Overview: I would like you to apply the concept of Existentialism to the following short story by Franz Kafka, "The Hunger Artist." The piece utilizes the stages of Existentialism to show what it takes to be a true artist. I would like you to read the text with that critical lens in mind.
Directions: Please read "A Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka. Again, apply the three stages of existentialism to the text. Comment in this blog space using direct evidence from The Hunger Artist AND Jean-Paul Sartre's piece on Existentialism.
"A Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka
In the last decades interest in hunger artists has declined considerably. Whereas in earlier days there was good money to be earned putting on major productions of this sort under one’s own management, nowadays that is totally impossible. Those were different times. Back then the hunger artist captured the attention of the entire city. From day to day while the fasting lasted, participation increased. Everyone wanted to see the hunger artist at least once a day. During the later days there were people with subscription tickets who sat all day in front of the small barred cage. And there were even viewing hours at night, their impact heightened by torchlight. On fine days the cage was dragged out into the open air, and then the hunger artist was put on display particularly for the children. While for grown-ups the hunger artist was often merely a joke, something they participated in because it was fashionable, the children looked on amazed, their mouths open, holding each other’s hands for safety, as he sat there on scattered straw—spurning a chair—in black tights, looking pale, with his ribs sticking out prominently, sometimes nodding politely, answering questions with a forced smile, even sticking his arm out through the bars to let people feel how emaciated he was, but then completely sinking back into himself, so that he paid no attention to anything, not even to what was so important to him, the striking of the clock, which was the single furnishing in the cage, but merely looking out in front of him with his eyes almost shut and now and then sipping from a tiny glass of water to moisten his lips.
Apart from the changing groups of spectators there were also constant observers chosen by the public—strangely enough they were usually butchers—who, always three at a time, were given the task of observing the hunger artist day and night, so that he didn’t get anything to eat in some secret manner. It was, however, merely a formality, introduced to reassure the masses, for those who understood knew well enough that during the period of fasting the hunger artist would never, under any circumstances, have eaten the slightest thing, not even if compelled by force. The honor of his art forbade it. Naturally, none of the watchers understood that. Sometimes there were nightly groups of watchers who carried out their vigil very laxly, deliberately sitting together in a distant corner and putting all their attention into playing cards there, clearly intending to allow the hunger artist a small refreshment, which, according to their way of thinking, he could get from some secret supplies. Nothing was more excruciating to the hunger artist than such watchers. They depressed him. They made his fasting terribly difficult. Sometimes he overcame his weakness and sang during the time they were observing, for as long as he could keep it up, to show people how unjust their suspicions about him were. But that was little help. For then they just wondered among themselves about his skill at being able to eat even while singing. He much preferred the observers who sat down right against the bars and, not satisfied with the dim backlighting of the room, illuminated him with electric flashlights, which the impresario made available to them. The glaring light didn’t bother him in the slightest. Generally he couldn’t sleep at all, and he could always doze off a little under any lighting and at any hour, even in an overcrowded, noisy auditorium. With such observers, he was very happily prepared to spend the entire night without sleeping. He was ready to joke with them, to recount stories from his nomadic life and then, in turn, to listen to their stories—doing everything just to keep them awake, so that he could keep showing them once again that he had nothing to eat in his cage and that he was fasting as none of them could. He was happiest, however, when morning came and a lavish breakfast was brought for them at his own expense, on which they hurled themselves with the appetite of healthy men after a hard night’s work without sleep. True, there were still people who wanted to see in this breakfast an unfair means of influencing the observers, but that was going too far, and if they were asked whether they wanted to undertake the observers’ night shift for its own sake, without the breakfast, they excused themselves. But nonetheless they stood by their suspicions.
However, it was, in general, part of fasting that these doubts were inextricably associated with it. For, in fact, no one was in a position to spend time watching the hunger artist every day and night without interruption, so no one could know, on the basis of his own observation, whether this was a case of truly continuous, flawless fasting. The hunger artist himself was the only one who could know that and, at the same time, the only spectator capable of being completely satisfied with his own fasting. But the reason he was never satisfied was something different. Perhaps it was not fasting at all which made him so very emaciated that many people, to their own regret, had to stay away from his performance, because they couldn’t bear to look at him. For he was also so skeletal out of dissatisfaction with himself, because he alone knew something that even initiates didn’t know—how easy it was to fast. It was the easiest thing in the world. About this he did not remain silent, but people did not believe him. At best they thought he was being modest. Most of them, however, believed he was a publicity seeker or a total swindler, for whom, at all events, fasting was easy, because he understood how to make it easy, and then still had the nerve to half admit it. He had to accept all that. Over the years he had become accustomed to it. But this dissatisfaction kept gnawing at his insides all the time and never yet—and this one had to say to his credit—had he left the cage of his own free will after any period of fasting. The impresario had set the maximum length of time for the fast at forty days—he would never allow the fasting go on beyond that point, not even in the cosmopolitan cities. And, in fact, he had a good reason. Experience had shown that for about forty days one could increasingly whip up a city’s interest by gradually increasing advertising, but that then the public turned away—one could demonstrate a significant decline in popularity. In this respect, there were, of course, small differences among different towns and among different countries, but as a rule it was true that forty days was the maximum length of time. So then on the fortieth day the door of the cage—which was covered with flowers—was opened, an enthusiastic audience filled the amphitheater, a military band played, two doctors entered the cage in order to take the necessary measurements of the hunger artist, the results were announced to the auditorium through a megaphone, and finally two young ladies arrived, happy to have just been selected by lot, and sought to lead the hunger artist down a couple of steps out of the cage, where on a small table a carefully chosen hospital meal was laid out. And at this moment the hunger artist always fought back. Of course, he still freely laid his bony arms in the helpful outstretched hands of the ladies bending over him, but he did not want to stand up. Why stop right now after forty days? He could have kept going for even longer, for an unlimited length of time. Why stop right now, when he was in his best form, indeed, not yet even in his best fasting form? Why did people want to rob him of the fame of fasting longer, not just so that he could become the greatest hunger artist of all time, which, in fact, he probably was already, but also so that he could surpass himself in some unimaginable way, for he felt there were no limits to his capacity for fasting. Why did this crowd, which pretended to admire him so much, have so little patience with him? If he kept going and kept fasting even longer, why would they not tolerate it? Then, too, he was tired and felt good sitting in the straw. Now he was supposed to stand up straight and tall and go to eat, something which, when he merely imagined it, made him feel nauseous right away. With great difficulty he repressed mentioning this only out of consideration for the women. And he looked up into the eyes of these women, apparently so friendly but in reality so cruel, and shook his excessively heavy head on his feeble neck. But then happened what always happened. The impresario came forward without a word—the music made talking impossible—raised his arms over the hunger artist, as if inviting heaven to look upon its work here on the straw, this unfortunate martyr (something the hunger artist certainly was, only in a completely different sense), grabbed the hunger artist around his thin waist, in the process wanting with his exaggerated caution to make people believe that here he had to deal with something fragile, and handed him over—not without secretly shaking him a little, so that the hunger artist’s legs and upper body swung back and forth uncontrollably—to the women, who had in the meantime turned as pale as death. At this point, the hunger artist endured everything. His head lay on his chest—it was as if it had inexplicably rolled around and just stopped there—his body was arched back, his legs, in an impulse of self-preservation, pressed themselves together at the knees, but scraped the ground, as if they were not really on the floor but were looking for the real ground, and the entire weight of his body, admittedly very small, lay against one of the women, who appealed for help with flustered breath, for she had not imagined her post of honor would be like this, and then stretched her neck as far as possible, to keep her face from the least contact with the hunger artist, but then, when she couldn’t manage this and her more fortunate companion didn’t come to her assistance but trembled and remained content to hold in front of her the hunger artist’s hand, that small bundle of knuckles, she broke into tears, to the delighted laughter of the auditorium, and had to be relieved by an attendant who had been standing ready for some time. Then came the meal. The impresario put a little food into the mouth of the hunger artist, now dozing as if he were fainting, and kept up a cheerful patter designed to divert attention away from the hunger artist’s condition. Then a toast was proposed to the public, which was supposedly whispered to the impresario by the hunger artist, the orchestra confirmed everything with a great fanfare, people dispersed, and no one had the right to be dissatisfied with the event, no one except the hunger artist—he was always the only one.
He lived this way, taking small regular breaks, for many years, apparently in the spotlight, honored by the world, but for all that, his mood was usually gloomy, and it kept growing gloomier all the time, because no one understood how to take it seriously. But how was he to find consolation? What was there left for him to wish for? And if a good-natured man who felt sorry for him ever wanted to explain to him that his sadness probably came from his fasting, then it could happen, especially at an advanced stage of the fasting, that the hunger artist responded with an outburst of rage and began to shake the cage like an animal, frightening everyone. But the impresario had a way of punishing moments like this, something he was happy to use. He would make an apology for the hunger artist to the assembled public, conceding that the irritability had been provoked only by his fasting, which well-fed people did not readily understand and which was capable of excusing the behavior of the hunger artist. From there he would move on to speak about the equally hard-to-understand claim of the hunger artist that he could go on fasting for much longer than he was doing. He would praise the lofty striving, the good will, and the great self-denial no doubt contained in this claim, but then would try to contradict it simply by producing photographs, which were also on sale, for in the pictures one could see the hunger artist on the fortieth day of his fast, in bed, almost dead from exhaustion. Although the hunger artist was very familiar with this perversion of the truth, it strained his nerves every time and was too much for him. What was a result of the premature ending of the fast people were now proposing as its cause! It was impossible to fight against this lack of understanding, against this world of misunderstanding. In good faith he still always listened eagerly to the impresario at the bars of his cage, but each time, once the photographs came out, he would let go of the bars and, with a sigh, sink back into the straw, and a reassured public could come up again and view him.
When those who had witnessed such scenes thought back on them a few years later, often they were unable to understand themselves. For in the meantime that change mentioned above had set in. It happened almost immediately. There may have been more profound reasons for it, but who bothered to discover what they were? At any rate, one day the pampered hunger artist saw himself abandoned by the crowd of pleasure seekers, who preferred to stream to other attractions. The impresario chased around half of Europe one more time with him, to see whether he could rediscover the old interest here and there. It was all futile. It was as if a secret agreement against the fasting performances had really developed everywhere. Naturally, the truth is that it could not have happened so quickly, and people later remembered some things which in the days of intoxicating success they had not paid sufficient attention to, some inadequately suppressed indications, but now it was too late to do anything to counter them. Of course, it was certain that the popularity of fasting would return once more someday, but for those now alive that was no consolation. What was the hunger artist to do now? The man whom thousands of people had cheered on could not display himself in show booths at small fun fairs, and the hunger artist was not only too old to take up a different profession, but was fanatically devoted to fasting more than anything else. So he said farewell to the impresario, an incomparable companion on his life’s road, and let himself be hired by a large circus. In order to spare his own sensitive feelings, he didn’t even look at the terms of his contract.
A large circus with its huge number of men, animals, and gimmicks, which are constantly being let go and replenished, can use anyone at any time, even a hunger artist, provided, of course, his demands are modest. Moreover, in this particular case it was not only the hunger artist himself who was engaged, but also his old and famous name. In fact, given the characteristic nature of his art, which was not diminished by his advancing age, one could never claim that a worn-out artist, who no longer stood at the pinnacle of his ability, wanted to escape to a quiet position in the circus. On the contrary, the hunger artist declared that he could fast just as well as in earlier times—a claim that was entirely credible. Indeed, he even affirmed that if people would let him do what he wanted—and he was promised this without further ado—he would really now legitimately amaze the world for the first time, an assertion which, however, given the mood of the time, something the hunger artist in his enthusiasm easily overlooked, only brought smiles from the experts.
In essence, however, the hunger artist had also not forgotten his sense of the way things really were, and he took it as self-evident that people would not set him and his cage up as some star attraction in the middle of the arena, but would move him outside in some other readily accessible spot near the animal stalls. Huge brightly painted signs surrounded the cage and announced what there was to look at there. During the intervals in the main performance, when the general public pushed out towards the menagerie in order to see the animals, they could hardly avoid moving past the hunger artist and stopping there a moment. They would perhaps have remained with him longer, if those pushing up behind them in the narrow passageway, who did not understand this pause on the way to the animal stalls they wanted to see, had not made a longer peaceful observation impossible. This was also the reason why the hunger artist began to tremble before these visiting hours, which he naturally used to long for as the main purpose of his life. In the early days he could hardly wait for the pauses in the performances. He had looked forward with delight to the crowd pouring around him, until he became convinced only too quickly—and even the most stubborn, almost deliberate self-deception could not hold out against the experience—that, judging by their intentions, most of these people were, time and again without exception, only visiting the menagerie. And this view from a distance still remained his most beautiful moment. For when they had come right up to him, he immediately got an earful from the shouting and cursing of the two steadily increasing groups, the ones who wanted to take their time looking at the hunger artist, not with any understanding but on a whim or from mere defiance—for him these ones were soon the more painful—and a second group of people whose only demand was to go straight to the animal stalls. Once the large crowds had passed, the late-comers would arrive, and although there was no longer anything preventing these people from sticking around for as long as they wanted, they rushed past with long strides, almost without a sideways glance, to get to the animals in time. And it was an all-too-rare stroke of luck when the father of a family came by with his children, pointed his finger at the hunger artist, gave a detailed explanation about what was going on here, and talked of earlier years, when he had been present at similar but incomparably more magnificent performances, and then the children, because they had been inadequately prepared at school and in life, always stood around still uncomprehendingly. What was fasting to them? But nonetheless the brightness of the look in their searching eyes revealed something of new and more gracious times coming. Perhaps, the hunger artist said to himself sometimes, everything would be a little better if his location were not quite so near the animal stalls. That way it would be easy for people to make their choice, to say nothing of the fact that he was very upset and constantly depressed by the stink from the stalls, the animals’ commotion at night, the pieces of raw meat dragged past him for the carnivorous beasts, and the roars at feeding time. But he did not dare to approach the administration about it. In any case, he had the animals to thank for the crowds of visitors among whom, now and then, there could also be one destined for him. And who knew where they would hide him if he wished to remind them of his existence and, along with that, of the fact that, strictly speaking, he was only an obstacle on the way to the menagerie.
A small obstacle, at any rate, a constantly diminishing obstacle. People became accustomed to thinking it strange that in these times they would want to pay attention to a hunger artist, and with this habitual awareness the judgment on him was pronounced. He might fast as well as he could—and he did—but nothing could save him anymore. People went straight past him. Try to explain the art of fasting to anyone! If someone doesn’t feel it, then he cannot be made to understand it. The beautiful signs became dirty and illegible. People tore them down, and no one thought of replacing them. The small table with the number of days the fasting had lasted, which early on had been carefully renewed every day, remained unchanged for a long time, for after the first weeks the staff grew tired of even this small task. And so the hunger artist kept fasting on and on, as he once had dreamed about in earlier times, and he had no difficulty at all managing to achieve what he had predicted back then, but no one was counting the days—no one, not even the hunger artist himself, knew how great his achievement was by this point, and his heart grew heavy. And when once in a while a person strolling past stood there making fun of the old number and talking of a swindle, that was in a sense the stupidest lie which indifference and innate maliciousness could invent, for the hunger artist was not being deceptive—he was working honestly—but the world was cheating him of his reward.
Many days went by once more, and this, too, came to an end. Finally the cage caught the attention of a supervisor, and he asked the attendant why they had left this perfectly useful cage standing here unused with rotting straw inside. Nobody knew, until one man, with the help of the table with the number on it, remembered the hunger artist. They pushed the straw around with poles and found the hunger artist in there. “Are you still fasting?” the supervisor asked. “When are you finally going to stop?” “Forgive me everything,” whispered the hunger artist. Only the supervisor, who was pressing his ear up against the cage, understood him. “Certainly,” said the supervisor, tapping his forehead with his finger in order to indicate to the staff the state the hunger artist was in, “we forgive you.” “I always wanted you to admire my fasting,” said the hunger artist. “But we do admire it,” said the supervisor obligingly. “But you shouldn’t admire it,” said the hunger artist. “Well then, we don’t admire it,” said the supervisor, “but why shouldn’t we admire it?” “Because I have to fast. I can’t do anything else,” said the hunger artist. “Just look at you,” said the supervisor, “why can’t you do anything else?” “Because,” said the hunger artist, lifting his head a little and, with his lips pursed as if for a kiss, speaking right into the supervisor’s ear so that he wouldn’t miss anything, “because I couldn’t find a food that tasted good to me. If had found that, believe me, I would not have made a spectacle of myself and would have eaten to my heart’s content, like you and everyone else.” Those were his last words, but in his failing eyes there was still the firm, if no longer proud, conviction that he was continuing to fast.
“All right, tidy this up now,” said the supervisor. And they buried the hunger artist along with the straw. But in his cage they put a young panther. Even for a person with the dullest mind it was clearly refreshing to see this wild animal prowling around in this cage, which had been dreary for such a long time. It lacked nothing. Without having to think much about it, the guards brought the animal food whose taste it enjoyed. It never seemed once to miss its freedom. This noble body, equipped with everything necessary, almost to the point of bursting, even appeared to carry freedom around with it. That seemed to be located somewhere or other in its teeth, and its joy in living came with such strong passion from its throat that it was not easy for spectators to keep watching. But they controlled themselves, kept pressing around the cage, and had no desire at all to move on.
In this short story, the hunger artist goes through the three stages of Existentialism- anguish, forlornness, and despair. Anguish, as it connects to Existentialism, is the burden that we carry in knowing that we have complete freedom and are the lawmakers of our lives. Forlornness is the feeling of loneliness due to the idea that we are to make choices on our own. Lastly, despair stems from the awareness that we cannot know in advance the consequences of our actions. The hunger artist experiences anguish when he is assigned observers who take their job very lightly so as “to allow the hunger artist a small refreshment.” The observers think that they are doing the hunger artist a favor, but he actually hates being given the freedom to cheat during his fast because it tempts him to break the law he has set for himself. Sartre says that according to existentialism, man is defined “only in relation to his commitments.” It is up to the hunger artist to eat or not, but he has to face the effects of his decision either way. This also ties into the stage of forlornness in that he is accountable to no one except for himself. The idea that there might not even be a God who is watching his every move makes it even more difficult to follow through with his commitment of fasting. This is why “He much prefer[s] the observers who s[i]t down right against the bars.” Loneliness leads to mental weakness, so having the accountability of these strict watchers gives him motivation to continue on with his fast. The hunger artist feels forlornness, but also despair, when he tries to explain to his audience “how easy it [i]s to fast.” He is disappointed at the people who do not believe him, and he is also frustrated at himself for not having the power to make people understand his point of view. At the end of forty days, when he is forced to come out of his cage and eat, he asks himself, “Why d[o] people want to rob him of the fame of fasting longer . . .?” He is filled with despair because he hoped that by telling his audience that fasting is easy, they would be persuaded and would therefore support him in continuing beyond forty days; however, his efforts end up being useless. Sartre says that “In life, a man commits himself, draws his own portrait and there is nothing but that portrait.” In this way, the hunger artist lives his life fasting for much of it, and before he passes away, the story says that “in his failing eyes there was still the firm, if no longer proud, conviction that he was continuing to fast.”
ReplyDeleteThe Hunger Artist in this story, while he himself goes through the three stages of Existentialism, exposes the humanity and existentialist ideas in people around him. Throughout the story it seems like he is constantly vying for the attention of spectators who often try to be kind to him. They find his act interesting up until the forty day mark, which is when he is scheduled to eat again, and after that point it becomes unbearable for them to watch him go on without eating any longer. Somehow, even though it is completely the Hunger Artist’s decision not to eat after fasting for forty days, those who observe him still starving himself feel morally responsible for his well being. The Hunger Artist doesn’t understand these people, asking himself “Why stop right now after forty days?... Why did people want to rob him of the fame of fasting longer, not just so that he could become the greatest hunger artist of all time, which, in fact, he probably was already, but also so that he could surpass himself in some unimaginable way, for he felt there were no limits to his capacity for fasting. Why did this crowd, which pretended to admire him so much, have so little patience with him? If he kept going and kept fasting even longer, why would they not tolerate it?” I think the Hunger Artist’s audience perceives his actions as forced, assuming that it is against his will that he is having to fast for so long. This makes them experience the first stage of existentialism, which is anguish over their complete freedom, which they believe this man doesn’t have. The audience is wracked with guilt over the freedom they have that enables them to eat whenever they want to. The Hunger Artist seems to enjoy making people feel bad about their freedoms, recognizing that because of how hard his life seems to others, he can gain a lot of sympathy. As the story states, “he was very happily prepared to spend the entire night without sleeping. He was ready to joke with them, to recount stories from his nomadic life and then, in turn, to listen to their stories—doing everything just to keep them awake, so that he could keep showing them once again that he had nothing to eat in his cage and that he was fasting as none of them could.” The Hunger Artist, like any artist, strives for attention, but in his case he is trying to exploit the existentialist views of others. At the end of the story his mission is a failure, gaining almost no notoriety for his act and being replaced with a Panther that, unlike him, serves no human purpose but to entertain the public.
ReplyDeleteTo be quite honest, I didn’t find a strong connection between The Hunger Artist and existentialism. If existentialism is the idea that we are alone in the world, and it is we who are responsible for the actions ourselves, and are insignificant, in my mind it doesn’t line up. Is his fasting symbolic of his existentialism? How he says, “‘Because I have to fast. I can’t do anything else,’” and then when elaborating further, he says ‘because I couldn’t find a food that tasted good to me. If had found that, believe me, I would not have made a spectacle of myself and would have eaten to my heart’s content, like you and everyone else’”, that means, I assume, that he hadn’t found something to believe in? Had he been able to live ignorantly, he would have been able to eat? In reading other posts, I understand how his loneliness is an aspect of existentialism, but I don’t see how what he is carrying is a burden. He’s chosen to do this for entertainment, and although it takes a toll on him, this is a voluntary choice. His despair stems from this idea, I see, but ultimately it was not a higher power that had betrayed him, I believe it was himself.
ReplyDeleteThe clearer example that I had found was when the artist had just been let out of the cage. He was being carried out by the two women, and he fell on one of them. From there, “when she couldn’t manage this and her more fortunate companion didn’t come to her assistance but trembled and remained content to hold in front of her the hunger artist’s hand, that small bundle of knuckles, she broke into tears, to the delighted laughter of the auditorium, and had to be relieved by an attendant who had been standing ready for some time”. In her I had seen existentialism in how she was suddenly aware of how much help she was in need of. No one there was willing to help her until she showed clear signs of distress, and even then the auditorium laughed at her. No power, either those on her own level or those more abstract like the crowd, agreed to help her, and she found herself stranded. She demonstrates the bleaker side of existentialism. It wasn’t her choice to be left with a decaying man lying into her, to be embarrassed like that and left without help. While the artist must represent the voluntary decision of becoming an existentialist, she is the accidental.
“A Hunger Artist” is clearly split into three sections, each describing one stage of existentialism. The beginning of the story is about the anguish that the hunger artist faces during his fasting. This is best shown in when the author describes the hunger artist’s nights. He writes, “Nothing was more excruciating to the hunger artist than such (lenient) watchers. They depressed him. They made his fasting terribly difficult.” In this situation, the difficulting of fasting is a metaphor for the artist in anguish. When the artist is given the freedom and opportunity to eat, he finds his fasting most difficult. However, the author then goes on to say that the hunger artist’s nights are easiest when the watchers distract him. This distraction is a metaphor for when a person hides the anxiety that freedom creates in them. This distraction makes it easier, showing how a person may appear without anguish if it is concealed. The impresario is symbolic of God in the story. When we first meet the impresario he is established as the “brains” behind the artist. He runs the show, maximizes entertainment, and most importantly creates the rules for the hunger artist. When the hunger artist leaves the impresario, he has symbolically left God behind. After he leaves the impresario, he, “let himself be hired by a large circus. In order to spare his own sensitive feelings, he didn’t even look at the terms of his contract.” This quote is a turning point in the story. The mood changes to one of loneliness and sadness. The hunger artist being picked up by the circus in a passive voice symbolizes just how small we are in this world, and how we are never aware of the terms and conditions when we enter the world. This creates a sense of forlornness that is consistent with the second stage of existentialism. The third stage of existentialism is represented in the hunger artist’s final days. The mood of the story changes again when the author writes, “for the hunger artist was not being deceptive—he was working honestly—but the world was cheating him of his reward.” It is in this moment that the hunger artist has lost hope in himself. He has worked so hard, so honestly to be where he was, and yet it meant nothing to the world around him. It is this inevitable despair that ultimately leads to his death. By losing faith in himself and his work, the artist no longer values his own life. This existential crisis, along with his old age, is too much for the hunger artist, and is one of the primary reasons his takes his own life.
ReplyDeleteThe short story "A Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka is very reminiscent of "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula Le Guin where the residents of Omelas enjoy every form of pleasure at the expense of a child starving and living alone in a confined space. Both have references to the philosophy of existentialism. The short story in question is written from a third-person biased point of view. It mostly gives readers insight into the hunger artist's mind but it explores the contrast of morals between the bystanders and organizers versus the starving man as one can see when the "impresario put a little food into the mouth of the hunger artist, now dozing as if he were fainting, and kept up a cheerful patter designed to divert attention away from the hunger artist’s condition." The stage of "humans in despair" is heavily implied by the narrator during the circumstance that "a good-natured man who felt sorry for him ever wanted to explain to him that his sadness probably came from his fasting, then it could happen, especially at an advanced stage of the fasting, that the hunger artist responded with an outburst of rage and began to shake the cage like an animal, frightening everyone." The probability of the artist's state of being is thought to be "fixed" by observers when we can see that this is not true based on the mindset and actions of the hunger artist as time progresses. "In the early days he could hardly wait for the pauses in the performances. He had looked forward with delight to the crowd pouring around him, until he became convinced only too quickly—and even the most stubborn, almost deliberate self-deception could not hold out against the experience—that, judging by their intentions, most of these people were, time and again without exception, only visiting the menagerie." This can be equated to the "humans in anguish" stage of existentialism, where the starving man realizes that he is responsible for his condition despite previous self-deception and concealment of the fact.
ReplyDeleteI did some quick research on Kafka and it seems that most characteristic of his work is his emphasis on how the tyranny of arbitrary bureaucracy can dominate our lives, and how our own actions and consciousness can allow us to fall into such a rule. Through the lens of existentialism established through the Sartre reading, I will relate how the performer in “A Hunger Artist” relates to some of the three stages of existentialism.
ReplyDeleteAs the story goes, the hunger artist is quite literally committed to the deterioration of his own body. In the same sense that the artist is seen as finding value in anguish, so does Sartre in saying, “clearly, the anguish with which we are concerned here is not one that could lead to quietism or inaction. It is anguish pure and simple, of the kind well known to all those who have borne responsibilities.” Both the artist in “A Hunger Artist” and Sartre are both seen as odd for their value in what is contemporarily seen as negative emotion and feeling. However Kafka and Sartre seem to both recognize the value in anguish as a motivator, and as a notifier. In the same sense that fear and pain are necessary to our lives as indicators of harm and danger, so is anguish in adding depth and meaning to what it truly means to be normal. With no pain there can be no appreciation of the absence of pain. This is further reflected by the fact that the hunger artist’s self-inflicted pain through fasting draws attention from spectators just as bodily pain draws attention to a wound.
Just as Sartre emphasizes free-will as is associated with existentialism, so does Kafka through the artist’s exercising of choice. The act of fasting itself is a conscious choice of free-will. However, I noticed more the hypocrisy of the artist when it comes to addressing the stage of forlornness that Sartre defines as when “He [man] discovers forthwith, that he is without excuse.” The hunger artist does fast on his own accord yet throughout the entirety of the story revolves his happiness around his audience. At the end of the story when he died in anonymity he is filled with regret and sadness that he will pass away overlooked and forgotten. This does not align with Sartre’s existentialism in the sense that the artist is dependent upon the perspective of others to define his own happiness much like one may look to an outside god rather than assert what it is that makes themselves fulfilled. The one way I can relate this however, is by referencing how Sartre asserts how our actions are “responsible for all of man” in the sense that we define societal norms by acting subjectively. The artist’s audience as a collective affirms this in the sense that they as a group define what is worth watching, and what is worth their time. Consequently they define as a society through their free choices and actions what is meaningful to the hunger artist.
True to Kafka’s recurring themes of being trapped in arbitrary systems of management, the hunger artists death is due in part to the arbitrary nature of his audiences viewing patterns, and his impresario’s restricting of his art. However, most Kafkaesque is the hunger artists ultimate role in his own downfall which is represented by his absurd reason for fasting at all: because he “couldn’t find a food that tasted good…” This attention to the absurd scenario in “A Hunger Artist” is far from simply entertainment, rather, by calling attention to it Kafka warns us of the absurdity that we may find in our everyday lives so that we may find an escape from the suicidal nature of our circular thinking.
I agree with what you're saying on the subject of how Sartre and Kafka define anguish. There is a negative connotation around the words used to describe the stages, which can make it confusing when initially trying to comprehend the stages. You said that without pain we cannot appreciate the absence of pain, which I think is an excellent point to be made, and could be considered imperative to the art of fasting.
DeleteThe hunger artist had always desired to fast for longer than forty days, but he decided not to exceed the just under two month limit in order to improve his chances of being popular with the public. This short time frame of forty days keeps the crowd entertained, but does not fulfill the wishes and dreams of the hunger artist himself. When it does come time for the hunger artist to exceed this 40 day time frame, the days are not even kept track of, and the hunger artist loses count though he knows it is the furthest he has ever survived. But it is all for nothing - his greatest triumph amounts to no attention or prize. The one thing that the hunger artist thought that would make him completely happy, absolute physical emptiness, actually resulted in his emotional bareness: “And so the hunger artist kept fasting on and on, as he once had dreamed about in earlier times, and he had no difficulty at all managing to achieve what he had predicted back then, but no one was counting the days—no one, not even the hunger artist himself, knew how great his achievement was by this point, and his heart grew heavy. And when once in a while a person strolling past stood there making fun of the old number and talking of a swindle, that was in a sense the stupidest lie which indifference and innate maliciousness could invent, for the hunger artist was not being deceptive—he was working honestly—but the world was cheating him of his reward.” This comparison might be a stretch, but I draw parallels between this story and the movie A Star is Born. The main character, Ally, is a singer struggles to maintain her popularity with her listeners while also finding happiness in her art and performing the type of music that she likes. Ally decides to lead her life and her career in accordance with what the public wants rather than to what she would like personally. Needless to say, her story does not end happily, similarly to that of the hunger artist’s story.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this story. It speaks a lot to the conventions we learned about on the subject of existentialism. I think it's interesting that Kafka decided to use a societal norm on the subject of despair, contrary to how Sartre used God in his opinion of despair. The artist's anguish comes from his appreciation for fasting as an art. He sees himself as a virtuoso in the art of fasting, and thus pays part of his tribute to the respect of it. This is evident more in the beginning phases of the story when the artist's affinity for it is described, but remains a theme throughout because of the artist's integrity to not break his trade. The forlornness is noticeable in his persistence in the fast. The artist is always offered food, but because the artist believes more in the fast and enjoys it more, it is his own personal conscious that can only think to detest how they make him break his fast. The artist is very unwavering in his opinion that his fast doesn't need to be broken, it is just for everyone else. He understands fully that it is all his will and that there is cosmic law that dictates he must eat. The artist is wise on the subject of existentialism. By the end of the story, he states clearly that he wouldn't fast if he liked the taste of food. I think this is an excellent mark on the subject of despair, because he clearly accepts that he knows he could've lived a longer life if he chose to ate, but because he hated the taste of food, it would have been a terrible existence. It was his own conscious decisions to not eat that brought him to where he died, but he understood that, and that's A-OK in my book.
ReplyDelete“The Hunger Artist”, by Franz Kafka can be used to represent the three stages of existentialism. Jean-Paul Satre describes the three stages of existentialism as anguish, forlornness and despair. This story shows a man in anguish because of his long-term fasting. In the story, the hunger artist is pictured as “...in black tights, looking pale, with his ribs sticking out prominently, sometimes nodding politely, answering questions with a forced smile”(Kafka). He is obviosly in excruciating pain due to the state of his body, and he is constantly being watched. This is anguish, the first stage of existentialism. As the story progresses, the hunger artist is shown as lonely as he truly is. There are constantly people watching him, however he doesn’t have any real connection with other people. This is the second stage, forlornness. The hunger artist is alone. Towards the end of the story, they completely forget about him, “Finally the cage caught the attention of a supervisor, and he asked the attendant why they had left this perfectly useful cage standing here unused with rotting straw inside. Nobody knew, until one man, with the help of the table with the number on it, remembered the hunger artist”(Kafka). The Hunger Artist has been fasting all this time and no one has noticed, he is putting himself through anguish and despair for nothing. This is why “The Hunger Artist”, by Franz Kafka represents the 3 stages of existentialism.
ReplyDeleteA performer is certainly an artist. In the case of the Hunger Artist, ability comes from a state of mind. However, this practice is done without the true validation and with somewhat disregard of what others think of him. When butchers are made to stand about the Hunger Artist, “naturally, none of the watchers understood [that the artist would never eat, even without being observed].” There is an impediment between spectator and performer. It would even be better for viewers to ignore the artist, for his act wasn’t really directed toward them, but rather a road to personal discovery, discrete from the populace. Therefore it pained the Hunger Artist when watchers were “clearly intending to allow the hunger artist a small refreshment, which, according to their way of thinking, he could get from some secret supplies.” Willpower is not recognized, nor is integrity. Perhaps this is why the artist feels such anguish: people expect deviance, a false front. The artist cannot help them, but must continue to work, to put on his performance, to show but not tell.
ReplyDeleteThe Hunger Artist stands alone “because he alone knew something that even initiates didn’t know—how easy it was to fast.” There wasn’t anything special about his actions, requiring no special skill, nothing that was beyond the reach of any person. He is alone the individual that actually does what everyone else has the capacity to do. However, society tends to reject these people. After only forty weeks, the Hunger Artist knows that “then the public turned away—one could demonstrate a significant decline in popularity.” The human attention span is only so long, especially when activities involve watching the unmoving, the unchanging. This is the second tenant of existentialism: a deep seated forlornness, where the artist is abandoned. A sense of loneliness is transformed into a new feeling, when the Hunger Artist realizes that he can do nothing about the way the world works, and is better off meeting his own personal goals.
When the Hunger Artist moves his show to the circus, he is cast aside to be in a cage with the various other animals there. This was not what he expected, for the Hunger Artist had though that this was finally his big break, and “he would really now legitimately amaze the world for the first time.” Humanity had been underestimated. Hope was gone, and his art form isn’t accepted nor admired by the public. Everyone’s moved on but the Hunger artist cannot. It’s not really the case of ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ but rather one where there isn’t anything worthy left in the world to live for. Food isn’t worth eating, and living a life without purpose until death. The panther that replaced the Hunger Artist is so alive, so vivacious, that he captivates the viewers and is just as hard to look at as the Artist, and the panther draws crowds just like the Artist used to.
The three stages of existentialism according to Jean-Paul Sarte are 1) Humans in Anguish, 2) Humans in Forlornness and 3) Humans in Despair. The hunger artist created by Franz Kafka goes through each of these three stages as the story goes on. The artist is suffering from severe mental as well as physical pain as a result of his “art”, putting himself in an extremely dangerous situation. He has become so sick that he cannot even bare to eat food when his fasting is over. No longer is his “art” an art but rather something he is stuck in, there is no escape from this vicious cycle. The artist is also abandoned by his fans. No longer were there “observers who sat down right against the bars” but instead, they are rushing to see the new and exciting animals that have taken his position. Shortly after coming to the realization that they are no longer a great big attraction, the artist completely loses any hope he had of returning to the spotlight and dies. Only to be replaced once again, except this time quite literally by another thing, the “refreshing” panther that transformed the cage from something “which had been dreary for such a long time”. The thing that really stuck out to me when reading this story was how the fast was originally only supposed to last for 40 days. 40 days was the accepted time that the artist’s audience would watch him but then after that point they would take him out of the cage and move on to the next attraction. As soon as I heard the 40 days of fasting I was immediately reminded of the 40 days of Lent in which people in the Catholic religion fast from something in their life whether it quite literally be food or something else. The whole point being to fast from something that is important to them as a way to replicate the sacrifice Jesus gave while in the desert for 40 days. It’s interesting that these two stories line up because from what Sarte describes in his essay regarding existentialism, people do not need to rely on whether or not there is a God because “man is the future of man” and it is up to the choices of individuals, rather than the choice of a singular god as to what happens in life and why. This contrast is especially intriguing to me.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading The Hunger Artist, I could not see how the artist has reach existentialism. He seems too focused on gaining everyone’s attention and understanding to fast correctly. It looks like he is only fasting because it is impressive. He even says, “Experience had shown that for about forty days one could increasingly whip up a city’s interest by gradually increasing advertising, but that then the public turned away—one could demonstrate a significant decline in popularity.” He only fasts for forty days because he knows that after those forty days pass, people will lose interest in him. The fact that he is analyzing how much attention people give him than his actual practice tells me that he is not the kind of existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre was describing in his essay.
ReplyDeleteIn his Existentialism Is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre says, “Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself.” In a way, the Hunger Artist is trying to make something of himself through fasting. But if only he is not bothered by people’s perception of him and how much attention he is getting from them, maybe then he would reach Sartre’s definition of an existentialist. Because his need for care from people is taking over the true meaning of his practice. He says, “he was working honestly—but the world was cheating him of his reward.” But his reward should not be the attention of the visitors; it should be that essence that comes from existence that Sartre discussed. Without understanding the real purpose of why he is fasting, he is not an existentialist.
ReplyDeleteWhen relating “A Hunger Artist” to the ideas of Existentialism one is able to see many examples of secular anguish, forlornness and despair. Throughout the entire story we see a man who is trying to display his art, which in this case is his own starving body, to the public who seem to not really understand the serious artistic aspect of it, if he is really sticking to it and what the artist is actually trying to portray through his starving body. In general, this story was quite sad. I feel like a big theme of the story is misunderstanding. A quote that explains this well is when he was in the circus the narrator explains how, “Try to explain the art of fasting to anyone! If someone doesn’t feel it, then he cannot be made to understand it. The beautiful signs became dirty and illegible.” So it’s basically saying that no one would believe or understand his form of art and it was quite frustrating to him. This is definitely how Sartre felt when he was trying to relay his messages of Existentialism. He was being attacked on all sides by people who did not understand his way of thinking which must have been quite frustrating for him. People in those times were so caught up in the world war, traditional values, a changing world, etc. that people did not give sartre much attention for his work with existentialism and Sartre likely felt like a starving artist himself.
Yet personally I felt like this story in general was quite open ended and the ‘true meaning’ behind it is probably up for debate because I feel like you could have interpreted the meaning behind the hunger artist in a couple different ways. When I read the short story I saw it almost as a story that mocked people who ostracize themselves from society because he thinks that his personal views of starvation as an art are so great and mighty. So therefore he refuses to see the reality of things is that it isn't really an art and people don’t really appreciate it that much since he is quickly replaced by the new spectacle which is a strong and powerful black panther at the circus. This is just my opinion but I believe that the story is actually criticizing those who refuse to join society and seclude themselves to their own ridiculous ways of thinking.
The whole text can be viewed as an example of what Sartre called “Humans in Anguish”. The pain that comes with starving yourself is immense, and is both physical and mental. His pain is evidenced by lines such as “Nothing tormented the starvation artist more than such watchmen; they made him melancholy; they made his starving terribly difficult”.
ReplyDeleteThen, the Hunger Artist signs on with a circus, however, he is hardly noticed by any of the spectators, as he has to compete with the animals for attention. This is the stage of “Humans in Forlornness”, and can be seen through quotes such as “the roaring at feeding time caused him intense suffering and continued suffering,” which shows how he is now lonely due to the animals taking up everyone’s attention.
At some point in time, he transitions into the stage of “Humans in Despair”. He realizes the world no longer appreciates anything he’s done, and figures there’s not much more to his life anymore. He continues to starve himself, even though no one finds him entertaining any longer, eventually dying, almost without even being noticed by anyone. This is clear because of lines such as “And when once in a while an idle passerby stopped to make a joke about the outdated number and spoke of cheating, this was the stupidest lie that indifference and innate cruelty could devise, for it was not the starvation artist who was cheating, he performed his work honorably, it was the world that cheated him of his reward.”
The short story "A Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka is very reminiscent of "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula Le Guin where the residents of Omelas enjoy every form of pleasure at the expense of a child starving and living alone in a confined space. Both have references to the philosophy of existentialism. The short story in question is written from a third-person biased point of view. It mostly gives readers insight into the hunger artist's mind but it explores the contrast of morals between the bystanders and organizers versus the starving man as one can see when the "impresario put a little food into the mouth of the hunger artist, now dozing as if he were fainting, and kept up a cheerful patter designed to divert attention away from the hunger artist’s condition." The stage of "humans in despair" is heavily implied by the narrator during the circumstance that
ReplyDelete"a good-natured man who felt sorry for him ever wanted to explain to him that his sadness probably came from his fasting, then it could happen, especially at an advanced stage of the fasting, that the hunger artist responded with an outburst of rage and began to shake the cage like an animal, frightening everyone." The probability of the artist's state of being is thought to be "fixed" by observers when we can see that this is not true based on the mindset and actions of the hunger artist as time progresses.
"In the early days he could hardly wait for the pauses in the performances. He had looked forward with delight to the crowd pouring around him, until he became convinced only too quickly—and even the most stubborn, almost deliberate self-deception could not hold out against the experience—that, judging by their intentions, most of these people were, time and again without exception, only visiting the menagerie." This can be equated to the "humans in anguish" stage of existentialism, where the starving man realizes that he is responsible for his condition despite previous self-deception and concealment of the fact.
I really like the way in which Kafka writes. I found myself getting lost in the story but then there were a few sentences that snapped me back into the allegory. I’ve read a little of Kafka before (I didn't get all the way through metamorphosis I don't have the dedication of the hunger artist) what struck me was how realistic he can make his imagined world real. Everyone in both the hunger artist and metamorphosis behaves in such realistic and human ways. From personal experience with wrestling and just being skinny in general everyone is interested in the spectacle but very few truly care about your emotional state. I feel as though I can relate so well to the hunger artist, maybe not the fast for art part but the see how little you can eat just to see how far you can go. I love the Irony of the piece, how no food tasted good to him, it's almost humorous, or how the hunger artist is replaced by a panther, an animal with a ravenous hunger, a spectacle that is the anthesis hunger artist.
ReplyDeleteReading "A Hunger Artist" opened my eyes to what Sartre's idea behind existentialism, more of what leads to believing and practicing existentialism. Kafka introduces us to a starving artist who is encaged for the people’s entertainment. However, we are able to see his train of thought and how is isn’t just a toy for the people’s entertainment- he is capable of thought. “The glaring light didn’t bother him in the slightest. Generally he couldn’t sleep at all, and he could always doze off a little under any lighting and at any hour, even in an overcrowded, noisy auditorium. With such observers, he was very happily prepared to spend the entire night without sleeping.” Despite all this, the hungry artist is happy with how he is living. He enjoys making the crowd happy, stating “He was happiest, however, when morning came and a lavish breakfast was brought for them at his own expense, on which they hurled themselves with the appetite of healthy men after a hard night’s work without sleep.” This is how he prefered to live. I see existentialism a lot in this story. Whether it be because the hunger artist is pleasing the people watching him who can be viewed in a God-like form, watching over his every move, which represents how Sartre believes we shouldn’t feel. Or it could be viewed as how this man is creating his own art for his own amusement, dying for his own happiness and living his life how he wishes to live it- not pleasing others. This reflects with Sartre, who tried to allow people to see his perspective of existentialism, yet he was caged and looked at like an animal for entertainment. Nobody agreed with his idea of existentialism, therefore he felt locked away and encaged from society.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Jean-Paul Sarte, there are three stages of existentialism. These stages are anguish, forlornness, and despair. It is easy to see where the hunger artist, who was created by Franz Kafka, goes through each one of these stages. The first stage of existentialism was shown at the very beginning of "A Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka when the author writes “Nothing was more excruciating to the hunger artist than such (lenient) watchers. They depressed him. They made his fasting terribly difficult.” This quote shows a fragment of the anguish the hunger artist faced during his fasting besides the actual pain of fasting itself. The second stage of existentialism is forlornness and this is shown towards the middle of the story. This is shown as the hunger artist is shown to be utterly alone with no one to care for him, but people always watching him. This then leads us to the third stage of existentialism, which is human despair. This is shown when the hunger artist begins to realize that no one truly appreciates what he has done. He believes that due to the fact that no one finds him entertaining, that there isn’t much to live for anymore. Because of this he continues to starve himself and this eventually leads to his death.
ReplyDelete-Lizaida Paulino
This piece is quite depressing. The hunger artist pursues his art form relentlessly, all while the world around him changes unceasingly. In a bleak introduction, the story begins by stating that, “In the last decades interest in hunger artists has declined considerably. Whereas in earlier days there was good money to be earned putting on major productions of this sort under one’s own management, nowadays that is totally impossible. Those were different times.” As his journey progresses, the hunger artist progresses through the three stages of existentialism. He feels an impenetrable duty to continue fasting, and “cannot help escape the feeling of his total and deep responsibility.” Even though he only has to fast for 40 days to earn a profit, to him this feels half-hearted, as if he is not fully dedicating himself as much as he wants to. When hunger artistry goes out of fashion, he does not start to make excuses and cling to unrealistic hopes. Instead he merely continues any way he can, for when he signs to join the circus, “he didn’t even look at the terms of his contract.” However, he cannot last forever, and eventually he pushes his limits too far. In the depths of despair, he gives up. When finally asked why he became a hunger artist instead of pursuing different, more “conventional” vocations, he replies “I have to fast. I can’t do anything else… I couldn’t find a food that tasted good to me. If had found that, believe me, I would not have made a spectacle of myself and would have eaten to my heart’s content, like you and everyone else.” With his last breath, his defeat and dedication is truly heartbreaking. It is almost as if he could not control his fasting, for it was not he who chose art; art chose him.
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ReplyDeleteIn this short story "A Hunger Artist" by Kafka, the hunger artist experiences the stages of Existentialism throughout his career and his meaningless death. In particular, the hunger artist feels anguish, forlornness, and despair.
ReplyDeleteWithout set guidelines for himself, the hunger artist establishes a set of rules and moral codes for himself. He sets the only goal of his life as to have "the public... admire him" and achieve something that no one has ever met before. To do this, he devotes his life and health into starving himself. Despite the society doesn’t agree with him, his morality and all of his actions are dedicated to that goal. The artist enjoys being under restrictions and has clear directions of right and wrong. He defines it by himself.
The hunger artist feels forlorn when his goal was disrupted. The artist’s goal is to fast so long that no one has ever done before. However, the audience views differed. To them, he is just an entertainment and witnessing his death would cause them guilt. Thus, they force the artist out of the cage and cheers for saving a near-death person. After being forced to come out of his cage, the hunger artist felt "cheated of the fame he would get for fasting longer" and perceive the audiences' kindness to stop fasting as a mere obstruction to his final goal. The artist tries to fight back, but he is too weak. When people advise him to stop, the artist has "an outburst of rage and began to shake the cage like an animal, frightening everyone." Their actions of kindness are a mere obstruction to his final goal. Although the hunger artist has a strict belief in right and wrong, others don’t. He had to follow the perception of the majority out of force. Still, the artist’s dream is far from reality.
In addition to forlornness, the artist also experiences despair when he has to die inevitably on his way to achieve his goal. Towards the end of the story, the hunger artist's predetermined fate is to die of starvation since "[he has] to fast, [and he can't] help it." No superpower or a higher being can help him to alter the ending or adapt to the world and its possibilities to his will. The artist has to suffer the consequence of his work: suffering and death. A person’s fate is never determined, but it is a composition of his actions and authentic choices. The artist makes meaningless choices. Ultimately, he lives an utterly useless life.
Existentialism refers to the ideology developed by many philosophers over the history that existences precede their meaning. Through "A Hunger Artist," Kafka demonstrates the pointlessness of achieving a particular spiritual or conceptual goal of life. Without existence, the purpose and meaning of life mean nothing.
To be a true artist it is necessary to separate yourself from society and from the outside this may seem like a choice, but it is not. The hunger artist watches hundreds of different people pass looking in at him and wondering how he does it. The artist does not want to be like everyone else in society that just watches and walks by, he wants to make more of himself. Existentialists believe you are nothing until you make something of himself, and the hunger artist could not stand being nothing.
ReplyDeleteWhile he did it because he doesn’t like any food, there was also a part of him that gave into the audience and wanted their attention. Artists cannot escape their audience, because without an audience there can be no art. The panther that replaces the hunger artists gives the audience the quick, exciting entertainment they crave, while the hunger artist’s act was art. People get bored looking for a deeper meaning and want something immediate. The panther existence allowed him to succeed in pleasing the audience, while the hunger artist had to go through suffering. In the end only the artist knows his own truth.