An English novelist and poet, Thomas Hardy, called patience a “blending of moral courage with physical timidity.” To have the capacity or willingness to wait and to endure is a vital human virtue that is becoming rare in this restless world. The unique protagonists of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” and Franz Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist” manifest attributes of patience, tolerance, and self-control in the face of suffering for people’s entertainment. Both the authors depict true human nature in regard to the relationship between the protagonists and the insensitive world around them. Moreover, the effects of realistic characterization as well as mythical allusions highlight the struggles facing these individuals who …show more content…
Both also never choose to leave their cage, although the hunger artist is free to do so when he pleases. The angel comes off at first as a threat and a freak of nature simply because he appeared out of nowhere and he does not posses the grandeur that the people imagine an angel should have. The villagers treat him not as “a supernatural creature but a circus animal” in a manner that is disrespectful, ignorant, and inhumane. For instance, they torture the old man by locking him up in a chicken coop, tossing him food “without the slightest reverence” (145), pelting him with stones, and even burning his side “with an iron for branding steers” (147). The angel has become a spectacle and is paraded for profit before the crowds. Everyone, especially Pelayo and Elisenda, benefits from the angel’s passive endurance. Amidst the bustle and the exploitation, the angel takes “no part in his own act,” keeping to himself and remaining indifferent to the villagers’ taunts. He tolerates the abuses with “the patience of a dog who had no illusions” (149) and stays aloof from various visitors, who upon hearing news of his existence flock to seek healing or see him perform miracles. He demonstrates incredible patience under such harsh circumstances, though “his only supernatural virtue” (147) does not make much of an impression to the people; instead, they take …show more content…
He is also the subject of others’ suspicion, and he distances himself from people. Neither the angel nor the hunger artist seem to have any desire to communicate with their visitors, such that the hunger artist does not respond to any of the attention that the onlookers give him; instead, the hunger artist sits in his cage, “withdrawing deep into himself, paying no attention to anyone or anything” and “sometimes giving a courteous nod, answering questions with a constrained smile, or perhaps stretching an arm through the bars” (219). Even at the pinnacle of his career, the hunger artist still feels underappreciated by his spectators. The hunger artist’s audience is not at all interested in his art of fasting so much as it fascinates them of his suffering. Rather than respecting the hunger artist for his self-control and integrity, the public trivializes his artistic endeavor. Since the hunger artist holds his fasting in high regard, he grows especially frustrated with the “permanent watchers” who do not take their duties earnestly “because they made him feel miserable; they made his fast seem unendurable” (220). Furthermore, the hunger artist depends on the constant support and praise of his spectators to make it through life and above all, the merits of his art understood. Sadly, towards the end, visitors pass his cage with hardly a glance at
This story progresses through the artist’s life as he fasted for many days, doing this eventually led to his death. The artist starts in a cage that is on display for everyone to see and does this for forty days at which point the impresario would force him to come out and eat some food. After the artist was done eating, he would relocate to the cage for the reason that he wanted to prove to people that fasting is easy. After a while of doing this the people grew tired and decided not to come and watch him. After the impresario and the artist then went around to other places to see if anyone would watch him and wonder why he did what he did. After a while the artist went to a carnival too fast for people who visited. He requested the carnival to place him next to the animals instead of being the center of attention. He requested the carnival to keep the number of days that he fasted, but after a few weeks the carnival stopped keeping track and so did the artist. At the end of the story the overseer asked why the hunger artist did what he did and the artist answered “because I couldn’t find the food I liked,” (Kafka 334). This shows that he was imprisoned himself due to the fact that he didn’t have the right kind of
“Thin Between Love and Hate” is a popular 1970’s song that highlights the possibility of caring for someone one minute and suddenly disliking them the next minute because of an intense situation. This song relates to enjoyment and stupidity in life because a person can have the tendency to want to have fun but end up taking imprudent and hazardous steps in order to fulfill their amusement. “Death of an Innocent” written by Jon Krakauer features the unpredictable events that result from the radical acts of an individual named Chris McCandless. Chris McCandless’ wilderness expeditions transfigured him into an imbecile because he demonstrated signs of being overconfident, negligent, and stubborn.
Poetry is a part of literature that writers used to inform, educate, warn, or entertain the society. Although the field has developed over the years, the authenticity of poetry remains in its ability to produce a meaning using metaphors and allusions. In most cases, poems are a puzzle that the reader has to solve by applying rhetoric analysis to extract the meaning. Accordingly, poems are interesting pieces that activate the mind and explore the reader’s critical and analytical skills. In the poem “There are Delicacies,” Earle Birney utilizes a figurative language to express the theme and perfect the poem. Specifically, the poem addresses the frangibility of the human life by equating it to the flimsy of a watch. Precisely, the poet argues that a human life is short, and, therefore, everyone should complete his duties in perfection because once he or she dies, the chance is unavailable forever.
In “A Hunger”, “The Penal Colony”, and Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Kafka succeeded in showing his individuals as obsessed with their profession; however their obsession caused their doom because society asks so much from an individual, only so much can be done. However, regardless of that, these individuals choose their work over themselves, and not even bad health or death can stop them. Because society places immures pressure on Kafka’s work obsessed character, they neglect their well-being and cause their own downfall.
The ways in which Wilfred Owen’s Disabled and Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise present the overcoming of burdens are very intriguing. Each character possesses a burden that stands in their way, holding them back in life. In Disabled, the individual’s burden is the disability, trauma, and loss afflicted onto him by war and in Still I Rise racism, stereotypes, and a rough history endured by africans is Angelou’s burden. Though the authors experience very different problems and portray opposite atmospheres they contain similarities and use many of the same devices such as symbolism and juxtaposed antithesis points to deliver their messages.
There are many parallels and differences between Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” and "A Hunger Artist". Kafka portrays these differences and similarities very effectively through his utilization of elements such as transformation, dehumanization, and dedication to work. Through his works, Kafka communicates with the reader in such a way that almost provokes and challenges one’s imagination and creativity.
To be alienated for Bartleby and The Hunger Artist is to lose a connection to more than just oneself, as revealed through the characters living conditions and lack of information about the protagonists themselves. Both short stories address the reaction from society towards the main characters in a way that parallels the treatment of individuals living isolated in communities today.
HUNGER: An Unnatural History." Kirkus Reviews 73.12 (2005): 675. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
But before we continue, a distinction must be made between two different types of self-denial. To fast, and to not eat do not constitute the same act. My own personal experience while exploring the topic of fasting has deeply colored my view of the practice of fasting. Many personal interests led me to pursue the question of fasting as a form of self-sacrifice. One was my personal engagement with and interest in the Roman Catholic tradition. Another, much more personal influence is my personal relationship with food. To stop eating is one of the (unhealthy ways) in which I personally deal with stress or depression. In reading Caroline Bynum’s book on the relationship medieval women mystics had with food I was able to identify on many levels. These women, in some cases, lived for...
Hope and patience are two characterizations that are typically taken for granted, especially during critical times. Mainly because it is natural to lean on the pessimistic side when things are going wrong. Edgar Allan Poe creates a twist in his story “The Pit and the Pendulum” by conceiving a character rather disparate from his usual. The passage starts off by the character informing the reader of his current situation and then fainting. He then wakes up to the realization that has indeed only passed out and is yet to receive his death punishment. As the story unfolds, he is put into a set of complications that bring him closer and closer to death. Each time he faces one, his thoughts become more hopeful and he becomes more patient. Edgar uses
Thesis Statement: "The psyche of the people towards the hunger artist as a metaphor to the inconsistency, frailty and superficiality of human belief; through the eyes of Kafka as the hunger artist himself"
He struggles as an artist himself, as a writer, and as a human being. He feels misunderstood and tormented, perhaps exactly what this story is all about. The irrationality in the people that surround the Hunger Artist, and the inconsistency of the audience is reflective of this vision that Kafka wrote an autobiography of himself, as there is no reader who can truly understand what he is experiencing in life, his thoughts, ideologies, emotions, or intentions. Not even the remarkable admiration of the spectators for the Hunger Artist can, at least in the beginning of the story, be considered to be a success for him in Kafka's point of view because it is based on a serious misinterpretation of the artist's
...and ridiculed, especially for entertainment purposes. Nonetheless, the Artist shows a hunger for fame, even if the fame and attention comes from a sick and wild point of view. The Hunger Artist dies a man of sorrow and failure, but is reborn as his opposite, a hungry, strong panther eating everything that comes its way. Maybe in some way the Artist represents a lost tradition of fasting which seemed to come and go, as well as maybe representing the desire that our generation today tends to eat too much and require too much. In the end, the Hunger Artist will be remembered as an outcast of society, and after all his years of fasting, his accomplishments are forgotten, easily replaced as if he never existed.
Many of our today as “normal” considered values are everything but self-evident. One of the most striking aspects in the novel is time; and our relationship towards it. “ We yearned for the future. How did we learn it that talent for insatiability. ” In this particu...
What lengths should one go to in order to survive? This is a question which has challenged the human race for generations and to which no satisfactory answer exists. In the modern world, this issue is examined theoretically, but rarely confronts individuals, with the exception of the most destitute. However, in harsh environments and forbidding territories, this matter becomes very real and pressing. Nature pays no attention to the arbitrary emotions of man, demanding only the forfeiture of the sorrowfully short life granted to him. Many would argue that in order to delay the inevitable conclusion awaiting every man, humans must act upon their primal intuition rather than their emotions. Jack London’s “The Law of Life” includes this naturalistic viewpoint that human survival instinct drives individuals more than feelings or compassion. London shows this through his protagonist Old Koshkoosh’s past experiences and tribal upbringing, his view on life, and the actions of his family members.