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The Existential Artist

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Submitted By dorchavoinik
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Dor Chavoinik
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English IV AP
6 December 2012
The Existentialist Artist In A Hunger Artist, Franz Kafka utilizes existential themes in a depiction of a man’s quest for personal fulfillment through starvation, deemed an art form. This man, the hunger artist, fasts for long periods of time as part of a circus act, but never experiences satisfaction as a result of his performance; he believes he can fast for much longer than is allowed. In his current situation, the impresario makes the decision for the extent of his fast, and as a result the artist is unhappy. The artist here loses the freedom of choice, a theme masterfully applied by Kafka here. Following the ideals of existentialism, one can only experience the happiness brought upon by his own choices. Accordingly, the hunger artist remains discontent when he is unable to test the extent of his fasting abilities. It is his art form being denied.
For example, when the artist is first displayed at the larger circus, he holds conventional expectations that he will find satisfaction in a longer fast. Furthermore, due to the artist’s dejection as a result of his inability to define the terms of his fast, the hunger artist experiences the existentialist “unfulfillable desire for fulfillment.” These expectations contrast existentialism because in them the hunger artist tries to find meaning through the attention of spectators, rather than finding meaning through his own choices. Since he does not follow the existentialist guidelines for creating meaning, the artist remains incessantly unhappy. Therefore, Kafka establishes existential values in his work by illustrating that straying from these values leads to dissatisfaction in life.
The artist’s lack of personal relationships contradicts another of Kafka’s existentialist themes. Because the artist has such limited contact with other people, he experiences an unfulfillable desire for empathy that can only come from personal relations: “So he lived for many years, […] troubled in spirit, and all the more troubled because no-one would take his trouble seriously. […] To fight this lack of understanding, against a whole world of non-understanding, was impossible” (3). Kafka demonstrates that the artist’s need for understanding creates a lack of meaning in his life. As existentialism embodies the connection between the creation of meaning and the creation of relations between people, Kafka suitably applies this theory by exposing the artist’s distress. He also mentions the little contact he has in fleeting generalities, without faces attached to descriptions or any names stated at all.
The hinger artist is also extremely concerned with the quality of his performance, in conjunction with the existentialist principle. He finds the watchers—the men who make sure that the artist doesn’t sneak any food during the night—quite annoying, and does as much as he can to prove that his fast is genuine: “He was quite happy at the prospect of spending a sleepless night with such watchers; he was ready to exchange jokes with them, […] anything at all to keep them awake and demonstrate to them again that he had no eatables in his cage and that he was fasting as not one of them could fast” (1). As a major theme of existentialism, the artist prides himself in the honesty of his performance. He takes offense at the watchers’ suspicions that he would “settle for less than the actual anxiety due him.” Through the artist’s desire for unadulterated suffering, Kafka exemplifies existentialist authenticity.
Kafka capitalizes on the artist’s dissatisfaction throughout A Hunger Artist, as well as his priorities, to exemplify the values of existentialism. Kafka does so by showing that the artist’s unhappiness is a result of his negligence of the fundamentals of existentialism. Methods contradictory to existentialist ideas bring the artist farther away from finding meaning than ever before. However, Kafka highlights the artist’s principals that do line up with those of existentialism. For example, the artist’s desire for an authentic performance with maximum anxiety proves to be one of his greatest virtues. As a result of the artist’s successful and futile apprehensions, Kafka illustrates his belief in existentialism, making A Hunger Artist a true existentialist composition.

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