A Hunger Artist (rewritten)

Guiding Questions

1. Is the clock actually important to the artist, or is this the view of the audience?
2. Why does the hunger artist fast?
3. Why is the public interested?
4. What is Kafka trying to say (what is his message)?
5. Are there any connections to The Metamorphosis?

A Hunger Artist

The popular interest in hunger artists seen in earlier times has now mostly disappeared. In those times, it was the children who actually appreciated the display; adults only participated because it was expected.
The hunger artist remained under scrutiny at all times to ensure that he ate nothing, but the the watchers were completely unnecessary; the artist would never eat during his fasting, watchers or no. Some watchers even shirked their duties to allow him food, but he never ate. It pained him to see them do this, for it brought his honor into question. He preferred the suspicious watchers who kept him in full view at all times, for with them he could prove his fasting abilities.
What he most enjoyed was when breakfast for the watchers arrived in the morning. Some might have seen this breakfast as a bribe, but they never volunteered to watch for themselves, without any food.
Of course, nobody ever believed that fasting was as easy as the artist always claimed. They always thought he was being modest, but the artist could easily have continued fasting far beyond the maximum forty days allowed.
On the final day of fasting, the cage was opened with much fanfare and ceremony. Two ladies came to lead him to his prepared meal, but he always resisted. He hated having to leave his comfortable cage, resented that they did not believe he could continue fasting forever. But eventually he always gave in and allowed himself to be led to his food. At the end of the ceremony, he was the only one who left disappointed.
The hunger artist remained famous, but he was always gloomy, for nobody understood him. He raged at those who claimed that his sadness was due to his fasting, but the impresario always punished this by making long speeches about how the artist was suffering from his fasting and that this was why they had to end it after only forty days. But he alone knew that his sadness actually came from this premature ending, rather than from the fasting itself.
In time, popular interest waned. The artist and the impresario toured Europe in vain, seeking an interested audience. They sadly parted ways and the hunger artist joined a circus.
The artist always claimed that he could not only fast as well as in his younger days, but that he could surpass himself. But the current mood denied him support in his venture. In spite of his enthusiasm, he was now no more than a sideshow to interest those waiting in line to see the animals. His public appearances, which he had once loved, he now feared, for he felt that he no longer had any purpose in the world. He had occasional glimpses of hope that his former glory might return, but these moments were swept away by the crowd aiming for the menagerie.
The circus staff began to ignore him. He became no more than an obstacle, then a nuisance. Eventually, the supervisor noticed his cage and they cleared away the rotting straw to find the hunger artist still there. The supervisor indicated to the crowd that the artist was insane now, but the artist declared still that fasting was the easiest thing in the world, for he could find no food that he enjoyed. And then he died. The circus replaced him with a panther, energetic and loving of life. And people stayed, now, to view the new occupant of the cage which had once held the hunger artist.