Hunger by Jayanta Mahapatra

Introduction
Mahapatra wrote many poems on the themes of poverty, hunger, starvation, sexual exploitation
and bestiality of males. Jayanta Mahapatra’s poem Hunger is a famous poem written on a unique theme.
The poem clearly says about the need for food, and the appetite for flesh and sex, both animal desires.
It reveals the plight of a fisherman who can’t make both ends meet. We can vividly feel the pain and
anguish of the father. The poignancy of the situation is that Hunger imposes tragic compulsions – the
poor father kills his conscience and entices clients for his daughter, who has become a prostitute. This
poem describes the plight of the fisherman.
Stanza 1
It was hard………………………………. thrash his eyes.
The poet begins with the words It was hard to believe the flesh was heavy on my back. In the
first reading, we may think that the poet has a heavy load or luggage on his back. However, the phrase
hard to believe refers to something that is deep and profound. The poet here says that he couldn’t believe
that he had strong sexual desires at that time and was striving for sex which he couldn’t believe. In the
next line, we come to know that he is on a boat with a fisherman who says to him, “Will you have her”.
Her here refers to the daughter of the fisherman whom he offers to the poet to have sex with her. It is
quite strange and impossible as no father ever offers his daughter to strangers for quenching their sexual
thirst. While asking, the fisherman seems to be carelessly trailing his nets. But he was in no way
careless. His nerves were stretch and white bone thrashing his eyes meaning that he was quite
curious for the poet to say yes as he and his daughter have nothing to eat and are striving for
food. Thus, he offers his daughter to the poet so that the latter may quench his sexual hunger while the
former two may quench their physical hunger. Note that his daughter’s consent is not taken. It is not
clear whether she wants to have sex or not.
Stanza 2
I followed…………………………….from the seas.
The poet then followed him across the sprawling (spread) sands. His mind was thumping in
the flesh’s sling meaning that the poet’s mind was throbbing, and his skin was trying to support it like
a sling or the bandage used for supporting a broken arm. The poet thought that his sin will be forgiven
by burning the house that he lived in. The line shows that the poet was feeling quite guilty because of
what he was going to do out of sexual desire. Then the silence of the poet was grabbing him, and it
seemed that the silence has gripped his sleeves. It was perhaps his nerves that were stretching. The
fisherman looked at his old nets which had caught nothing but the foam from the sea.
This last phrase can be attributed to the poet as well if we go deeper into its meaning. The poet
imagines as if he had gathered nothing but sin by his sexual desires.

Stanza 3
In the flickering………………………space of my mind. The reached the fisherman’s hut
which was quite dark and opened like a wound. This phrase depicts the worst condition of their hut
because of poverty. The wind here symbolizes storm which was going into in the mind of the poet. Days
and Nights means that it was happening all the time without stopping. While entering the hut, the leaves
of the palm tree were scratching his skin. In the metaphorical sense, they were stopping the poet from
committing the sin. Inside the roughly built hut, the oil lamp had confined and fastened the hours to the
wall. It probably means that the time has been stopped in the hut. There is no day, but only the night.
The night is not only in physical terms but also in the metaphorical sense because there is the
darkness of sorrows over the fisherman and his daughter. The smoke coming from the lamp was filling
his mind and he was feeling either dreamy or helpless.
Stanza 4
I heard…………………………. turning inside
The poet hears the fisherman says, “My daughter, she’s just turned fifteen...Feel her. I’ll be
back soon, your bus leaves at nine". Fifteen is the age when a girl is it her charm. Feel her
means quench your sexual hunger by having sex with her. I ‘ll back mean that the poet is now free to
do with his daughter whatever he desires. The poverty and extreme hunger make the fisherman pimp
his own daughter in exchange for some money or food. The way fisherman persuades the poet to have
sex with his own daughter makes the poet feel as if the sky has fallen on him. The poet finds the girl
who is young but malnutrition due to poverty. Seeing the poet, she opens her worm-like legs (as she is
very weak and young) for the poet to make her his sex slave. At this stage, the poet knows for the first
time about the other hunger that is opposite of his sexual hunger and which comes from an empty
stomach (fish slithering, turning inside depicts the churning movement that happens inside the stomach
when we feel hungry). The poet discusses hunger in his other poem Freedom as well.
Critical Appreciation
Hunger is about the idea of hunger that at the beginning of the poem is that of sex and sexual
desire but in the end, transforms into the hunger of stomach that leads the people to do anything.
Interestingly, it’s not just the father who is constantly fighting his conscience, but the narrator
as well. Yet the narrator is moved to perform the sexual act to gratify his sexual hunger, starkly burdened
by his guilt. The tragic irony is that this sexual act in a way sanctifies the ‘purpose’ (brings provender
and food for the fisherman) and on the other hand, it satisfies the sexual appetite of the narrator. No
doubt the poet depicts the predicament of the fisherman and condemns poverty, there seems to be a hint
that one may to resort to any means of survival. It is the fisherman who contacts the speaker walking
along the beach to lure him to have sex with his daughter, telling him that she is very young, just turned
fifteen. Of course, these words arouse sexual urges in the speaker. The speaker, though feeling guilty
inward, is overpowered by his sexual urge and follows the fisherman to his shack. It is the sight of the
shack and the conditions prevailing their it and its inmates that convey the speaker about the miserable
plight of the fisherman.

Language of the poem:

The poem consists of 4 stanzas having 5 lines each. There is no set rhyme scheme. Mahapatra
uses a few words to suggest much more than what the words literally mean.
The narrator walks behind the fisherman, feeling guilty as well as feeling an intense sexual
urge. His mind feels heavy; he realizes that he is doing something wrong, but the fisherman’s words
have aroused sexual desire which becomes more and more intense as he follows him to the shack. As
they approach, the fisherman opens the small gate which is represented by a wound and tells the speaker
to ‘feel her’; he goes away promising to return after some time. The fisherman knows what his daughter
has to do.
 When the speaker enters the shack, neither does he ask the girl anything nor does she speak a
word. The only thing she knows is that the stranger who has stepped in is a customer. The speaker looks
at her and she acts mechanically, by opening her legs wide, inviting the speaker to perform the act.
The most striking feature of the poem is the realistic portrayal of the three characters and their
behaviour. The only person who speaks is the fisherman and the rest of the characters, i.e. the narrator
and the girl remain mute, though they do act.
Mahapatra has succeeded in conveying many things in a short poem by the deft use of words
which carry both literal and metaphorical expressions. The poem is a consummate work of art where
the words seem to gain life and speak to the readers in many voices.
Analysis:
The old man’s offer is unscrupulous, but treating it as evil would be missing the point of the
poem; for, the economic compulsions are already a part of the context, intended to work as an ironic
supplement to the young man’s overt sexual drives. Critics have commented on the use of women as
figures of patriarchal fantasies and make victimization in Mahapatra’s poetry. The girl has absolutely
no comment over the matter; her growing age has only made her eligible for male lust. Providing sex
to give the family monetary support was not her idea in the first place.
The poem is meant to demystify life in the so-called red-light zones (most such zones have little
or no light at all). The sex drives of prostitutes or women making a living out of sex are often
exaggerated and misrepresented. Tucked away in the southern coast of Orissa, Gopalpur-on-sea is a
small town thronged by tourists for its sunny beaches, shallow sea and quiet nights. Women from fishing
community, who generally sell fish in the local market, sometimes double up as prostitutes, catering to
the visitors. The woman bathes in clean water before approaching the customer, trying hard to remove
the fish-stench in order to gather another kind of stench which cannot be sniffed, only felt.

Students may refer the below mentioned link to understand Imagery in the poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra
http://worldlitonline.net/jan_2019_vol_15/jan_2019_article_4.pdf

For theme and technique of the poem below mentioned link may be used.
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/jspui/bitstream/10603/61971/8/08_chapter%202.pdf

http://www.ijelr.in/3.3.16c/718-721%20JAYARAMAIAH.N.pdf