When the woman passes him he says to her, “You are losing your book madam!” (p7), it is reveled two paragraphs later that they have come upon a bookshop and that the narrator is standing in front of it. Hamsun uses the same interaction with the woman as a window into the narrator’s unconscious. His description of his thoughts as whimsical and the word seized serve to show his quickness at acting on impulse. I feel myself seized with an odd desire to make this lady afraid to follow her, and annoy her in some way” (7). “ Suddenly my thoughts, as if whimsically inspired, take a singular direction. This is seen when after accidently brushing the arm of a woman while walking though the city, the narrator begins to follow and tease her. The narrator’s penchant to act out of impulse is seen throughout the novel and is an important element used in showing the narrator’s unconscious thoughts.
Hunger is an introspective novel that contains little dialogue, the reader is forced to rely on the narrator and by making him unreliable, Hamsun shows the narrator’s likelihood to lie and to act completely on impulse.
This passage provides insight into the narrator’s lack of credibility in lying about his appearance he is seen as acting impulsively and is proved unreliable. “Once again I raised myself from the window, went over to the washingstand, and sprinkled some water on the shiny knees of my trousers to dull them a little and make them look a trifle new” (3). This is seen in Part I when, on his way to meet with the Fire Brigade in hopes of securing employment, he attempts to make his trousers look new by sprinkling water on them. Hamsun writes the protagonist as an unreliable and conflicted narrator who displays an inclination to act on impulse alone.
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