Starving for Perfection

Starving for Perfection

“Because I have to fast, I can’t help it….because I couldn’t find the food I liked.  If I had found it, believe me I should have made no fuss and stuffed myself like you or anyone else (481-482).”  In the short story, “The Hunger Artist” the hunger artist denies himself food to gain fame.  The hunger artist would sit for forty days, and eat nothing, as a performance.  But his performance is driven by a hunger for more than recognition.  The hunger artist deprives himself with the desire to gain the unattainable, which eventually results in his death. 

The hunger artist fasts for his audience, however, he does not just fast for fame.  The artist craves that his audiences understand the meaning of his fast.   He does not understand why they stop him from fasting, and eventually when the regulations are removed he doesn’t stop.   He fasts until his cage becomes his deathbed, and says, “I always want you to admire my fasting” (281). The hunger artist desires his audience to understand and admire the meaning of his fasting, which seems to be something he cannot explain to himself. 

The hunger artist is a tortured artist and he is unable to alleviate his desire to fast.  He is never satisfied and yet “he was never satisfied; it was not perhaps fasting that had brought him to such skeleton thinness…perhaps it was dissatisfaction with himself.” (477).  The hunger artist never feels that his work is complete, much like a tortured artist, but unlike a tortured artist if he follows his desire to continue his work he will die.  The hunger artist dies because of his inability to stop his performance.

The hunger artist cannot satisfy his desires.  He is tortured by his desire to please his audiences and his desire to complete his work.  To-do this, he fasts until he dies from starvation.  The artist can never be perfect in his art form because as soon as he achieves his goal, he dies.  The artist cannot make his art and live.