“A Hunger Artist” is a short story written by Franz Kafka. This short story focuses on a man known as “the hunger artist,” who fasts for a living, and travels around with his manager. In every town he goes to he puts himself on display in a cage, where he fasts for up to 40 days. This creates a lot of tension within the story and for the people who are reading it. There is so many times throughout the story where the people in the town had to know something was wrong with this man, or there was potential for something bad going to happen. I think tension is mostly created after each of the hunger artists performance. Not only would that make these people sad and or scared, but create a ton of tension around town. This short story also shows a lot of menace because this man could be causing harm to either himself or people around him through his actions. Lastly, “the hunger artist” is in relentless motion throughout the story, he refuses to give into the crowd or into food, until they finally have to force feed him.
Summary:
This is a very good, well written, short story. At first when you read it, as the reader you aren’t exactly sure what it going to happen, which creates a lot tension in the reader. As the hunger artist sits in his cage, it seems like children are really drawn to him. They ask him questions, and he answers not seeming angry or mean, just with a smile. The adults in the town also seem to give him attention, but it’s more out of suspicion that the hunger artist is hiding food, which I think shows tension, menace, and relentless motion. He for one isn’t giving into the peoples accusations, but these rumors cause a lot of tension between the people in town and the hunger artist. The people don’t believe that he is actually fasting and have men who watch him through the night to make sure he doesn’t eat, which displays menace and tension in the story. This is when the hunger artist starts to sing, but still nobody believes him and