This study will analyze Franz Kafka's "A Hunger Artist," focusing on the protagonist as a typically suffering and thoroughly misunderstood artist-hero in society. What makes the story especially compelling is the fact that the reader is allowed by Kafka into the consciousness of the hunger artist. The society in which the protagonist struggles to live a life of artistic integrity may not understand him, but the reader is certainly given enough insight to be able to begin to understand what makes this particular man both artist and hero.
However, the hunger artist is hardly stripped of his mystery by the author. Kafka reveals much of the thought process of the hunger artist, and even, in the next-to-last paragraph of the story, appears to explain the source of the character's compulsion, but in the end the protagonist remains a mystery at least in part. Certainly, if we see him as a hero, it is not a heroism which is understood or appreciated by society. The people around the hunger artist would be utterly bewildered to hear this man referred to as a hero.
To the protagonist himself, however, his heroism consists of his maintenance of integrity in a pursuit which transcends everyday concerns. He is, in fact, not only a hero but a tragic hero. A truly noble individual, he is driven to the end by a desire which is, in a sense, beyond his control. If it is true that he fasted simply because, as he says, "I couldn't find the food I liked" (898), then his life and art are truly made of tragedy. That which drove him to pursue his goal is also that which both drew the public's attention and isolated him from that public. The protagonist is a hero because he pursued his goal to be the world's greatest hunger artist and because he did so despite the fact that the world was incapable of appreciating his art and his heroism.
The hunger artist lives in a special world which abounds with symbols indicating the unique and isolated posi...