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A Hunger Artist -Franz Kafka (Persuasive Research Paper)...

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Surname 1 Student’s Name Professor’s Name Date Course A Hunger Artist | Franz Kafka (Persuasive Research Paper) Kafka’s A Hunger Artist is a tale about an artist who endures hard times by professionally fasting in a cage. His fasting is limited to forty das though the manager believes that the artist can spend more time in the cage. The artist is watched by spectators outside the cage who do not believe in his fasting. The onlookers can neither admire nor understand the art of the artist (Moody 41). They find various excuses that would show he is cheating to disprove the artist. Several stylistic devices, including symbolism, are used by the author to avail the message of the tale. Kafka utilizes symbolism through the cage, the clock, the panther and the hunger to establish an in-depth meaning to the literature work. This essay discusses the application of symbolism in the tale. Kafka uses the cage as a symbolic device to express the isolation of the poet’s artistic work from the will of the people. The cage separates the artist from the spectators who are monitoring him from the outside. He made the choice of being locked up in the cage as a form of protection from such spectators who do not acknowledge his artistic work. The individuals are not aware of the artistic perfection that the artist is longing to establish. The life of a human is overshadowed by the commitment to his demands (Hooti and Borna 54). The assertion is demonstrated by the artist being alone in the cage, which represents his artistic work, while the spectators are on the outside where they perceive the fasting of the hunger artist as a lie. Therefore, the cave symbolizes the isolation of the artistic work of the poet from the spectators.

Surname 2 The cage also symbolizes the mortal nature of the artist’s body. The artist aims to achieve artistic perfection, which is demonstrated by the fasting period. He has to fast for an indefinite period to attain such perfection. However, the mortal nature of his body prevents him from attaining such a desire. “Even stretching his arm out through the bars to let them feel how emaciated he was” (Starritt). The artist cannot fast for a more extended period since he will starve from hunger. The barriers of the cage represent the constraints of his body’s nature that become weak over time due to malnourishment. Such constraints prevent the artist from attaining the artistic perfection, which leaves him with death as the only option of detaching himself from the constraints. In essence, the cage symbolizes the mortal nature of the artist's body that prevents him from attaining artistic perfection. Besides, the author utilizes the clock to symbolize the changing nature of entertainment as well as the biological time of the artist’s body. The spectators are no longer giving the artist attention as time passes by, which is indicated by the clock. It implies that the onlookers might no longer be interested in the entertainment produced by the artist. The clock is presented to remind the artist regarding the changing nature of his artistic work. The spectators want a change in the form of entertainment as they consider the artist’s presentations as obsolete. The same assertion is portrayed by the emergence of the panther. “But they braced themselves, crowded around the cage and never wanted to leave” (Starritt). The onlookers perceive it as joyous and powerful since a change has occurred from the artist to the panther. It represents the transition of the nature of entertainment from one form to another, which is adored by the spectators. The onlookers want a change and not the artistic perfection that the artist is longing to attain. Therefore, the clock symbolizes the changing nature of the entertainment.

Surname 3 The clock is also utilized to symbolize the biological nature of the artist. He is reminded by the clock about the degrading nature of his body despite his artistic admiration. The artist is focused on attaining artistic perfection, which requires indefinite time. However, the clock continually reminds him of his limitations as a human being. “Paying attention to nothing, not even the clock, which was the only furniture in his cage and struck the hours that were so important to him” (Starritt). The importance of the clock is to show him that he cannot go beyond the limited nature of his mortal body. In fact, the clock is acting as a mockery towards his overambitious dream of fasting for a long time to attain immortality and eventually fulfill his artistic perfection. The artist’s existence as a natural being is reassured by human hunger for food (Chandra 687). It implies that time is a limiting factor for the biological nature of the artist's body. He cannot go beyond a certain time limit indicated by the clock. He eventually dies since he reached the limit where his body began to deteriorate. Therefore, the clock is used as a symbol to represent the limited nature of the artist's biological body. Moreover, Kafka utilizes the panther to symbolize the opposing nature of the artist. The young panther replaces the artist after he dies towards the end of the tale. It depicts characters that conflict with those of the artist. The same cage that the artist exceeded his physical body, the panther roared in it (Chandra 693). The spectators are glued to the view of the panther and do not want to look away since the animal seems to display a life full of joy in its jaws. “He didn’t even seem to miss his freedom; his glorious body, endowed almost to bursting with all it needed” (Starritt). The panther is a representation of vitality and power, which lacked in the artist. The artist became feeble as the fasting period progressed indicating a weak body. It shows that the panther was satisfied with the food brought to it as well as the environment under the cage,

Surname 4 unlike the artist who was dissatisfied with the conditions. Therefore, the panther was used to symbolize the energy and vitality that the artist lacked in the first place. The panther was also used to depict the perception of the spectators regarding the animal and the cage environment. All the power, vitality and joy of the panther in the cage are a view of the spectators. It is not clear, from the panther’s perspective, whether the perceptions of the onlookers were right or not. They might misinterpret the action of the panther in the cage for joy and pleasure yet it was not the case. “Even the most stolid attendants felt the relief of seeing this wild animal throwing himself around the long-deserted cage” (Starritt). The prancing of the panther might be as a result of irritation from being confined in the cage rather than the misunderstanding of the spectators. The assertion establishes the misinterpretations of individuals who are not experiencing a particular scenario. The spectators are outside the cage and are not aware of the conditions that the panther is experiencing. They perceive the animal as being contented yet it is only those inside the cage environment that are aware of the real feeling. The same misleading perception is portrayed by the onlookers regarding the artist where they perceive him as a liar yet the poet is yearning for an achievement that the spectators do not understand. Therefore, the panther is used to symbolize the misleading perception of the onlookers since they are not aware of the actual conditions of the cage environment. In addition, Kafka uses hunger to symbolize a form of artistic work. It represents the desire that the artist wants to accomplish, which is artistic perfection. He decides to fast as a form of preparation for the achievement of his desire. The world is perceived as definitely unsafe by individuals who have recoiled to such an extreme degree (Karbelnig 19). The artist upholds the profession of his art, which is displayed by his avoidance to eat. He claimed that he fasted since he did not like the food that was available. The food he wanted represented the artist’s

Surname 5 authentication of others (Adams). However, the spectators do not believe that he can survive without eating and even find excuses to blame him for lying. His artistic glory rendered food unnecessary as he was focused on gaining his achievement. It implies that fasting indicated his shift from the previous artistic form to one of artistic perfection. Therefore, hunger was used to symbolize the artistic desire that the artist yearned to attain. As a whole, symbolism is utilized by Kafka in A Hunger Artist to establish the in-depth meaning of the literature work. The cage symbolized the separation of the artistic work from the people’s will as well as his biological body. Besides, the clock symbolized the changing nature of the entertainment and the limited nature of the artist’s biological body. The panther represented the opposing nature of the artist, which is also the perception of the spectators. In addition, hunger represents the artistic form that the artist seeks to perfect. Therefore, the symbols used enhanced the understanding of the literature work.

Surname 6 Works Cited “A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka.” Translated by Alexander Starritt, Bookanista, n.d, bookanista.com/hunger-artist/. Adams, Taylor. “Overarching Themes.” Concordia International School Shanghai, 2018, library.concordiashanghai.org/c.php?g=715206&p=5100144. Chandra, Prem Lata. "Franz Kafka’s A Hunger Artist: The Avowal of a Fasting Body on Art." Online Journal of Multidisciplinary Subjects 12.3 (2018). Hooti, Noorbakhsh, and Mohammad Reza Moradi Borna. "The Profound Sense of Dissatisfaction: A Comparative Study of Franz Kafka's" A Hunger Artist" and Maulana Jalalu-d'-Din Muhammad i Rumi's" A Man of Baghdad"." Advances in Language and Literary Studies 5.1 (2014): 53-57. Karbelnig, Alan Michael. "The sanctuary of empathy and the invitation of engagement: Psychic retreat, Kafka's “A Hunger Artist,” and the psychoanalytic process." The Psychoanalytic Review 101.6 (2014): 895-924. Moody, Alys. The Art of Hunger: Aesthetic Autonomy and the Afterlives of Modernism. Oxford University Press, 2018....