Inextricably (adjective) – in a way that is impossible to disentangle or separate.

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inextricably

From “A Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka

I came across this word while reading “A Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka. It appears at the beginning of the reading on the third paragraph on the first sentence when the author is describing the suspicions some people have with the hunger artist as they question the legitimacy of his art. It caught my interest because it’s a word I don’t see being used often, and i’m curious as to how it ties in with the sentence and the author’s overall point.

“However, it was, in general, part of fasting that these doubts were inextricably associated with it.”(Kafka).

After reading the definition of the word I better understand the context of how the author was using it in that part of the text. As seen in the quote, the author is discribing how the suspicions on the legitimacy of the hunger artist’s performance are to be expected because what he does is of extreme intensity on the human body and would most likely lead to death for the average person. So people are bound to question if he’s secretly doing something to assist him or if he’s really just a master at what he does.