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

Short Answer Questions

1. When would people buy season tickets for the artist's performance?

2. The permanent watchers are a formality to reassure whom?

3. The narrator writes that "during these last _____ an interest in professional fasting has diminished."

4. What does the artist stubbornly refuse to do at the last moment of his fast?

5. Who is bound to be the sole, completely satisfied spectator of the artist's fast?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where is the artist's cage placed in the circus? What is the description of it?

2. What spectacle is there when the fast is over?

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

4. What does the artist "do" in the cage? What is his interaction with the audience?

5. 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?

6. What does the artist tell his watchers regarding the ease or difficulty of his fasting? What do they respond?

7. How long is the fast and why is it this fixed time?

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

9. How is the artist an exhibitionist versus an inhibitionist?

10. How do the artist's final words contradict his behavior?

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

Compare and contrast the artist and the panther. What adjectives are used to describe each? How do these compare in the eyes of the audience?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the major and minor conflicts in the story. Which are internal? Which are external?

(see the answer keys)

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