Knut Hamsun's fin de siècle novel Fame sets the reader on a journey with its opening sentence when Hamsun writes: “Christiania, singular city, from which no man leaves without taking away traces of his stay there”. (Hunger 1). Here, Hamsun sets the stage for the introspective journey of the novel's protagonist, an unnamed narrator who attempts to become a writer in the city of Christiania. As the protagonist travels through the city, the reader is told his tale of his exposure to great hunger and poverty, his attempt to find work, and his interactions with other characters in his city. Throughout the novel, Hamsun uses these experiences as a tool to highlight the narrator's psyche in an attempt to demonstrate the importance of art viewed through the unconscious mind. In this article I will discuss the methods Hamsun uses to represent the unconscious mind through his narrator's experiences. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayHamsun writes the protagonist as an unreliable and conflicted narrator who displays an inclination to act only on impulse. This is seen in the first part when, on his way to the fire department in the hope of securing employment, he attempts to make his trousers look new by spraying water on them. “Once again I got up from the window, went to the sink and splashed a little water on the shiny knees of my trousers to dull them a little and make them look a little new” (3). This passage provides insight into the narrator's lack of credibility; by lying about his appearance he is seen as an impulsive agent and proves to be unreliable. 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 of lying and acting completely on impulse. The narrator's propensity to act on impulse is seen throughout the novel and is an important element used to show the narrator's unconscious thoughts. This is seen when, after accidentally brushing a woman's arm while walking through the city, the narrator begins following her and teasing her. “Suddenly my thoughts, as if extravagantly inspired, take a singular direction. I feel seized by a strange desire to frighten this lady; follow her and annoy her in some way" (7). The description of his thoughts as bizarre and the captured speech serve to show his quickness in acting on impulse. Hamsun uses the same interaction with the woman as a window into the narrator's unconscious. When the woman passes him he says, "You're losing your book, lady!" (p7), two paragraphs later it is revealed that they have come across a bookshop and that the narrator is standing in front of it. He subconsciously stuck in the bookcase and used a book as a teasing tool. The lack of pity felt by the reader for the narrator is a result of Hamsun's depiction of the narrator's unconscious. With the exception of a few isolated instances, the narrator remains in a state of hunger throughout the novel. Seeing this experience through the narrator's mind and thoughts, the reader realizes that his hunger is self-inflicted and does not feel sorry for him. In Part IV, after securing a room in an inn in Vaterland, he speaks of the kindness of his happiness in not being hungry when he says, “I no longer used cloths about my hands when I wrote; and I could look down the street from my second-floor widow without getting dizzy. It was much better in every way, and the fact of it became a matter of amazement to me. 2003