The Hunger Artist symbolizes the need for attention in the world. Everyone tries to get attention in some form or another. The man starves himself if order to draw crowds in to watch him. It symbolizes the extremes that people will go in life to get people to notice them. He is literally starving for attention.
He says that there is no food that he likes in the world. This cannot possibly be true. I believe that this symbolizes that there is nothing that he finds more rewarding in life than the attention of others. He cannot be satisfied if he doesn’t have attention. He seems to be going crazy over trying so hard to impress people.
He starves himself even after the crowd doesn’t want to see him starve anymore. Even after he gets attention, the whole crowd cheers for him, and offers him food, it is still not enough for him. He continues to try to get more out of the crowd by proving that he can fast even longer than they expected. Then, he ends up not being satisfied with that crowd and decides to go to the circus and fast.
He believes that maybe there will be a better crowd of people that are interested in him at the circus. He finds disappointment at the circus as well because people aren’t looking to watch someone dying just to get attention. They want to see something lively and entertaining. He still doesn’t give up trying to win them over. He tries so hard that he eventually dies from starvation all because he wanted attention.
What depths would you go to in life to get attention? How could someone let the pressure of being accepted take over their whole life?
Composition 111 
February 6, 2013 at 4:56 pm
I completely agree that he does this all for attention. He dies because of his need for attention. Like you pointed out, it is not possible for him not to like any food. I think he has a deeper meaning than food in this case. I think he never got the love and attention and that is why he craves attention so badly. I agree that he starves for attention and he let his need for attention take over his entire life; it is sad that the need for attention can drive people to physically hurt themselves in order for others to notice.
February 6, 2013 at 5:00 pm
I agree with the fact that the hunger artist most likely did this for attention. I believe that it was partially for attention but he also seemed to have a personal goal as well. Your post has a few smaller sentences that seemed short and choppy, however you included good content so it can be overlooked. Overall I agree with this post, you presented good facts and opinions.
February 6, 2013 at 5:09 pm
This blog was very well written and yes I agree that he starves himself for the attention of others. To answer your questions at the end of your posts, I would never go that far for attention. It amazes me that someone people don’t feel complete unless they have someone looking at them, giving them comments or having multiple people do it. It is like they have no self-esteem. You blog points out that the Hunger Artist had no self-esteem and that he needed others to give him that boost,even if what he was doing was dangerous. My answer to your other question is sometimes the praise from people can become like an addiction. It’s like they can’t focus or feel right with the world unless they have that attention from people. Tome that is what happened to the Hunger Artist. Your blog lead me to the realization that he became obsessed and addicted to the praise of the people who watched him starve. I also believe that he keeps starving himself because he doesn’t know what else to do. The only thing he ever did with his life was learn how to fast. He really didn’t know what else to do. Very good job Jenna.
February 6, 2013 at 5:15 pm
Hahaha he is “literally starving for attention.” I think one of the main elements of this story deals with how the author uses hunger symbolically to also represent the Hunger Artists need for attention from his spectators.`The author ties emotional anguish into the universal feeling of hunger to give the story deeper emotional expression, as it isn’t his hunger that puts him in agony, but his need for attention. It is only through his longing for attention that he finds himself in perpetual misery.
February 6, 2013 at 5:21 pm
I agree that the Hunger artist definitely did this because he wanted attention, but I also believe he had a bigger goal in mind. While I was reading your post I thought about why he was doing this and why he wanted attention. Maybe he wanted someone to stop him from fasting. Maybe he wanted acceptance for want he does and then he’d realize that he doesn’t need to do it. Although, your blog was not about that portion of the dissection of the story, I think you should have included an opinion or two on how the author and artist are connected. Overall I really enjoyed reading your blog post and I love the ending questions you left for us, they really made me think. 🙂