Hunger Artist Greed

When we think of someone obsessed with gaining more, we think of money or physical objects, but this is not always the case. All some people want and crave is glory and attention. Such was the case of “The Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka. The Hunger Artist was into professional fasting and he traveled to different towns to put on shows. His shows would consist of him depriving himself of food for 40 days which was the limit set by his boss. As professional fasting loses popularity he sells himself off to a circus where he hopes that he will once again find that recognition and praise he is seeking but ends up dying from his deprivation of food. From the beginning the Hunger Artist shows arrogance and annoyance at what he has endure from the people.

He drew crowds of all ages. However, not even at this point is he content or satisfied. People stayed and watched him over night and he would tell jokes or let them touch him, but not even that was enough for him. He just had to prove to them that they could never do what he was doing “But his happiest moment was when the morning came and an enormous breakfast was brought them, at his expense, on which they flung themselves with the keen appetite of healthy men after a weary night of wakefulness” (Kafka 320). So not only does he enjoy their company and staying up all night to reassure them that he has not eaten anything, but he then thinks it’s a good idea to treat his spectators to a breakfast paid by him. This shows just how arrogant and conceited the artist is. One of course could argue that he did it out of kindness, however, there were many other ways in which he could have thanked them such as by giving the spectators free tickets or a photograph. Instead what he did was throw it in their face that he had the ability to do what they could not. Other watchers who did not pay attention to him at night irritated him, “Nothing annoyed the artist more than such watchers; they made him miserable; they made his fast seem unendurable” (Kafka 319). Had he purely been doing his job to entertain others then he wouldn’t have been annoyed by the watchers who were not as interested in what he was doing. Yet his

However, he can never attain the recognition and glory he wants, for he knows that fasting is too easy for him, “For he alone knew, what no other initiate knew, how easy it was to fast. It was the easiest thing in the world.” (Kafka 320). In that moment we know not why it is easy for him but this lets us in on the fact that the Hunger Artist is not trying. He is just simply doing what comes natural to him and thus this is why he is unhappy. The Hunger Artist knows that he has not achieved anything and as such when he is unable to draw a crowd sells himself off to the circus in order to try to prove himself once more, only to