FREE ESSAY ON HUNGER ARTIST

HUNGER ARTIST

Soul Food
In life there are many codes that define us as individuals and as a society. In order to
further discuss the code we must first establish the definition and nature of a code and
what it entails. It is an unspoken oath to an idea or way of life to which we feel
dedicated and devoted. The way we are influenced by our surroundings and the way we react
or feel we are supposed to react to them are a result of our interpretation of that code.
While the code is artistic at the same time it is cruel. It can embody its disciple with
such an overwhelming grip that they feel they can never get out of its cage. The
misinterpretation of the code is easily achieved. In the case of the Hunger Artist, the
code of his artistic ability to fast produces self-enlightenment to insight. As a result
it reveals to him his hunger is for answers. It reveals self-definition for him as an
artist and as a man. Furthermore it reveals to him his hypocrisy and fraudulence. All of
which leave him feeling unsatisfied and hungry.
His hunger for answers is his journey for truth and meaning in life. He needs to feel
accomplishment and self worth but is faced with the sad but true fact that no one will
give him the recognition he feels he so rightly deserves. He wants answers to why the
crowds of people and the impresario can never praise him enough even if he has the
perfect setting and time to fast for as long as he desires. " Perhaps said the hunger
artist to himself many a time, things would be a little better if his cage were set not
quite so near the menagerie." (Kafka 225) He feels as though he's being cheated of his
opportunity to be the greatest faster thus far in history. The harsh reality of the fact
is that he knows this cloak of fame could never render the satisfaction he needs to fill
the hunger in his life. No matter how long he fasts he will still be left feeling empty,
unadmired, and unsatisfied because of their lack of understanding and the "failure of the
public to recognize the validity of his achievement." (Mitchell 242) " He was therefore
bound to be the sole completely satisfied spectator of his own fast. Yet for other
reasons he was never satisfied. " (Kafka 221)
Never satisfied because of the way fasting makes him feel as an artist and as a man. He
never receives the pat on the back saying well done which leaves him feeling like an
inadequate failure. And when they do tell him they admire him his guilt, from knowing the
truth about how easy it is to fast, leaves him feeling admired for the wrong reasons. " I
always wanted you to admire my fasting, but you shouldn't admire it because I have to
fast, I can't help it." (Kafka 226) His feeling of underachievement leaves him searching
for someone to blame. Someone must be the cause of this suffering. At first he points to
anything and everyone who stands in the way of his rightful ownership to glory from his
honorable work. Later to be admitted that this pain and suffering is self chosen and
indeed not honorable because of the mask of hypocrisy and fraudulence behind which he has
been hiding.
Hiding because of the fear to accept the truth about his artistic ability and the reality
of how easy it is for him to perform the task of fasting. While others say they admire
him for his phenomenal acts of self-discipline through fasting, he knows that "the
unnatural is natural to him, and the hunger artist is troubled by his hypocrisy."
(Norris179) He knows that the task of fasting is not artistic in his case because of the
nature of the motive and its simplicity. His dedication to the code has him trapped
inside himself. Trapped inside the cage of his own hypocrisy and fraudulence, which
leaves him with a feeling of eternal hunger. Eternal hunger for the quest to find the
soul food he desires and to find the answer to why he will never find the satisfaction he
is looking for to make him whole. This hypocrisy and fraudulence of lying to himself has
him very troubled inside. " But in his dimming eyes remained the firm though no longer
proud persuasion that he was still continuing to fast." (Kafka 226) Even as he is dying
he is troubled with the fact that he still hasn't found the food he likes and is left to
die feeling no longer proud for the persuasion of his hypocrisy and fraudulence. His
deceitfulness to himself has robbed him of any chance for satisfaction and accomplishment
in life.
As a result of these insights he comes to the realization of the unproud fact of why he
will always be hungry and never be able to find the food he likes. Fasting is his search
for hunger; his hunger for answers. Not the answers to why can't I find the food I like,
but why can't I feel satisfied with myself? Why can't I fill the hunger I have in my
life? I can't find the soul food I am looking for to be satisfied. Answers to questions
which he already knows the answer but does not want to accept because of the reality of
their validity. The search to discover that he can't find the soul food he likes leaves
him always looking ahead to a place where he will achieve what he wants. If only he could
just do a little more he would be satisfied. But tragically enough this is something he
will never achieve. He will never be able to get enough or feel enough accomplishment for
the fraudulent task he has trapped himself in performing. While fasting is something he
feels he must perform, because of his dedication to the code, it will never satisfy his
hunger. He feeds off of fasting, but will always have to keep eating because he can never
get enough food. His appetite will never be satisfied; never satisfied because he is
eating off of an empty plate.
Works Cited
Kafka, Franz, comp. A Hunger Artist: The Riverside Anthology of Literature Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company 1997 220-227.
Mitchell, Breon, comp. Kafka and the Hunger Artists: Kafka and the Contemporary Critical
Performance Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987 236-255.
Norris, Margot, comp. Sadism and Masochism "In the Penal Colony" and "A Hunger Artist":
Reading Kafka New York: Schocken Books,1989. 170-186.