He is trying desperately to write something worthwhile. In the fourth part of the novel, the narrator is living in a lodging house, but he hasn't paid rent for three weeks. He is saved again when his editor gives him ten kroner, but on his date with Ylayali, she rejects him when he tells her the truth about himself. However, soon the narrator is overcome with conscience and gives away his money. In his euphoria, he talks to a woman whom he's seen hanging around his apartment, and he discovers that she is his 'Ylayali.' He walks her home and makes a date with her. The starving man buys food that he can't keep down. He tries to buy a candle on credit, and the store clerk accidentally gives him change for five kroner. He continues to write, but his writings are rejected. In the third part of the novel, the narrator is poor and starving again. During this part, the narrator is saved not by his own work, but by an unnamed passing friend who realizes what a desperate situation the narrator is in. Finally, a pawnbroker turns down his last possession, the buttons on his coat.

At each avenue he tries, the narrator fails to earn or borrow money. After losing his keys, he is forced to spend the night in the jail as homeless, but he is turned out starving because he's lied about his position in life.

The weather has turned cold, and the narrator's writing is going nowhere. The second part finds the narrator starving again and reduced to living in a workshop above a stable, abandoned because the snow comes into the building. He has no possessions and nowhere to stay.Ī few kroner is a transient thing. However, in exchange, the narrator has given up his home. The narrator is saved at the end of the first part by a few hours of inspiration that lead him to write a story that is published for ten kroner. He meets a woman who he gives a fantasy name, Ylayali, and fantasizes about. His rent is due, and he is evicted from his apartment. He has not eaten and has no food or money. After experiencing manic highs and bleak depressions, he finally takes a job on a ship sailing away from Norway, to England, and says goodbye to his native land.Īs the story begins, the narrator of Hunger is living in an attic room in Christiania. However, he ends up with no money for rent, and resorts to selling off his meager possessions to the pawn broker one at a time until he has nothing left. Out of work, he struggles to write articles for the local newspapers to make a little money to feed himself. In Hunger, the protagonist is a writer living in Christiania in the 1800s.

Hunger by Knut Hamsun