Short Fiction · Chapter
The Glimmer of Hunger explained
Sergei Matveyevich Moshkin, a destitute former schoolmaster, spends his last money on a lavish dinner after receiving a hopeful but unsigned job interview invitation.
What happens
Sergei Matveyevich Moshkin, a destitute former schoolmaster, spends his last money on a lavish dinner after receiving a hopeful but unsigned job interview invitation. His hunger and rage against social inequality intensify as he wanders the streets, envying the wealthy. At the interview, he is offered a meager salary for excessive work; enraged, he threatens the young woman with a latchkey, vandalizes her art, forces her under a divan, and leaves. The glimmer of hunger in his eyes fades as he walks toward the canal, where the water lures him to a likely suicide.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Inequality
Moshkin's hunger and rage stem from his exclusion from the wealth and comfort enjoyed by the rich, driving him to vandalism.
Illusion vs. Reality
The hope from the unsigned postcard proves illusory; the interview reveals a harsh, exploitative reality.
Power and Control
Moshkin briefly seizes power by threatening the young woman, vandalizing her possessions, and forcing her submission.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Sergei Matveyevich Moshkin
Protagonist; a hungry, unemployed schoolmaster who commits an act of destructive rage after a demeaning job interview.
- Praskovya Petrovna
Moshkin's landlady; taunts him for unpaid rent, described with three triangular features.
Key passages
“The glimmer of hunger persisted in his dark, sad eyes, and it gave his lean, smooth face a kind of unlooked-for significance.”
The gleam of starvation remained in his gloomy eyes, lending his thin, clean-shaven face an unexpected depth.
Establishes the central metaphor of hunger as both physical and psychological.
“Now that’s something I can understand!”
That is something I can relate to!
Moshkin's repeated reaction to news of a fanatic slashing a painting, reflecting his own destructive impulses.
“The glimmer of hunger in his eyes went out forever.”
The gleam of starvation in his eyes was extinguished permanently.
Suggests Moshkin's death by drowning in the canal, ending his hunger and rage.