Summary of the time period. In the late 1800's , gifts books, or annuals became popular in America after proving it was successful in England. These books were brought out each October for the Christmas trade, made up of poems, short stories, and essays. In America, Samuel G. Goodrich's was the great purveyor of these very popular items. His Token was without a doubt the most successful . Hawthorne was the most public contributor of short fiction to the Token. The Minister's Black Veil was one of the many short stories included in the Token. Summary of The Minister's Black Veil. The Minister's Black Veil was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne . This is a story about a well respected preacher, named Mr. Hooper, who suddenly started wearing a black veil over his face. Many of the church members were horrified of their pastor's mysterious black veil. They all speculated on the meaning of the veil but, no one really knew. Everyone wanted Mr. Hooper to take of his confining veil. Would the people eventually see Mr. Hooper's face or would his face be covered by the mysterious veil to death? Mr. Hooper's black veil was fear inspiring and could have represented many things. People could only speculate about the veil because Mr. Hooper kept the meaning of the veil mostly to himself. If the veil was a different color it would not have drawn as much attention. It was just the color black and the thoughts of evil and sin that it brings to mind. The veil could have most clearly represented secret sin. The secret of man hiding a deep sin from everyone, even himself. Surely, people did not think that Mr.Hooper was going to wear his veil permanently but, he did. Not even the woman he loved coul get him to take of his veil. After Elizabeth left the minister, he grew to be disgusted of his veil. There must have been a Godly influence on the minister to wear the veil because not even the love of his life could make him cast the veil away. Eventually Mr. Hooper had great power over souls that were in agony of sin. The blackness of his veil made agonized souls relate to him. It was ironic to see a man full of so much kindness and love to be to be shunned by so many because of a black veil. Bibliography -Critical Essays on Hawthorne's Short Stories by Albert J. van Frank. G.K. HALL&Co. Boston, Mass. -The English Notebooks by Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York Russell & Russell INC 1962.
Thiher, Allen Franz Kafka, a study of the short fiction. Boston: Twayne Publishers, c1900
Heidsieck, Arnold The intellectual contexts of Kafka's fiction; philosophy, law, religion. Columbia, S.C.: Canden House, 1994
The story begins in a town where the hunger artist is being held on exibition. The towns people are amazed by this man who does not eat, although there are some of those people who do not believe that the hunger artist is truely starving himself. The town peolpe would watch the hunger artist twenty four hours a day just to see if her would eat something. The hunger artist did not approve of those who did not believe in him or that would ignore the fact that he was fasting. When some towns people would ignore him, the hunger artist would get their attention by either singing songs or buying them breakfast. After a sort time, the towns people stopped coming to view the hunger artist, and no attention seemed to drive the hunger artist to other places to look for people who were interested in the art of fasting.
When the hunger artist realized that many people were not interested in a hunger artist anymore, the hunger artist went to join a circus. The hunger artist was not worried about the contract in which he signed, but the location in which his cage , which was to be strategically placed in order for people to see him. When the hunger artist was placed next to the animals cages, the people that were drawn to see the animals, had to pass the hunger artist cage. This would give the hunger artist his desired attention that he wanted. The hunger artist was thankful for the attention he recieved even if it was not the same as when he was in a show by himself.
As time past, the hunger artist was soon forgotten. When the circus workers went to the hunger artist cage, the circus workers could not find him, all the circus workers saw straw in the cage. When the hunger artist was discovered the hunger artist was weak and tired. The hunger artist told the workers that the reason why he did not eat anything was because he could not find anything good to eat, and if he had found something good to eat then he would have eaten something. After the hunger artist died, the circus replaced the hunger artist with a young panther. The young panther was vibrint and full of life which brought a new light to the cage that once had the dreary look due to the old hunger artist.
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