8/11/2019 A Man Who is Known Only As

1/2

A man who is known only as the hunger artist and fasts for a living travels

from town to European town with the impresario (his manager). In each

town, the hunger artist chooses a pu lic location and puts himself on display

in a locked, straw!lined cage, where he fasts for periods of up to forty days.

In the hunger artist"s heyday, people from all over the surrounding areacome to witness his performances. #hildren especially are drawn to him, and

when the hunger artist is not hypnotically withdrawn in the cage, he talks to

them and answers their $uestions with a smile. %he adults also avidly

monitor the hunger artist"s progress, ut they generally do so out of

suspicion that the hunger artist is sneaking food. %o the hunger artist"s

frustration, the townspeople assign men, usually utchers, to ensure that the

hunger artist does not eat during the night. Even more annoying to the

hunger artist, however, is that these men deli erately turn a lind eye to thehunger artist as if to allow him to steal a ite of food. %he hunger artist sings

to prove that he is not eating, ut the people think he has simply mastered

the art of eating and singing simultaneously.Although the hunger artist is

famous, he is perpetually unhappy. &ecause of the townspeople"s incredulity,

the hunger artist reali'es that only he can e truly satis ed with his feats of

self!denial. %he hunger artist also feels constrained y the fasting limits

imposed on him. Although the hunger artist nds fasting easy and can go

much longer than forty days, the impresario always cuts the performance

short ecause the spectators tend to lose interest. urthermore, the ritual inwhich the impresario forces the hunger artist to reak the fast is humiliating

and unpleasant. irst, doctors enter the cage to report the hunger artist"s

condition, which is announced with a megaphone. *e+t, two ladies chosen

from the crowd try to help the hunger artist out of his cage. nfailingly, the

hunger artist o -ects, and the impresario intrudes to make a show of how

frail the hunger artist has ecome. &y the time the ritual is over, the hunger

artist has een force!fed and the crowd moved y the hunger artist"s

seemingly desperate condition. In truth, however, the hunger artist ismisera le only ecause he knows he could have fasted longer and that his

supposed fans actually hate him.%he hunger artist goes on living in fame and

$uiet dissatisfaction, ecoming hostile only when the occasional person

theori'es that the root of his melancholy might e the fasting itself. At this

suggestion, the hunger artist rattles his cage like a east and can e calmed

only y the impresario, who plays up the hunger artist"s misery to the people

8/11/2019 A Man Who is Known Only As

2/2

y showing photographs of him withering away. %hough these photos in

reality capture the hunger artist looking wretched ecause he is eing

forced from the cage against his will, the impresario advertises it all as the

e ect of the fasting itself. %he impresario"s gesture never fails to cow the

hunger artist, who sinks in su mission, ack into his straw, forevermisunderstood./rofessional fasting eventually goes into decline, as

audiences develop a taste for newer, more e+citing forms of entertainment.

%he hunger artist and impresario dissolve their partnership, ut ecause the

hunger artist is too old to take up a new profession, he attempts to ride out

the trend against fasting in the hope that it reverses itself. 0e -oins a circus

and ecomes a sideshow, placed at the entrance of the menagerie of animals

and other curiosities. As a result of his placement, the hunger artist is

ignored y the throngs of people who have come for the livelier attractionsinside. %he hunger artist is none+istent, save for a few stragglers who look

at him as an anachronism. 1eft alone, the hunger artist nally e+ceeds his

fasting record, although there is no way to tell e+actly how long he has

fasted ecause the circus attendants forget to change the sign on which his

daily total appears. %he hunger artist wastes away in his cage, unnoticed

and unappreciated.2any days pass efore a circus overseer notices what

seems to e an unused cage. pon closer inspection, the overseer discovers

the hunger artist uried in the straw, near death. %hinking the hunger artist

insane, the overseer humors the hunger artist in his last words. %he hungerartist asks to e forgiven, e+plaining that he has wanted only to e admired

y everyone. 3hen the overseer assures him that everyone does admire him,

the hunger artist tells the overseer that they shouldn"t, confessing that he

has fasted only ecause in life he could not nd food that he liked. 3ith

these words, the hunger artist dies. %he circus attendants ury him with his

straw and restock the cage with a young panther, which is unlike the hunger

artist in nearly every way. 4talking a out in its cage, the panther rims with

life, feeding hungrily and e+pressing freedom and vitality. In no time, itecomes a ma-or draw for the circus, and crowds of people edge close to the

cage in reathless e+citement.