Kafka's "A Hunger Artist": Alienation, Symbolism, and Suffering

Introduction

"A Hunger Artist" is a strange and compelling short story that revolves around the themes of artistic alienation and suffering. The story is characteristic of Kafka's work in that it seems both fantastic and real at the same time. The narrative deals with the life and death of a hunger artist — a man who fasts as an art form. The structure of the story can roughly be divided into three sections.

In the first section we encounter the hunger artist at the height of his fame and renown. He is admired for his profound fasting ability, and people stream to see him. As in many of Kafka's stories, there is a sense of irony and paradox that permeates the text. The hunger artist in fact enjoys his fasting and his suffering. The emphasis on suffering also shows how different and opposite to society the artist is. In many ways he is in conflict with the views and norms of the society around him. In his representation of the hunger artist, Kafka makes the abnormal seem normal in a certain sense. This can be seen in the obvious reality that the hunger artist is actually starving himself — a fact that is contrary to the norms and usual ways of human society.

Narrative Structure: Fame, Decline, and Death

This conflict within the story is aided by the realistic tone and detail used to describe the hunger artist. For example, the following extract clearly describes the hunger artist as a real person: "...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, sometimes giving a courteous nod, answering questions with a constrained smile, or perhaps stretching an arm through the bars so that one might feel how thin it was..." (A Hunger Artist).

The second part of the story begins with a sudden decline in the popularity of the hunger artist and his profession. People no longer admire or find his art interesting, nor his ability to go without food impressive. As a result, he must resort to commercializing his art and is forced to join a circus. However, even in the circus his "talents" are not appreciated, and he is placed next to the animals. He finds that the audience moves quickly past his performance area toward the animals, hardly pausing to notice him.

The relationship between the audience and the artist is also a theme that Kafka explores in this story. There is a reciprocity between the two, and the hunger artist is dependent on the public's appreciation of his suffering. However, this relationship breaks down in the circus, and the artist is given only a small glimpse of hope and a fading recollection of his previous glory. He is aware that the public is no longer interested in his particular art form: "what did they care about fasting?" (A Hunger Artist).

He is only slightly encouraged by younger members of the public who "...showed by the brightness of their intent eyes that new and better times might be coming" (A Hunger Artist). However, this slight hope only serves to accentuate his sadness and his failing as an artist.

This leads to the third section of the story, in which he goes into decline and finally dies while fasting. The waning of his popularity is clearly indicated by the fact that he is forgotten even by the circus members who update the board recording the number of days he has been fasting. There is a deep sense of sadness and pathos in the description of his neglect: "the fine placards grew dirty and illegible, they were torn down; the little notice board showing the number of fast days achieved, which at first was changed carefully every day, had long stayed at the same figure, for after the first few weeks even this small task seemed pointless to the staff..." (A Hunger Artist). The artist continues to fast until he eventually dies.

In terms of narrative structure, the story follows a conventional pattern of success, decline, failure, and death. However, in the process we encounter the real feelings and emotions, as well as the areas of conflict within the artist's life.

Symbolism and Metaphorical Meaning

Like many of Kafka's other stories, "A Hunger Artist" is highly metaphorical and makes use of symbols to suggest the central meaning of the work. The central motif is the artist, his suffering, and his alienation — his fundamental difference from the society around him. This difference is clearly exemplified in the characterization of the hunger artist. He is a symbol of the artist who exists outside the norms of society and is in a sense always in conflict with that society because he is different. The hunger artist states that he finds fasting "easy," and the fact that he is able to go without normal nutrition makes him strange and "other." He is therefore a symbol of the suffering artist who finds himself, like Kafka, outside the acceptance of society.

On the other hand, it is his very difference from society that makes him special and important as an artist. However, this also leads to other issues such as suffering and the desperate need for acceptance.

The gap between the hunger artist and society is most powerfully shown in the final section of the story. While he is dying, the artist reveals why he was able to fast so easily. He states: "I couldn't find the food I liked. If I had found it, believe me, I should have made no fuss and stuffed myself like you or anyone else" (A Hunger Artist).

This implies that the artist was so fundamentally different that he could not find anything within ordinary society to satisfy himself. The only thing of worth in his life was his ability to be the hunger artist. Once the public no longer finds his art important or interesting, he no longer has a reason to live in the world.

Food therefore becomes a symbol of social conventions and norms. Many artists suffer because they find society "unpalatable" or feel like aliens living within it. This is an aspect that also relates to Kafka's own life, as he too felt that as an artist he was alienated from the society around him. The alienation of the artist is a common theme in literature and the other arts.

In the end, the hunger artist has no real choice but to pursue the career that he does. While it is not realistic in the ordinary, common-sense meaning of the word, in terms of his difference and alienation from others it is the only path available to him — the only reality he can endure.

Conclusion

By using metaphor and symbol throughout the story, Kafka is able to present a convincing and penetrating narrative that enables the reader to understand the often strange life of the artist in a society that does not accept him. The entire story can therefore be seen as a metaphor for artistic suffering and the indifference of the world to the artistic way of seeing reality. On the one hand the story is unrealistic and fantastic, but on the other hand it enables us to understand reality from a perspective other than the ordinary. It is precisely this tension — between the fantastical surface and the deeply human experience of alienation beneath it — that gives Kafka's story its enduring power.

Hunger Artist. October 15, 2006.