Hunger by Knut Hamsun and A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka have a great deal in common. The protagonists in both stories have a very similar approach to life and one that is unique, unlike that of societies. They are both choosing poverty even though they have the means to eat.
The life of the hunger artist is quite ironic as he needs his watchers, but doesn’t want to need them. He stays in his cage trapped exactly like an animal and he is proud of the fact that people come and watch him. As the days of hunger grow larger he feels as though he is succeeding towards his goal, one may even consider him a martyr. The question then becomes, what is his goal? What is he so willing to die for? The act of hunger isn’t what’s important; it’s why he is doing it. It is not common for people to starve themselves and the reason why is doing it is because he is rebelling to society he is showing the public that he won’t live in the guidelines that society deem necessary. The protagonist wants people to observe what he is doing and then wonder whether there is a purpose to it. He wants them to believe in what he is doing, but he will not force them if they cannot understand.
The protagonist in Hunger is quite comparable to the hunger artist. As I said earlier the hunger artist needs the people to watch him, but he doesn’t want that to be the case. Similarly, The protagonist in Hunger needs to write in order to gain money, but he doesn’t want to write for other people; he does it for himself. His belief is that he should write a paper based on what he feels, not what society will enjoy. However, the problem with that notion is that if no one enjoys his style of writing then he will starve. Again this brings back to presenting these protagonists as martyrs, they will be true to themselves no matter what the cost.
These protagonists are unique, as they only do what they believe in no matter what the repercussions. If everyone lived this way, they would be more original as they would only do what they wanted as oppose to doing what society asks of them. That being said if everyone had the same ideology as those protagonists then there would be chaos in the world. For the hunger artist, everyone left and no one admired him anymore; and for the protagonist in Hunger, he decided to leave the city he was in. Their dedication is admirable, but what did being true to their feelings get them? Nothing.
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