Franz Kafka
A Report to an Academy

1.  a.  250 An academy is a group of people joined by a common interest in the sciences or the arts.   Why do you think the Academy members want to know about the narrator’s former life as an ape?    Why is the narrator unable to respond fully to their request?  What has made it possible for him to become human?  How does he seem to feel about becoming human?

2.   251-52 How does the ape feel about some humans?  Why?  What relationship is he establishing between himself and humans?  What similar relationships do we see among humans? What are the “advantages “of putting an animal in an uncomfortable cage from “the human point of view,” according to the narrator?  What is the “human” purpose?  How does the narrator appear to feel about the human point of view?

4. 252- He sees for first time in life that there is no way out.  Out of what?  What is the narrator saying about this cage and the way humans treat the wild animals they capture?

5.  254-56 He owes his way out, he says, to profound inward calm in first few days in ship, for which thanks ship’s crew.  How does he describe the crew’s actions and why do you think they are calming to him?  What does he think of his time on the ship?  254-55 Why was calmness so important? 255 Instead of trying to escape, what did he do?  

6. 256-57 What is the inward conflict that the crew notices in him? Why was the schnapps bottle of the man who wants to understand apes so important?  What are man and ape trying to overcome?  Why is this important to the ape?   What does the ape achieve beyond drinking the schnapps?   What is the ape hoping to find in this achievement?

7. 257- Why is he more than anything a performer?  258 What questions are posed by his relationship with the female chimpanzee for the ape and for humanity?  What questions would be posed if the ape represents people who are forced to adapt to modern culture against their will, like many American Indians and many Muslims, or simply all humans who are not fully happy having to grown up?  What pleasures do those who watch the ape perform get from his acting human?  What questions are posed by those pleasures?

Franz Kafka
A Hunger Artist

1.  168-70 Why in the past did people find the hunger artist’s performance interesting?   What pleasures did they get from watching the performance?  What similar, if not voluntary, spectacles do we see on our television sets?  What interest do people have in looking at such spectacles?   168-67 What does the hunger artist want from the spectators? 

2.  170-73 Why is he dissatisfied with himself?  Why does he say he does not want to leave his cage after 40 days of fasting?  Are there performer’s today who take similar risks?  What is the inevitable consequence of his drive to fast longer?   What is your reaction to the description of his body at that time?  Why would spectators want to see this in your opinion?  Why would the artist want them to see this?   When the artist gets angry at those who do not understand what he wants, what explanation does the impresario give?  What does this explanation imply about the artist’s motives?

3. 173-77 As interest in the hunger artist disappears, he no longer wants to be honored for breaking his fasting records.  After he decides to keep fasting all the time, after he is forgotten then rediscovered, he asks for forgiveness and says his fasting is not admirable, since he simply did like any food.  Does it follow necessarily that someone who does not like food would want to break a record by not eating for over 40 days and nights?  What is the real reason that he was always dissatisfied?  By trying to prove himself to the public, into what has he transformed his life?

4.  Why do you think Kafka replaces the hunger artist with the panther?  How does the panther contrast with the hunger artist?