Summary
The poem ‘Hunger’ was
published in 1976, which was written by a prominent Indian writer, Jayanta Mahapatra.
As we define the title
‘Hunger’, the poet tries to show a different kind of hunger that only humans
have. In this poem he tries to define about the hunger of humans sexual desires
along with a reflection of common hunger. Through a simple incident
he tries to express about the term ‘Hunger’ in this poem.
‘Hunger’ is at once about
the need for food, and the appetite for flesh and sex, both are animal desires.
The poor fisherman’s daughter, driven by poverty, is offered for the
sexual gratification of the visitor. The women’s desire for food cannot be met
in normal circumstances. She is poor and her father is in no position to provide proper
shelter for her. The visitor, apparently a man burdened by passion and guilt at
the same time, must have her to release his tension, but cannot overcome the
usual pricking of his conscious. Mahapatra makes an ironical
inversion of the expression ‘chips on the shoulder,’ suggestive of pride and
overconfidence, as opposed to the nervous sexual energy of the young man.
Even the old man, send her
daughter to such hell the girl has absolutely no say over the matter; her
coming of age has only made her eligible for male lust. Providing sex to give
the family some kind of monetary support was not her idea in the
first place.
The poem is meant to
demystify life in the so-called red-light zones. The sex drives
of prostitutes or women making a living out of sex are often exaggerated and
misrepresented.
The poet had originally
suggested in a note that the incident could well have involved him or somebody
like him. There is no need to dig up biological records to verify the
identity of the man looking for sex and fearing it; this search and the
inherent fear is universal.
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