Kafk The Hunger Artist

On a similar note, Kafka appears to have characterized the hunger artist as dissatisfied with himself, almost as to reference that Kafka himself is unhappy with what he has achieved and the person that he has become. Throughout “A Hunger Artist,” the author makes it evident that the hunger artist is unhappy with the people around him, but it is only hinted that he is unhappy with himself. It is only until near the end of the short story that Kafka reveals the hunger artist’s true feelings about himself when he writes, “it was dissatisfaction with himself that had worn him down” (Kafka 640). In fact, self-loathing is a very common theme within Kafka’s writing, often, the characters in the author’s many short stories “use their worthless bodies

Furthermore, the hunger artist also destroys his body in the story directly from his own actions. He describes himself as having “skeleton thinness” (Kafka 640) and even ends up starving to death in the conclusion of the story. On the same note, Kafka was very much dissatisfied with himself, much like the hunger artist. However, unlike the hunger artist, Kafka did not actively destroy his body or consider his body worthless for that matter, rather the author experienced severe guilt from his actions or, better put, inaction. Kafka, in his “Letter to My Father,” expressed several times that he was aware that he failed to reciprocate proper etiquette in order to maintain a relationship with him. In fact, Michael Kimmage notices in the letter that both “father and son have failed in their acquired roles” (Kimmage 1) since Kafka also mentions throughout the letter that he is unsatisfied with how his father treated him. However, it seems that Kafka does not show remorse, or even signs of wanting to make up to his father after he stated, “I am equally entirely blameless” (Kafka