“Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel García Márquez

“The Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka

Similarities between the Old Man with Enormous Wings and The Hunger Artist

  • Both characters are alienated from society.
  • Both live in cages where they were treated badly from the public.
  • Both got outperformed by someone else, Old Man being outperform by the Spider-Woman and Hunger Artist by Wild Panther.
  • Both stories are third person narration.
  • Has gothic emotion in both stories.
  • Uses a lot of symbolism in the stories.
  • Both stories have gothic central irony in it.
  • Both stories engage in gothic action such as acting violent to the main characters.

Difference between the Old Man with Enormous Wings and The Hunger Artist

  • Old man physical look was not the stereotype look of normal in his story, thus being treated poorly while the hunger artist looks normal but was treated poorly because they thought he was a mad man who was cheating on his fast.
  • Old Man with Enormous Wings uses magical realism.
  • Old Man with Enormous Wings is The Fantastic while Hunger Artist is Uncanny.
  • Hunger Artist focuses more on realism.
  • Old man gets a redemption and flies away while hunger artist ends up dead and buried in the circus.
  • Hunger artist wanted attention while the old man did not and instead wanted to be freed from having people watch him.