Belief in Hunger Artist

No, it is not possible to fast for that long and expect to be alive for all of it especially with out water. Any real person cannot survive without food for 3 weeks, so instead what is used is a suspension of belief. What a suspension of belief is when a writer introduces something that can be a little believable and makes it interesting, then it would make the readers forget about reality and just focus on the story. In the version of Cinderella that I read which was “The Little Red Fish And the Golden Clog”. There where many occasions that wasn’t believable at all like a fish that can talk and toxics that can make a person beautiful, but what made it ok was the emotions of Cinderella and how she was being treated a version of suspension of belief. A another example, is a super hero show called the Flash the main character was hit by lighting next to random chemicals. In real life a person would die by the chemicals and the lighting, but it would be entertaining to see a human get super speed and it kind of makes sense. As the watcher you do not know what chemicals that are used and with the way how science is now it is possible. The fact that the chemicals could of fuse with the lighting and in return it gave him powers could be excused.

5 thoughts on “Belief in Hunger Artist

  1. Madycyn

    I hope that everyone knew that this was impossible to do but I totally agree that it gives the story a deeper and true meaning because it shows how passionate and how much it meant to him. It puts all reality to the side and kind of helps you connect to how he feels and how it probably felt to him. Imagine trying to do that. I mean like stated above it’s possible but not for that long. The truth gets stretched to make a point and it helped the story out a lot and gave it so much more meaning and intense.

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  2. Jody R. Rosen

    At an early point in the story, the hunger artist sips water, so that’s seemingly allowed. I don’t know human limitations about not eating, but the point of the story is not whether it’s medically possible, right? It’s that it’s really beyond what a human can do, only he’s able to do it. The 40 days seems key here–maybe it’s possible in 40 days, so it gives readers the chance to go along with the premise. The really unbelievable part that we just go along with because the story is already so absurd is when he joins the circus and goes well beyond the 40 days. When he dies, they just sweep him out along with the straw in his cage. He’s like a bit of straw. I mean, really. Or not really, as Skylar has shown us.

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  3. Linh Ngo

    The hungry artist despite what the town people say about him, that he a fraud, and he’s sneaking food through at night, he is still trying so hard to prove to people that hes capable of fasting for a long period of time. He’s starving himself just for the entertainment of people, and wanted them to admire him. I just felt like he really wanted the people attention, and to believe in what he does. Out of all of that he doesn’t care what happens to his body, and how much pain he Indore. Also I felt like the hungry artist is a characters that has conflicts within him self, he doesn’t think about death, and all he wanted is to impress the people, I get it if he’s doing this to the extreme because he’s an artist, but in my opinion that’s not what art is all about, is about show casing something beautiful, and exciting, and not a person starving in a cage. That to me just felt very disturbing and weird.

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