hungry on purpose

I’m really not sure what to make of the hunger artist, but I think he is symbolic of human dilemmas. The hunger artist seems foolish and a little pretentious and absurd. His hunger is by choice and it’s a stupid choice why would anyone want to do that to themselves? He is only starving out of pride and ego; he just wants people to admire him. But he does exercise a great deal of self discipline and percervierence he is in complete control of his life, and is finding passion in his suffering even though it has no point, even though it is bad for him even when people care less about him. He’s a lot of things. What I think is wrong is the perception he’s stupid or crazy because he’s suffering by choice and for no real reason. We all do things for no real reason and we all suffer to fulfill a purpose that doesn’t exist or that is shallow, for him its just more obvious because he’s fighting against his nature. The fact that the hunger artist loses popularity and is replaced by a dumb ravenous panther says a lot about people. The people want to see a panther that gets fed with out working and is and likes his cage because its easier, they don’t wan to see a guy whose suffering at his own will and the only thing keeping him in his cage is himself. It shows our desire for conformity because its more convenient than going your own way, and they don’t want to take responsibility for who they are. It isn’t bad to be the panther though.

There are obvious similarities between hunger and the hunger artist like the fact that they’re both starving. The protagonist in hunger is starving because he’s proud and doesn’t want charity; he fails to recognize that it is his pride making him hungry and could get over it by taking control over his own life. But the hunger artist is doing it for other reasons. He does want people to admire him for his discipline so he has pride like the guy in hunger. But even when people don’t admire his act he still goes for it so he is also doing it to test himself and he finds passion in his struggle. He is aware and displaying his control over his life he knows he is responsible for putting himself in his own cage. The guy in hunger is aware that he’s mad and that he’s starving and in trouble but he doesn’t take responsibility for it or exercise control. He thinks of himself as separate from his madness and often says he feels alienated from himself, and blames his madness for his actions. But actually his madness is a part of who he is, and that’s not entirely his fault but he should take responsibility and not let his insane side dominate him. But how do we define sane how do we know if the sane way is really the better way? We don’t know for sure but we do know that the way we go is the way we alone chose.

I honestly didn’t get the point of the end how he said he didn’t like the taste of food and he would have eaten ravenously like everyone else I don’t really get what that’s supposed to say that he decided not to do what everyone else did but he wishes he was normal? Maybe its supposed to be kind of obscure like the author doesn’t encourage us to be either the panther or the hunger artist but rather reflect on ourselves. Or maybe I just don’t get it. I think we are just meant to explore the ideas of this essay and try to understand them rather than form an argument from them.