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The Artist and His Audience
In order to begin to understand Franz Kafka's metaphorical and ambiguous short story "A Hunger Artist", most readers will more than likely have to read it more than once. Although the successions of events that make up the story are quite uncomplicated and obvious, the overall meaning of what is going on seems to elude the reader. What does stand out is the complicated relationship that the hunger artist has with his audiences.
Kafka's story is about a man who is internationally famous for his act of fasting for up to forty days at a time in public. Even at the height of his career, the hunger artist is dissatisfied and feels unappreciated by his audiences and is frustrated by their inability to completely understand his "art.'' Instead of respecting the hunger artist for his self-control, the public trivializes his form of art. Only the children, who no doubt are accustomed to hearing their parents' relentless commands to "clean" their plate of......

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Approximate Word Count: 2072
Approximate Pages: 9 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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