In the novel “Hunger” by Knut Hamsun, the narrator of the novel is unfortunate enough to go through disappointments and pain caused by what many people cannot experience in modern days; state of hunger. As the novel progresses, the narrator becomes more and more intoxicated to the point of delirium as the hunger deepens. In many scenes of the novel, the narrator refers to God many times. The narrator blames, thanks, and even talks about one-sided dialogues with his imaginary God. While many may think that God takes no key parts in the novel and lets it pass as just another symptom of the narrator's delusion, the scenes in which God is a part reveal that God plays both the scapegoat and a person grateful for the outcome of the narrator for each action. he takes. It can be deduced from the passages that both the narrator and Hamsun have the attitude that God is threatening and act as a catalyst in everyday life. Early on in the novel, God is used as the narrator's scapegoat for the failures resulting from his actions. The narrator mentions God several times in the passage which is usually about his failure. Opinions about God appear to be neutral as the Narrator lightly mentions that “…God knows if it still makes sense for me to still be looking for a job! All these refusals, these partial promises, simple no's, hopes built and destroyed, new attempts that ended in nothing every time” (Hamsun 5). The narrator believes that God is omnipresent and confesses that only God understands what he is going through. But the narrator's view of God turns to anger as more misfortunes befall him, and he states that "I have received the heaviest objections against the Lord's arbitrariness in letting me suffer for the sins of everyone else" (Hamsun 20). The narrator suddenly changes his attitude towards God and enters into an illusion similar to the thought that God has chosen him to suffer and thinks that God is the root of the problem and that he is the problem for all his unfortunate ends regarding the his living conditions and his employment status. After using God as a scapegoat, the narrator shifts his thinking to believing that he was chosen by God because he is special. As the narrator walks through the city of Christiania, his delusion begins to kick in and he indulges in his moment with God..
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