gooseberries however, Nikolai, doesn’t seem to care what the society make of him. He chooses to marry an older rich woman just to get ahead in life and no one could stop him. Society od course, had their opinion on this but that did not deter him from doing what he had set out to do to make himself happy and achieve his desires.in A Hunger Artist, the artist is seen to care about what the society thinks and want society to validate his actions. When the society doesn’t give him what he wants, he is seen to constantly suffer. For him societies opinion is an integral part of his life since he has made it so.

When one is constantly obsessed about something, they don’t get the happiness they want until they get rid of the obsession. Human obsessions vary and they tend to want them fulfilled. When these obsessions and fantasies are not met, one gets to be in constant state of suffering since what their heart is longing for can not be obtained. These obsessions tend to rob individuals of their reality and it becomes difficult to convince them otherwise. The ability to be able to categorically point out on the obsessions one can fulfill and the ones that are just mere fantasies can be difficult. To fulfill these obsessions an individual may be willing to go to any length to get the desires fulfilled, but in the long run it may all end up to the person suffering. Like in Where Are You Going where have you been, Connie is obsessed with her looks and illusions on boys, love and sex. She believes these are the only things she desires to be happy and spends most of her time trying to achieve all these, in her quest for these obsessions, she ends up being hurt and suffers in ways she could not have imagined. In Gooseberries, Nikolai is obsessed with material things like buying land and growing gooseberries on them, a man that was ones well mannered turned out to be selfish and egoistical blinded by his pursuit of his obsession. He does not see the bigger picture of the suffering he is causing to the oppressed due to the social class that has been created. The hunger artist obsession with the need of being superior than any other being makes him go to greater lengths like elevating his fasting to rather mythical proportions just to fascinate the crowd, (Neumarkt, 15) this obsession of superiority is not achieved despite the great lengths he goes, causing him to suffer from unfulfilled want.

An individual’s own family is usually seen as the safest haven one can ever have. Family is the only back bone people lean on when everything turns south and the only people one need is close families who knows them well and will understand them. the need for a normal functional family may also turn out into an illusion since many families turn out not to be. In the real sense is everyone is stuck with the family they get, and as people grow, they tend to either get closer with the family members of they just drift apart. Many times, people have so little control over it because independence and freedom make people realize what they actually want from what they don’t and their decisions may affect the relationships they have with their family members. In a proper library the Laurie’s family is so full of love and support for one another, they talk things out, help one another and no one is discriminated against just as a family should be. In the gooseberries, Nikolai and his brother Ivan, don’t have the brotherly love at all. Everyone is one a different opinion about life. Ivan tends to judge his brother so harshly because of the choices he has made that are not in line with his. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? The family appears as functional but in the real sense it is not at all (Oates, 27), the father does not the kids the attention they need, the father-daughter relationship is not they’re at all. The mother does not see through the lies Connie keep saying. However, Connie shows she has so much love for her family when Arnold Friend tells her to go with him or else her family will be in trouble.

A person’s sexuality can be seen a favor or a curse depending on the situation, place or time. most of the time the women are expected to be the submissive gender, with a meek sexuality, while the men are supposed to be macho. Some [people struggle with their sexuality and this causes them to suffer a great deal through it. in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been, Connie is constantly battling with exploring her sexuality. she is so happy with the attention she gets until it finally lands her in the wrong place with the wrong person. In a proper library, women’s sexuality is portrayed as meek and they go through a lot of suffering in the hands of macho men, all they want is to keep the men in their lives even if those men, treat them so poorly and they suffer so much. In Gooseberries, Nikolai uses his sexuality for his own gain, he decides to marry a woman she does not love for the benefit of money since this would give him what he wants and make him happy. In this case he uses his sexuality to move from a point he thought he was suffering because of lack of money (Bill, 158), to a place he believes he’s happier and more satisfied. When a society where there is gender role, it becomes so difficult for everyone to be happy since the stipulated gender roles may not work for everybody. This leads to violence that arises between both genders. Gender roles may cause discrimination of an individual who does not conform to the roles as stipulated. This

Work citation

1. Oates, Joyce Carol, and Tobias Wolff. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Diffusion, Centro de Investigación y Publicaciones de Idiomas, 2013.
2. Urbanski, Marie. ‘Existential Allegory: Joyce Carol Oates’s’ Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? “.” Studies in Short Fiction 15.2 (1978): 200.
3. Bill, Valentine T. ‘Nature in Chekhov’s Fiction.’ The Russian Review 33.2 (1974): 153-166.
4. Neumarkt, Paul. ‘Kafka’s’ A Hunger Artist’: the ego in isolation.’ American Imago 27.2 (1970): 109-121.

Franz Kafka is known to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Kafka’s grim writing style is known and recognized by many. Many of his works leave the reader questioning life and often taking away a pessimistic message. The dark nature of his short stories such as “The Judgement”, “A Hunger Artist” and “In The Penal Colony”, poses the questions, why such a dark view on life and it’s situations and what factors affected his writing? As with many artists, characteristics such as, life experiences, mental health, and time period can affect their art and the message they convey. Throughout his works there are themes of perception versus reality, alienation, and isolation. Kafka use of his perception of reality in his works creates another world for the reader, and helps them understand the meaning of the piece differently.

Franz Kafka was born in Prague in the late 19th century to an upper-middle-class family. From a very young age Kafka’s family had a toxic impact on him. When Kafka was six years old, two of his brothers died in infancy leaving Kafka with three sisters. From the beginning of his childhood, he had dark and depressing memories that he associated with his childhood, which contributed to his mental health issues in his adult life. During this time period, the normal family dynamic is different than it is today. Kafka did not get along with his parents. Unlike today’s society, in Kafka’s time many parents had a tyrant parenting style. This affected Kafka all the way through life. Many of Kafka’s personal struggles depicted in his literature are results of his father’s dominance and controlling nature. In some of his works, like “The Judgement”, Kafka expresses through the main character Georg, just how a toxic relationship with parents can be detrimental to the mental health of the child. Throughout the short story Georg is shown as overcoming a controlling power, his father, and that could break down someone’s self-confidence, which Kafka lacked. Growing up, Kafka also had a difficult relationship with his mother. She had a hard time understanding why he wanted to be a writer and discouraged him from pursuing his dreams, mainly because choosing careers in his time period was based on how much money someone could make instead of what they want to do.

As a result of his family life, Kafka was no stranger to mental health issues. He suffered from self-destructive habits and depression most of his life. As with many people with mental health issues, his mental illnesses were exacerbated throughout his life, especially later in life when his physical health declined. Throughout many of Kafka’s works his mental health was demonstrated. In fact in his short story “A Hunger Artist” , the hungry artist demonstrates the same destructive mental state as someone with depression or self-destructive habits. Kafka’s mental health made the atmosphere of his writing somewhat nightmarish. Kafka not only uses the main character to demonstrate his mental health but also uses the other characters to demonstrate the effect of other people on one’s mental state. In “The Judgement”, when Georg originally mentions his friend from Russia to his father, Georg’s father pretends like he does not know Georg’s friend. However, later in their discussion Georg’s father reveals that he knew who Georg’s friend was all along, and that he himself is more involved with his life than Georg himself. He then tells Georg that he has ignored his friend since he moved to Russia, making Georg feel guilty. The reason for George’s father deceiving Georg in the first place is almost clear, and it is even possible that Georg’s father was lying about knowing his friend and was rather just trying to implant further feelings of guilt and self-worthlessness in Georg’s mind in retaliation for being “emasculated” by his own son. This situation is another way that Kafka brought the relationship with his father into his works. When reader reads his work they feel the same darkness many people with mental illnesses feel a lot of the time. Kafka was so successful at creating this atmosphere that the term “Kafkaesque” means dark atmosphere resulting from feelings of guilt, fear, and loss of identity. s

Along with Kafka’s family life and mental illnesses, different movements and events around the time he was alive also affected his writing. Kafka was born around the time the nihilist movement started. Nihilism is an extremely pessimistic view that life has no purpose or meaning. Kafka demonstrates this in many of his works, like “A Hunger Artist”. Kafka also incorporated a into his works. Kafka does this by making his stories have abrupt endings and unrealistic scenarios. Along with the surrealism Kafka had some dadaism in his later works, which ties in with his nihilistic style, which became popular during World War I. Kafka however, did not always follow society. In Prague, which is the largest city and capital of the Czech Republic, the Czech’s lifestyles are also heavily influenced by their relationships with friends and family as well as their names and identity.Kafka’s writings usually have very strange relationships as seen in “The Judgement.” Although he differs from society in this way many of his works, like “In The Penal Colony”, Kafka establishes importance to the judgment society is known for giving. In this story Kafka also shows the reader that he has a sense of justice. When the officer gets into The Machine, the condemned man eagerly ties him in because of the unfair accusation and judgment that had caused him to nearly be executed. Rather than Kafka having this character face the long and painful death he wanted from the Apparatus, the machine falls onto him, killing him almost instantaneously. Rather than facing the death the characters wanted, Kafka gave him the death he deserved. Perception is a product of experience. Therefore since everyone has had different life experiences, which causes everyone’s perception of reality and life to be different. Kafka took his view on life that was molded by life experiences and mental health and projected it into every piece of work he created, which is what has come to make him a very influential writer even today. Kafka’s life from his family dynamic to his personal views on society has become very well known. By Kafka protecting his life experiences into his work readers are able to obtain insight not only into the minds of the characters but also the minds of Franz Kafka himself. Franz Kafka had so much of himself in his work he did not want some of his work published after he died. He did not want the world to judge him because of his views on life.

The hunger artist’s remote relationship with the town’s citizens suggests that the artist separates himself from society and is most likely heavily misunderstood. Within the story one may quickly think that the story is simply about the art of fasting. However, there is a much deeper meaning in the art itself. In the beginning of the story the narrator makes very general observations about the popularity of hunger artists as a whole. Shortly into the reading the protagonist is introduced. The narrator makes it clear that he wants to be the greatest hunger artist ever. In fact, his want to be the greatest ever shows that his desire for glory is stronger than his desire to follow his bodily instinct to eat.

In the hunger artists’ eyes he believes that the citizens need to be entertained more than anything else. Then, near the end of the story the panther is introduced. While the hunger artist seeks a new form of entertainment in the circus industry, the panthers role plays a vital part in symbolizing how the public’s interest in the hunger artist so quickly dropped halfway through the reading. The panther was very much the opposite of the hunger artist. But why did the public lose interest in the hunger artist so abruptly?

In order to answer this, we must first examine why the hunger artist does what he does and what the narrator says about his past. While hunger is a natural chemical reaction sent from our stomachs to our brains to tell it that food is required, the hunger artist sees this as something that adds to his art form, to the performance of it. Hunger is not just some bodily reaction to the artist; it stands for much more than that. At the cost of going against bodily needs, he desires artistic perfection over everything else. Once again, entertainment above personal well-being is something the artist takes very seriously. In fact, he takes it so seriously that in the end of the story, even when he knows the public interest has him nowhere in sight, he died doing what he believed was admirable.

Another thing that must be understood is the cage in which the hunger artist performs. From different points of view the cage can mean multiple things: His separation from society within the cage could represent the misunderstanding of the citizens around him; almost acting like a barrier. Meaning they don’t see the spectacle within the cage. They just see him.

Everyone feels the obligation to shift sometime in their life. The issue would be if the difference would be for the best. Kafka elaborates on how the public pressures society and forces individuals to view themselves negatively which may be portrayed as an illusion. In the literary novella work, The Metamorphosis, Kafka elaborates on how Gregor is portrayed as a disgusting, repugnant beetle from the eyes of whom may approach him. An interpretation could conceivably be that he maybe was not a bug, though however, he perceived himself as a bug and forced himself to distinguish a lesser version of himself. Similar to The Metamorphosis, A Hunger Artist reveals how the protagonist is judged by his physical appearance leaving them to think they’re worthless. The allegory the Artist and Gregor represent is loneliness due to their degradation from society.

Looks are the first observation someone makes when meeting others. You can easily be discriminated nowadays by your appearance. The characters are described with sensory images to show their process. ‘The Artist now submitted completely; his head lolled on his breast as if it had landed there by chance; his body was hollowed out; his legs in a spasm of self-preservation clung close to each other at the knees’ (Kafka 2, A Hunger Artist). The author uses imagery to settle a clear picture into the reader’s mind of what the hunger Artist’s appearance was as he first left his cage. Kafka uses imagery to stimulate an emotional response to the Artist and his condition. “The children stood openmouthed, holding each other’s hands for greater security, marveling at him as he sat there pallid in black tights, with his ribs sticking out so prominently, not even on a seat but down among straw on the ground” (Kafka 1, A Hunger Artist). Kafka continues to apply imagery to describe the Artist’s physical condition but his mental condition as well, “The Artist now submitted completely; his head lolled on his breast as if it had landed there by chance; his body was hollowed out; his legs in a spasm of self-preservation clung close to each other at the knees, yet scraped on the ground as if it were not really solid ground, as if they were only trying to find solid ground” (Kafka 1).

The leading roles in the novels proceeded from being respected but through time decreased and faded as well as the loss of interest in him by the audience. “Directly across on the opposite wall hung a photograph of Gregor from the time of his military service; it was a picture of him as a lieutenant, as he, smiling and worry-free, with his hand on his sword, demanded respect for his bearing and uniform’ (Kafka 20, The Metamorphosis). Gregor used to have a complete and hardworking fulfilled life before his ‘metamorphosis’. Ironically, the moments where he was sanguine and worry-free were when he was risking his life in the military. It resembles how people acted as his claque before life as a bug, treating him with a great amount of respect. Now, he’s in a constant mode of melee with his boss and family. “On the other hand, I must also say that we business people, luckily or unluckily, however one looks at it, very often simply have to overcome a slight indisposition for business reasons” (Kafka 13). The aforementioned apprises to be Gregor’s mentality throughout the whole novel. A life of serving has convinced him and many others like him, as Gregor could be considered a symbol, to put duty above anything else, including personal health, aegis, and wellness. It is further displayed that Gregor views having turned into some sort of pest as a rather minuscule problem and channels his motivation towards getting out of bed and speaking to his boss instead of contemplating over his situation.

Though it may not seem like it, Gregor could be the antagonist. The protagonist is maybe Grete as she demonstrates the metamorphosis and develops it throughout the end of the novel. Kafka would most likely portray such characters to demonstrate that the world does not revolve around them. Grete metamorphosizes since she changes from a teen girl to a sophisticated adult. In a specific scenario, she stretches, and her parents realize that she is now a grown woman. According to the Samsa’s, Gregor was impeding them from defining the purpose of life.

There was a certain point where the audience would buy season passes to watch the Artist perform. As time went on, the infamous Artist was later blamed as a fraud. ‘Now, quite apart from the fact that the doors were locked, should he call out for help? In spite of all his distress, he was unable to suppress a simile at this idea’ (Kafka 10, The Metamorphosis). Kafka explicates how isolated and deracinated Gregor feels, even at home with his own family. He works restlessly to support not only himself but his folks and undergoes from little to no aegis. This could foreshadow later events that happen in the plot, such as his father’s disgust and harsh words and his lachrymose mother’s denial.

Kafka uses personification to illustrate that the heavens were, “looking down” upon the Artist (Kafka 2, A Hunger Artist) to embellish how life, in the beginning, was great. The folks ceased to work recognize and feed the Artist after 40 days-which was an economic, not human consideration.

Hope is something most individuals manage to lose last. The Artist had hope as he wants to prove his honor which is why he got a job at a circus. Though he did not succeed. No matter how much you try, society will end up changing you physically or mentally. Kafka inputs a simile to link A Hunger Artist to an animal play, “he had been fasting for some time, that he reacted with an outburst of fury and to the general alarm began to shake the bars of his cage like a wild animal” to prove his act as something that deserves visual attention (Kafka 3, A Hunger Artist). The Artist loves the skeptical watchers, who stand by the cage, that have to verify the Artist does not cheat the system by eating considering it gives him a chance to prove his honor and his profession.

‘He looked up into the eyes of the ladies who were so apparently friendly and in reality, so cruel’ (Kafka 2, A Hunger Artist). From one’s perspective, the way one acts is different from the rest. In A Hunger Artist, two beautiful ladies were honored to walk the Artist to his meal, but the impresario secretly pushed the Artist and he slipped on one of the ladies and she was mortified resulting in crying and had to be replaced. He looked up to one of the eyes of the ladies who were apparently so nice but in reality, so cruel.

Clearly, in life, when something is pleasant to the eye it will eventually be supplanted by something or someone full of life, extra spirited, and newer. Following Gregor’s tender yet immediate death, his family position was compensated by his sister, who was now a grown adult with a bright future ahead of her. The Samsa family was certainly thriving and living their best life after Gregor’s passing. It surely seemed like they were not affected by their brother and son’s death. Ironically, at the beginning of The Metamorphosis, Grete was the one who mostly took care of Gregor when even his parents would not. However, as the plot thickens, she is the one who wanted him gone or dead since the family could not deal with such pain and annoyance. Subsequently, after the Artist’s death, the circus in which he used to work as, replaced him with a fat panther which potentially drew more customers. Finding your purpose in life is laborious. Unquestionably, the Artist and Gregor can demonstrate what happens when you do not: an agonizing death. The atmosphere in both the novellas was negatively simulated since the results were based on death. If you cannot figure out what you want to be or become in life it is most likely that you will attempt to fit in no matter what in your community which would result in agonizing isolation.

Because of how Gregor was viewed resulting in his transformation, he was unable to be labeled as a member of society. He was treated as a “less than” and was no longer loved by his family.

“The Hunger Artist” is about an artist who physically isolates himself via his cage, but he is also isolated from the world in that he can only understand the seriousness and importance of his art. The artist was viewed by everyone else as weird and crazy. No one believed the talents of the artist to be true. They swore that the artist didn’t in fact starve himself and that his beliefs in his art were rather absurd. Kafka continuously refers to a cage which is used to demonstrate the artist’s isolation from humanity. In the short story, Kafka writes, “…then again, he shrank completely into himself once more, concerned with no one” (Kafka 257). The further the artist goes in pursuit of perfection, the further away he moves from the understanding of the people for whom he performs. “The harsh light bothered him not at all, it wasn’t as though he was able to sleep properly anyway” (Kafka 253). “No one counted the days, no one knew how great his achievement was, not even the hunger artists himself, and his heart grew heavy” (Kafka 261). This is a reflection of the artist’s feeling towards perfection and their drive for perfection that leads them to be isolated from others. Kafka stresses the dedication of an artist through his writing, “During a period of starvation, no hunger-artist would have eaten the least thing under any circumstances, not even under duress” (Kafka 253).

Similar to “The Hunger Artist”, Kafka incorporated yet another strand of isolation through his story, “First Sorrow”. This short story examines the character of a trapeze artist, a profession esteemed and separate from the rest of the community. Like the cage in the “The Hunger Artist”, Kafka uses another symbol to stream isolation through “First Sorrow” which is the trapeze. Kafka writes,“…so arranged his life that for the whole period of each engagement, he remained on the trapeze day and night” (Kafka 239). Ensuring that the artist was maintaining his art at its peak, meant that the seclusion he would be practicing would destroy himself being altogether. Kafka continues to stress his isolation from others with the quote, “Admittedly, his human contacts were rather reduced, only from time to time a fellow acrobat would climb up the rope ladder to him, and then the two of them would sit together on the trapeze” (Kafka 240).

Towards the end of the story, Kafka writes, “And indeed, as the manager watched him in the apparently peaceful sleep to which his crying had given way, he thought he could make out the first lines beginning to etch themselves in the trapeze artist’s smooth boyish brow” (Kafka 242).

Kafka’s underlying connection and ideas about childlike characteristics, suggests that an effect of isolation is the inability to adapt to human experiences and essentially, grow up. Kafka connects the difficulty of this art with the quote, “A trapeze artist- this art, practised high up in the lofty domes of the great variety theatres, is known to be one of the most difficult to which humans may aspire- had, first out of the striving for perfection” (Kafka 239).

Kafka’s theme of isolation does not go unnoticed through his work. This theme is especially prominent in his stories, “Metamorphosis”, “The Hunger Artist”, and “First Sorrow”. Society is often blinded by the realms of the real world, its impositions cripple humanity and concludes to be the reason for seclusion (this sentence is awkward. What are you trying to say?). Kafka’s message seems to suggest that as humans we need society in order to truly belong and have a connection, purpose and worth inis this life. In order to truly live, we would need to open up the door, break through the cage, and come down from the trapeze.

Expand this conclusion. Make sure you answer the so what? question. Your conclusion should enhance the reader’s understanding of what you established in your introduction. Consider how Kafka lacked true connections in his own life.