Hungry Kya?

‘A Hunger Artist’ by Franz Kafka is a story about, big surprise, a hunger artist. This short story contains many parallels to the novel Hunger, both dealing with the issues of raw human hunger, society, and pride. The two protagonists have very similar ideals, not only in the way that they starve themselves, but also in their pride and stupidity. At first I found trouble finding these parallels between the two stories, for the two protagonists seemed to be in opposite situations. In Hunger, the main character is fighting against hunger. He is dying to find food wherever he can, and is scraping himself for money in order to attain food. Kafka’s character seems to do the opposite. He takes pride in starvation and refuses to eat, accepting the fame that comes with his inhuman manifestations. The protagonist in Hunger never, not once, denied food when given the opportunity, therefore leading to my confusion about the ties between these two characters.

After reading Monique’s blog, (http://hlenglishmonique.blogspot.com/) I gained more insight. She described how the two protagonists shared this sense of pride and honor, even if leading them to unfortunate situations. The hunger artist starved himself for his honor, even though by doing so he was basically killing himself. Towards the end of the story, he was so close to death, yet did not inform anyone merely to defend his honor. Both protagonists seem to share a disinterest for human life, for even the protagonist in Hunger, as Monique mentioned, had too much pride to beg for food or money, even on the brink of death. I found it interesting that Monique compared these characters to wild animals, especially because that is exactly what the hunger artist was treated as. He was kept in a cage under supervision, an inhuman monster meant for human entertainment. Likewise, the society in Hunger seemed to share similar feelings toward the protagonist. He was treated like a wild animal, a drunkard, a lunatic. I feel that this aspect of the novel was demonstrated immensely when the protagonist starts chewing on a bone to satisfy his hunger, demonstrating the extent of hunger’s effects on human nature.

I also found Nina’s ideas on these two pieces on hunger to be quite thought provoking (http://3nina.wordpress.com/). She discusses the two protagonists from an existentialist point of view. She had said, “I believe the Hunger Artist symbolizes dissatisfaction and the panther symbolizes fulfillment”. Her views on dissatisfaction pertain to both protagonists very well, for they both face this constant unhappiness, and a constant longing that is never satisfied. Both protagonists also share the fact that they are purposely putting themselves in these situations of dissatisfaction, for they refuse to let go of their stupidity and pride. This idea of dissatisfaction, as Nina talked about, portrays the existentialist ideals. For from an existentialist’s point of view, these two protagonists are merely an exaggeration of all human beings, and it is not until we accept this dissatisfaction and work toward it that we will attain happiness.