In Franz Kafka's stories "The Metamorphosis", "In The Penal Colony", and "The Fasting-Artist", the protagonists, Gregor Samsa, the officer, and the fasting-artist, each make apparent sacrifices. These characters give their lives for others, but their deeds are unacknowledged by those they should benefit, who neither enjoy nor even understand the sacrifices made for them. The only one who can truly appreciate a sacrifice is the victim himself. .
The most prominent example of this tendency appears in "The Fasting-Artist". The artist fasts for public admiration, so that ladies can have the place of honor holding his body and crowds can come to look at him. He thinks that fasting is not a sacrifice at all; "he knew.how easy fasting was" (212) but his ability to eat the food supplied to him by watchmen who cannot understand "the honor of his art" (210) shows that it costs him at least some effort when his audience does not appreciate his sacrifice. He feels that his true sacrifice is "lying in bed almost at his last gasp.the consequence of the premature ending of his fast" (215) which he does, again, because after "about forty days.the audience fell away" (212). So great is his dedication to sacrifice and to his art that, when business worsens, he is willing to join a circus and understands that "he should not.be placed.in the middle of the ring as a star attraction" (216). But while at the circus he leans that people are not interested in seeing him; they merely pass his cage on their way to see the animals. Eventually the circus keepers stop keeping track of the days the artist has fasted, and his sacrifice is no longer for his audience, but for himself and for his art. The curious aspect of the fasting-artist's performance is that his sacrifice for art is indistinguishable from the art itself. As the only one aware of his fasting, the Artist is the only one able to appreciate it, and he even tells his overseer that he "shouldn't admire" (218) the fast.
