Alienation of Times
The story “ The Hunger Artist” from Kafka is a very in dept short story of a character that portrays dissatisfaction of life and is a prisoner in his own mind. Even though this story is told in a 3rd person limited perspective, the story’s point of view is told primarily from the perspective of the character known as the “hunger artist.” Only in the final paragraph does the narrative perspective broaden. This story’s theme of changing generations portrays how even in today’s society trends and interest change as time moves along. The opening paragraph states, that we live in a different world now ( Kafka 242). In addition to that statement, the hunger artist’s dissatisfaction with his profession brought him to an even deeper place in depression. As the changing generations change with the time, the hunger artist remained bound and selfish in his own mind to move forward with the generation‘s interest.
With the hunger artist physically and emotionally growing thinner the society’s lack of interest began to grow stronger and stronger. The un appreciation of the town led to the hunger artist having to move and join a circus becoming an ultimate slap in the face to him. The circus symbolizes the main depiction of the theme. The symbolic nature of this circus symbolizes the fall of the hunger artist from humanity. At the circus he was placed in a cage like all the other animals; however, there remained one difference. The hunger artist had a free will, but the animals symbolizes a free mind in captivity. The artist holds himself under his own free will, but Kafka cages the artist to maintain his allegiance to his craft. That leads to the symbolism of the panther being the brawny figure that ends this story. The panther replaced the hunger artist in his cage at the circus, bringing together the emblematic implications of the hunger metaphors which run throughout the story. Unlike the hunger artist on the verge of starvation and death, the...