A Hunger Artist : Full Annotated Version

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 public 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 area come to witness his performances. Children especially are drawn to him, and when the hunger artist is not hypnotically withdrawn in the cage, he talks to them and answers their questions with a smile. The adults also avidly monitor the hunger artist’s progress, but they generally do so out of suspicion that the hunger artist is sneaking food. To the hunger artist’s frustration, the townspeople assign men, usually butchers, to ensure that the hunger artist does not eat during the night. Even more annoying to the hunger artist, however, is that these men deliberately turn a blind eye to the hunger artist as if to allow him to steal a bite of food. The hunger artist sings to prove that he is not eating, but the people think he has simply mastered the art of eating and singing simultaneously.