Thematic Analysis and Interpretation

ýÜüSynopsis
Kafka’s short “A Hunger Artist” tells the story of a once well known professional hunger artist. During the time before “the interest in professional fasting [had] markedly diminished,” the hunger artist was a great source of excitement for people. Kafka describes the way people once used to gather around the hunger artist’s cage and watch him as “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, and then again withdrawing deep within himself, paying no attention to anyone or anything, not even to the all-important striking of the clock that was the only piece of furniture in his cage, but merely staring into vacancy with half-shut eyes[.]” This description of the artist gives one the impression of a sort of...