Midterm Essay Draft

Luis Fajardo

Midterm essay, English 2001

Cruelty and Compassion

Cruelty is defined as the pleasure of causing pain which is what gothic literature is all about. In the stories “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Marquez and “A Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka are very similar in terms of getting treated very poorly, and being socially distanced from society but they also have a difference in which one get compassion towards the end of the story. I will also go over the events in the stories fall under Todorov’s term marvelous and uncanny and the use of paradox in these stories and the change in the focal point of the narration.

A quick summary of “A very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is about a human like creature is found weak and struggling to get up. The old man has wings, and some people believe him to be an angel. The old man is kept in a cage to be profited off by Pelayo and Elisenda. The old man gets healthy and flies away. A quick summary of “A Hunger Artist” is about an artist that voluntarily enters a cage for 40 days to fast in front of people. The Artist is mistreated by Impresario and their partnership ends. The artist joins the circus and is forgotten and later dies from fasting longer than necessary.

The Two character that I will be comparing are the old man and the hunger artist who both are not given names to by their author. Both hunger artist and the old man are cruel entertainment for the people of the villages because in the “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” the old man is kept in a cage where People from all over come to see the old man and Elisenda and Pelayo charge 5 cent fee. In the “Hunger Artist” the artist is fasting in a cage where people from all over the world would come and see him. The hunger artist and the old man were both experienced by cruelty from the people that they were entertaining. In the “hunger artist” the cruelty to the hunger artist was that the butchers that would have to watch him over night would turn their back on him so that he would steal a bite to eat which annoyed the artist because it made it unpleasant for him. A quote from “ A Hunger Artist” that describes the annoyance the artist was feeling “often groups of night watchers who were very lax in carrying out their duties and deliberately huddled together in a retired corner to play cards with great absorption, obviously intending to give the hunger artist the chance of a little refreshment” (page 2) he had so much pride in his work that he didn’t want people thinking he was faking his fast so he decided to sing so that the butchers would know he wasn’t eating and breaking his fast. The old man also faced cruelty from the crowd when they started to poke him, tried to get him to eat, burned hi side, and threw stones at him. A quote from “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” that showed the cruelty “the cripples pulled out feathers to touch their defective parts with, and even the most merciful threw stones at him, trying to get him to rise so they could see him standing”. The old man would just sit there doing nothing all day so the people would attempt to hurt him in-order to get him to do something.

A contrast between the two characters is the compassion they received from the people that looked after them. In the “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” the old man received compassion from Pelayo and Elisenda when the winter came and the chicken hen was destroyed Pelayo let the old man live in their shed and would bring him a blanket to keep him warm. A quote from “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” that shows the compassion that the old man received from Elisenda “Elisenda let out a sigh of relief, for herself and for him, when she watched him pass over the last houses, holding himself up in some way with the risky flapping of a senile vulture” one morning the old man was attempting to fly but couldn’t get the grip of the air but finally managed to fly and Elisenda was relief for the old man that was finally able to go back to where he came from. In “A Hunger Artist” the artist did not get any compassion from Impresario when he stopped the 40-day fasting. Impresario would first let a doctor in the cage to determine the artist condition and then Impresario would announce it to the audience with a megaphone. Two women are chosen from audience to help the artist from the cage and then is forced fed in front of the audience. Another lack of compassion that the hunger artist received was from the circus he joined after leaving Impresario. The circuit forgot about the hunger artist and was only noticed when the circus overseer looks at his cage and notices he is near death and after he dies quickly replaced by a young panther. The lack of compassion he received from the circus caused his death because no would go over to his cage to check on him because he was forgotten about.

The focal point of the narration alters reader sympathy in “A Hunger Artist” throughout the story we learn about how the artist fasts and is mistreated by Impresario, we the reader feel sorry for the artist at the end of the story because he dies and gives us a shocking twist that he only fasted because he couldn’t find any food he liked. The Artist neglected by society but only wanting to be appreciated by the people that would come see him. Then when he apologized and said “I always wanted you to admire my fasting” made me feel like his believe of his purpose in life was just to be entertainment and only wanted in return was for everyone to be proud of his work.

The focal point of the narration alters reader sympathy in “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” because the old man was harassed by the people and some people did not believe he was an angel. Even though some people did not believe he was an angel and more a human, no one came forward and tried to free him from the chicken hen and no one tried to stop Elisenda and Pelayo from profiting from there misdeed. This made me sympathy for the old man as he really does not have much of a choice since he is weak/hurt but to sit there and let them mistreat him.

Paradox is a contradicting statement. In “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” the paradox is used in the third page “Elisenda shouted that it was awful living in that hell full of angels” Elisenda say this because the old man seems to be in so many places at the same time in their house. They treat the old man as a creature that came from hell when he is an angel. In “A hunger Artist” paradox is used when the artist seems happier inside the cage rather than outside. I say this because when he was in the cage he was doing what he loves and that was fasting to please other with entertainment but whenever he was outside the cage he was being forced fed by Impresario and being humiliated in front of the crowd.

Todorov term Marvelous is used in “A very Old Man with Enormous Wings” because the old man may look human like but has damaged wings therefore making him an angel. Marvelous is defined as not possible on earth therefore this story makes it Marvelous because we have never seen an actual angel on earth.

Todorov term Uncanny is used in “A Hunger Artist” because there are people that work for circus and do thing that seem impossible. Also, there is such a thing called Guinness world record where people break records by doing incredible things. Uncanny is defined as a closet to reality therefore this story makes it uncanny because we have seen people try to attempt things that seem impossible and sometimes dying from it.