View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What would the lax watchers do in a huddled corner?

2. In the prime days of the hunger artist, how often did people want to see him?

3. For whom is the hunger artist often just a joke that happens to be in fashion?

4. "There were people who argued that this breakfast was an unfair attempt" to do what?

5. Those who are not content with the dim night lighting of the hall focused the artist in the full glare of what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the negative side of the hunger artist's art and of art in general?

2. What does the artist realize toward the end of the story in terms of his performance at the circus? How does he react to this?

3. What does the artist realize about people knowing the truth of his fasts?

4. What could be said in terms of the artist as a martyr? What differing definitions are there of this term and how do they apply?

5. What does the artist think of the impresario's claims that the artist's melancholy is a result of the fasts?

6. What changes in terms of the artist's limitations in Part 2?

7. What do the handlers of the artist inevitably do when helping him from the cage?

8. What does the artist do when given the hands of those helping him out of the cage?

9. Who is paralleled to the hunger artist and why?

10. Who helps the artist from his cage?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the term "Kafkaesque." What qualities does work of this style and or mood convey?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the hunger artist's reaction to the suspicious watchers versus the watchers who play cards. How does he react to both?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the Absurdist qualities of "A Hunger Artist." How is this story a forerunner of the Absurdist movement?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 764 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample