A Hunger Artist

Why are there hunger artists?

What is the significance of 40 days?

How does this man live for 40 days without food?

How many hunger artists are there?

Why is this man in a cage if he clearly has no desire to eat?

The hunger artist use to be a huge thing. People would come during all parts of the day to see the hunger artist. The whole city viewed him at some point in the day. The man could eat nothing except for a little water he used to moisten his lips. There were people appointed to make sure that the man ate nothing, even though this was completley unecesary. He had no desire to eat anything. This gave the people some relief because they knew this way that the man was not cheating.

The hunger artist was the only one that could truly admire what he did though. Everybody else had no idea wether he had really gone for forty days except for the hunger artist himself because nobody had the time to watch him day in and day out. Of course the hunger artist was the only one who knew how easy it was though. He did try to tell people it was easy but nobody believed him.

When forty days had gone by the impresario ended the fast. A large celebration took place for the hunger artist. The cage he was kept in was opened and music blaired as two women took him out of his cage to a table with food on it. The hunger artist did not want the food though. He wanted to go longer and become the greatest hunger artist ever, but the impresario forced the food into his mouth and evrybody took a toast.

The hunger artist lived on fasting while taking short breaks between fasts. He did this because he wanted to. He was too old to change professions anyway. Eventualy he joined a circus where he was once again put in a cage for peole to watch him. At first people would come to look at him but after a while nobody paid attention to him. It was well over forty days but nobody knew exactly how many because nobody took track, not even the hunger artist. Nobody really cared for him. The Cage and everything around it was untouched and pooorly maintained. People began to forget he was even there until a supervisor found him. The supervisor asked the hunger artist if he was still alive and he said yes and told him not to admire him because he had to fast since he did not like any food. that is when he died and was replaced by a panther who brought lots of spectators.