Books and fairy tales often contain heroes that do heroic acts such as slaying dragons or saving other's lives, but Kingsley Amis' novels are about the opposite. Kingsley Amis, the author of Lucky Jim and One Fat Englishman, is one of the best comic novelists. Amis' first novel, Lucky Jim, is about Jim Dixon, who is a preposterous professor dealing with his troubled society. He wants to gain love from the fiancée of his boss's son. Later, with the same theme of social satire as his first novel, Amis wrote One Fat Englishman. This novel portrays Roger Micheldene who is a monstrous English publisher in America. This man is full of gluttony, lust, sloth, and anger but ironically he also is in love with a woman married to a colleague. Along with social satire, Amis also presents his ideas of antihero. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, antihero is a "main character... who is characterized by a lack of traditional heroic qualities, such as idealism or courage" (American Heritage Dictionary). In other words, antihero is the exact opposite of hero. Their unremarkable actions, abhorrent personalities, and the lack of character developments are the characteristics of antiheroes.
             In most marvelous novels and especially in Amis' novels, the characters' actions tell a lot about themselves. For example, Jim Dixon is invited to his boss's, Professor Welch, house for an "arty get-together," but he dislikes the guests therefore goes out for a drink (Lucky Jim 23). In the middle of that night, Jim comes back, while afraid of being found drunk, avoids the main entrance, and gets "in through the French window" just to be able to go to his room without being noticed. In theory, this act of cowardice is one of the most primitive characteristics of antiheroes because cowardice is the opposite of heroic bravery. What place them far below heroes are the lack of integrity ...