A man who is known only as the hunger artist and fasts for a living travels

from town to European town with the impresario (his manager). In each
town, the hunger artist chooses a pulic location and puts himself on display
in a locked, straw!lined cage, where he fasts for periods of up to forty days.
In the hunger artist"s heyday, people from all over the surrounding area
come to witness his performances. #hildren especially are drawn to him, and
when the hunger artist is not hypnotically withdrawn in the cage, he talks to
them and answers their $uestions with a smile. %he adults also avidly
monitor the hunger artist"s progress, ut they generally do so out of
suspicion that the hunger artist is sneaking food. %o the hunger artist"s
frustration, the townspeople assign men, usually utchers, to ensure that the
hunger artist does not eat during the night. Even more annoying to the
hunger artist, however, is that these men delierately turn a lind eye to the
hunger artist as if to allow him to steal a ite of food. %he hunger artist sings
to prove that he is not eating, ut the people think he has simply mastered
the art of eating and singing simultaneously.Although the hunger artist is
famous, he is perpetually unhappy. &ecause of the townspeople"s incredulity,
the hunger artist reali'es that only he can e truly satis(ed with his feats of
self!denial. %he hunger artist also feels constrained y the fasting limits
imposed on him. Although the hunger artist (nds fasting easy and can go
much longer than forty days, the impresario always cuts the performance
short ecause the spectators tend to lose interest. )urthermore, the ritual in
which the impresario forces the hunger artist to reak the fast is humiliating
and unpleasant. )irst, doctors enter the cage to report the hunger artist"s
condition, which is announced with a megaphone. *e+t, two ladies chosen
from the crowd try to help the hunger artist out of his cage. ,nfailingly, the
hunger artist o-ects, and the impresario intrudes to make a show of how
frail the hunger artist has ecome. &y the time the ritual is over, the hunger
artist has een force!fed and the crowd moved y the hunger artist"s
seemingly desperate condition. In truth, however, the hunger artist is
miserale only ecause he knows he could have fasted longer and that his
supposed fans actually hate him.%he hunger artist goes on living in fame and
$uiet dissatisfaction, ecoming hostile only when the occasional person
theori'es that the root of his melancholy might e the fasting itself. At this
suggestion, the hunger artist rattles his cage like a east and can e calmed
only y the impresario, who plays up the hunger artist"s misery to the people
y showing photographs of him withering away. %hough these photos in
reality capture the hunger artist looking wretched ecause he is eing
forced from the cage against his will, the impresario advertises it all as the
e.ect of the fasting itself. %he impresario"s gesture never fails to cow the
hunger artist, who sinks in sumission, ack into his straw, forever
misunderstood./rofessional fasting eventually goes into decline, as
audiences develop a taste for newer, more e+citing forms of entertainment.
%he hunger artist and impresario dissolve their partnership, ut ecause the
hunger artist is too old to take up a new profession, he attempts to ride out
the trend against fasting in the hope that it reverses itself. 0e -oins a circus
and ecomes a sideshow, placed at the entrance of the menagerie of animals
and other curiosities. As a result of his placement, the hunger artist is
ignored y the throngs of people who have come for the livelier attractions
inside. %he hunger artist is none+istent, save for a few stragglers who look
at him as an anachronism. 1eft alone, the hunger artist (nally e+ceeds his
fasting record, although there is no way to tell e+actly how long he has
fasted ecause the circus attendants forget to change the sign on which his
daily total appears. %he hunger artist wastes away in his cage, unnoticed
and unappreciated.2any days pass efore a circus overseer notices what
seems to e an unused cage. ,pon closer inspection, the overseer discovers
the hunger artist uried in the straw, near death. %hinking the hunger artist
insane, the overseer humors the hunger artist in his last words. %he hunger
artist asks to e forgiven, e+plaining that he has wanted only to e admired
y everyone. 3hen the overseer assures him that everyone does admire him,
the hunger artist tells the overseer that they shouldn"t, confessing that he
has fasted only ecause in life he could not (nd food that he liked. 3ith
these words, the hunger artist dies. %he circus attendants ury him with his
straw and restock the cage with a young panther, which is unlike the hunger
artist in nearly every way. 4talking aout in its cage, the panther rims with
life, feeding hungrily and e+pressing freedom and vitality. In no time, it
ecomes a ma-or draw for the circus, and crowds of people edge close to the
cage in reathless e+citement.