PARTISAN REVIEW
as if in hestitation before the grave. When hunger comes, it appears pub–
licly only in its early stages and in some cases not at all. Permanent hun–
ger makes one indifferent, even to the self. The hungry hide like wounded
animals in their caves. Starvation is not a street-sight; it doesn't offer
itself to curious visitors. The people on the streets, and particularly on
the stiii comfortable streets, frequented by the even more comfortable
visitors, are stiii struggling against starvation with all the weapons at
their command.
If
they are hungry, they rush about not to get hungrier.
They still care about their appearance, dress up, brush, wash and mend
not to add moral humiliation to the physical dilemma. The starving
rush no longer. They do not clutter the streets; they have no shoes to
walk in and no reason to be seen. They stay at home, in their rooms, live
in their beds, or in the wards of hospitals, apathetically awaiting either
a miracle or death.
Their peaceful withering away is the triumph of the rationing system.
It is always a minority that succumbs first, to make room for another
minority, recruited from the large mass of people fighting for their
place in the majority. But in the end the various minorities represent
a previous majority. This prospect, however, only intensifies the struggle
for life and gives the hunger-obsession first place in the minds of the
obsessed.
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