4-6 (Runaway Knight)

The most striking aspect of this chapter, whose title stems from Homeless’ arrival, is the unreliability of the narrator, who begins to refer to him/herself in the 1st person. Referring to itself as “we”p creates confusion over the narrator and suggests that he/she may even be a character in the story, or at least one that populates its world. The reliability of this ambiguous speaker is called into question when, in speaking of “a vision in hell” it begins to digress and ramble at length about how the mystics, who proclaim this man used to be a pirate, are lying. It continues, stating that there are “no Caribbean Seas in this world”, that “there is nothing and there never was”. It terminates its monologue by scolding the reader for digressing. This creates a sense of petulance.

In calling the reliability of the narrator into question, Bulkagov emphasizes the motif of deception which has been prominent in the book so far. This chapter further demonstrates the central motif of deception. Now at the mental asylum, Homeless accuses the poet who took him here of being “a little kulak who carefully pretends to be a proletarian”. After returning to the restaurant, Ryukhin reflects that he normally would have liked to retell the events, and “embellish his story with improvised details”. Deception is a normal occurrence; in fact to be completely truthful is atypical. Reminiscent of Tolstoy, he acknowledges that it is better to be “totally indifferent to the sick man’s fate."
-Runaway Knight