Hunger Artist

The dilemma with the hunger-artist in his cage represents the dilemma with the artist in the modern world: his dissociation from the society in which he lives. By this reading of the story, ‘‘A Hunger-Artist’’ is a sociological metaphor. But we can also interpret the hunger-artist to represent a mystic, a holy man, or a priest. A third possible interpretation ventures us into a metaphysical metaphor: the hunger-artist represents spirit, man as a spiritual being; the panther, in contrast, represents matter, the animal nature of man. If the story is translated into metaphysical terms, the separation is between the spiritual and the physical; into religious terms, between the divine and the human, the soul and the body; into sociological terms, between the artist and his society. Consider first the story as a metaphor for the dilemma of the artist. He is set in contrast to the masses. The people who attend his exhibitions of fasting cannot comprehend his art. ‘‘Just try to explain the art of fasting to someone! He who has no feeling for it simply cannot comprehend it.’’ The artist starves himself for the sake of his vision. He has faith in his vision, faith in himself, and integrity of aesthetic conscience. As the initiated alone understood,