the green blanket

The green blanket is a borrowed object that becomes a central material and moral burden for the unnamed protagonist of Knut Hamsun's Hunger. Lent to him by his acquaintance Hans Pauli Pettersen months before the narrative begins, the blanket is one of the few possessions the protagonist retains as he sinks into destitution. It is not his own, and this borrowed status makes it a constant reminder of his dependence on others and the precariousness of his honor. Throughout the novel, the blanket is the object of repeated temptation, a failed attempt at pawn, and a source of profound shame, ultimately tracing the arc of the protagonist's struggle between survival and moral integrity.

Origin and Material Significance

The blanket enters the story as a loan from Hans Pauli Pettersen, a theological student and peasant-farmer's son. The protagonist has been using it for months, and it is one of the few items left to him after he has pawned nearly everything else. In his attic room, the blanket is his only bedding, and he sleeps in it fully dressed, shivering through the cold nights. The blanket's material condition reflects his own: it is old and insufficient to keep out the drafts, and he wakes with his nose stopped by the frosty air that forces its way into his dilapidated room. The blanket is not merely a piece of cloth; it is the last layer between him and the freezing floor, a physical barrier against the elements that he cannot afford to replace.

The Temptation to Pawn

The blanket becomes the focal point of the protagonist's most severe moral crisis. After a day of failed attempts to secure food or money, he returns to his tinker's workshop and, without pausing or wavering in his resolution, rolls up Hans Pauli's blanket to take to the pawnbroker. He tells himself he is no hero, no virtuous idiot, and that he has his senses left. He carries the blanket to a pawnshop at No. 5 Stener's Street, but the pawnbroker refuses it, saying he has a whole store full of bedclothes and that the blanket is worthless. The protagonist then offers it for three pence, but the man will not have it in the house. Defeated, he returns home, spreads the blanket over the bed again, smooths it well out, and tries to wipe away every trace of his late action. He later reflects that he could not possibly have been in his right mind when he came to the conclusion to commit this rascally trick, and he rejoices that he had not had the opportunity to carry into effect this fault which would have sullied the last hours he had to live.

The Blanket as a Symbol of Borrowed Existence

The blanket's borrowed nature is a constant source of anxiety. The protagonist is acutely aware that he is using another man's property, and this awareness compounds his sense of degradation. When he considers pawning it, he knows he would be swindling Hans Pauli. The thought of this betrayal haunts him, and he later recalls with sarcastic laughter how he had gone about conscience-stricken because he had once brought Hans Pauli's blanket to the pawnbroker's. He mocks his own delicate rectitude, spitting contemptuously in the street and calling himself a fool for his stupidity. The blanket thus becomes a measure of his moral decline: the more desperate he becomes, the more he is willing to sacrifice the trust of the one person who has helped him.

The Blanket and the Final Crisis

In the final stages of his starvation, the blanket reappears as a symbol of his utter destitution. After being expelled from the lodging house in Vaterland, he wanders the streets, and the blanket is no longer mentioned as a possession. He has lost even that last borrowed comfort. The blanket's absence marks the point at which he has nothing left to pawn, nothing left to sell, and nothing left to keep him warm. It is at this moment that he signs on to the Copégoro, leaving behind the city and the blanket that had come to represent his borrowed, precarious existence. The green blanket, once a source of warmth and a test of honor, is finally abandoned, just as the protagonist abandons his old life for an uncertain future at sea.