When I can’t stand on my legs, perhaps I shall have a chance” (740). This quote demonstrates his dedication to his work as he claims he will have to be literally unable to move before he will take a break. Later in the story, as he goes about his rounds, he is described as a “mere hired assistant” and that he is a “slave to the country-side” (742). It is revealed that his job wears him out, because it is “nothing but work, drudgery, constant hastening from dwelling to dwelling” and he doesn’t like the town where he lives and works. The narrator states, “He grumbled, he said he hated the hellish hole.” Furthermore, he feels superior to the working class people he serves, thinking of them as “rough, inarticulate, powerfully emotional men and women” (743).
The hunger artist's art is, in a sense, suffering (or seems to be up to a certain point in the story.) The pleasure and artistry of fasting comes from the free will he exercises in his self-denial and masochism. Although he is confined to a cage, he has control over his pain and hunger (except when the impresario manages him), pushing himself past human limits in his constant search for a new artistic masterpiece, in the form of starvation. Kafka mocks the cultural view that usually would romanticize the hunger artist as an alienated "starving artist" who defies capitalist society and focuses solely on his own art. However, the hunger artist questions the importance of his unconventional art at two separate points.
He and his impresario tour through Europe with “thrilling performances” (Garrison, 1981) and gather crowds of people who want to look at the person who can fast forty days (Mairowitz, Crumb, 2007, p.144-145). Usually, impresario pays several people to keep watch over starving artist. But the artist himself feels insulted when watchers or guards doubt his honesty and ability to starve. He wants his fast to last longer than forty days, but public interest wanes after thus very term. After forty days his impresario organizes a great ceremony and the artist is literally withdrawn from his cage and spoon-fed some meager light dinner.
However, the reader is exposed to the harsh, brutal truth of the lower-class society. Because George Wilson is a poor servant that has had little to eat in several days, we can not help but have sympathy for him. The upper-class is stuck up and oblivious to the needs and cares of their servants. However, those servants help with and take care of the needs of the other servants. While Wilson is on his way to see Mr. Carson, we learn that he is very hungry and hasn’t eaten in days.
There are not many people on the island, so he wonders what child the angel sees upset or hurt. Finally, a few days later it struck him. He realizes that he longs for his father each day and the angel is the only one who can see that. Tyson truly dislikes the rain and is in complete shock that he is the reason for it. He wants to be happy, but his father is still not there.
He makes up a metaphor about a hotel having food and him politely singing for food everyday and they tell him they do not have any even though he has seen it. He stands outside singing his way “we are hungry please let us in!” After time goes by of begging the song is going to change to “we hungry we need some food!” After weeks go by of no food the song changes to “give me some food I'm going to break down the door!” He than says after years it changes to just picking the lock and getting what you need to survive. In the interview Tupac gives this metaphor as his reasoning to why he is so full of rage. That is a metaphor for black people “asking” for equality. Tupac says “we asked with the panthers and we asked with the civil rights movement now it is time to act.” Even though Tupac was so “pro black” and not many white people who be caught dead listening to his music, now in the twentieth century it is common for any one to listen to any artist from any race.
People would creep in at night on Eli’s father and hit him to be able to steal the little food he had. I will never forget the image of the sick father getting beat for his food because that was his food and nobody had the right to steal it. He was sick and the little food he had he needed. I felt pain when I read of this part in the book. The pain the father must have been in trying to fight for his food and then getting it taken from him and having to feel hunger and sick.
Stand at attention in rain and snow forbidden to talk or move, some prisoners have been known to drop dead right there from sickness, fatigue or malnourishment. The days in camp are filled with exhausting work, little food and water and a chance of being beaten or killed for just about any reason. When waking up at 4 a.m. in the morning, the first thing the prisoners would have to face is seeing all the people that didn’t make it through the night and then pray that someone didn’t steal their shoes. If someone took their shoes and they couldn’t find any that would fit they would be severely beaten or killed because they would not be able to work. Once they find their shoes, they would
But like I said earlier, Levi was more ashamed over the fact that he was too focused on survival and realized that they lost his humanity along the way. I think Levi was being too hard on himself. Throughout the rest of the book, his humanity is present through his exchange with other prisoners, his ever-present knowledge, and his insight into others. Although this passage is glaringly honest, I do not think that he completely lost his humanity due to his will to survive. Levi admits that there were times when thought was impossible to ignore, like right before falling asleep.
Money and material things do not truly satisfy a person's life or make a person happy. Tom Walker had all the money in the world and he was still a stingy cheap miserable old man. Not thinking through choices in life can cause a lifetime of regret and Tom Walker is a great example of someone whose life was ruined by his bad choices. The sad part of this story is by the time he fully understands that his choices were wrong it was too late. He didn’t think about those choices in his earlier years when he was robbing people blind.