Dr.
Comparison Contrast Essay
A Comparative Analysis of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” and Franz Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist”
There are both similarities and differences between the short stories A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and A Hunger Artist, but it is certain that these two stories can be compared on several levels. Every man deserves to be treated with respect in spite of being different than most people. Both of the stories have the main characters who do not fit in the society, who are different and deserve to be accepted for who they are, but they are misunderstood and have to struggle through life alone.
The man in Marquez’s story is an angel while the man in Kafka’s story is an artist who also seems to be out of this world. When Pelayo and Elisenda find the old man in their courtyard he looks different than any man they had ever seen. “His huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked, were forever entangled in mud” (Marquez 388). On the other hand there is the hunger artist who is not physically different than any other man, but he feels the need to fast. “He sat there pallid in black tights, with his ribs sticking out so prominently, not even on a seat but down among straw on the ground” (Kafka 1).
What is similar between these two characters is the fact that people wanted to touch them in order to satisfy their curiosity. People who come to such spectacles are those who are not easily impressed, but they are mostly primitive trying to judge the performance of the angel and of the hunger artist. The difference is that the angel did not choose to be exposed to the public, whereas the artist chose it as a profession. People would poke both of them, which was rude, but it reveals the characteristics of the public that was interested in these performances. “Even the most merciful threw stones at him, trying to get him rise so that they could see him standing” (Marquez 390). The crowd is ruthless and they are capable of hurting the angles only to see him well. The hunger artist was willingly offering people to touch him by “stretching an arm through the bars so that one might feel how thin it was, and then again withdrawing deep into himself” (Kafka 1).
Neither of the two characters was happy to let people touch them, but the artist was human and he did this as a profession. His art consisted of starving and people were amazed to see that at first. However, after some time, people found other attractions that they were more interested in and they abandoned both the angel and the hunger artist. When the woman who was turned into a spider arrived in town, the old man who was the angel was no longer exciting to see. “It so happened that during those days, among so many other carnival attractions, there arrived in town the traveling show of the woman who had been changed into a spider for having disobeyed her parents” (Marquez 390). The same thing happened to the hunger artist who eventually ended up as a member of the circus because circus would accept anybody.
Both the angel and the hunger artist had managers, but the angel did the performance as a way of helping Pelayo and Elisenda. It was a selfless act which is appropriate for angels. On the other hand, the hunger artist does not seem to be as selfless as the angel because fasting is the only thing that he is good at and he does it without any trouble. “For he alone knew, what no other initiate knew, how easy it was to fast” (Kafka 2).
The audience in both of the cities is the same because they have the same manners and they show doubt because they do not believe in miracles. They suspect that the hunger artists might be eating in secret. “He made no secret of this, yet people did not believe him” (Kafka 2). The artist was the only person who could claim that he never took any food, but people were still suspicious because they were not capable of doing it. It was easier for the angel to stand the crowd because of his strength and because he was capable of enduring more than mortal people. In the end, the angel recovers his health, while the hunger artist dies and is buried. People are suspicious of things they do not know and that are not usual and they are never ready to accept differences. However, humanity is often challenged by the appearance of those who are capable of performing miracles and who differ than other people.
The angel shows great mercy and he helps Pelayo and his wife earn a lot of money. The artist is fasting because he is used to it and because that was his art and his talent throughout his whole life. In the end he explains the reason for his fasting: “because I couldn’t find the food I liked. If I had found it, believe me, I should have made no fuss and stuffed myself like you or anyone else” (Kafka 5). This is a credible statement, but the man seems to be delirious because it his state of mind mist be altered after so many days of fasting. People even stopped caring about how many days passed. “But no one counted the days, no one, not even the artist himself, knew what records he was already breaking, and his heart became heavy” (Kafka 5). This shows that people cannot be pleased and that the crowds show no mercy. At times, people would wonder why he is even occupying a fine cage when an animal could have been put inside.
There is a difference between men and angels even if men have extraordinary capabilities. The hunger artist was obviously trying to educate to crowds and make them aware of the spiritual world by depriving himself of food. He was seeking for an enlightenment and people were supposed to understand that. However, they failed to understand anything and even got bored of his act. On the other hand, the angel decides to help a poor family earn some money and sacrifices himself and his freedom because of that. He could have escaped, but he stayed because he wanted to be of service to humanity. However, his life was never in danged as the life of the artist.
In the short story A Hunger Artist, Kafka is “exploring the dilemmas of artists and their crafts” (Mieszkowski 980). The artist in this case is “a man whose specialty is fasting before his audience” (Mieszkowski 980). He is only human after all and this performance leads towards his death. The angel is not human and his situation is much different. However, he is old and he might have only one more chance to help humanity, which he does by helping Pelayo’s family earn money on his account. Being so generous is not human-like, but it suits the behavior of an angel. The artist has different motivation, but he is also a person who is not selfish. However, he seeks attention, while the old man, the angel does not. What is common between these two characters is the need to sacrifice themselves in order to achieve greater good.
Works Cited
Kafka, Franz. A Hunger Artist. Las Vegas: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2010. Print.
Marquez, Gabriel G. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. New York: Penguin Books, 2014. Print.
Mieszkowski, Jan. "Kafka Live!" MLN 116.5 (2001): 979-1000. Print.
