aligns
             itself with some significant meaning. But according to Jean E. Kennard,
             Heller makes sure these connections and desires remain purely "physical:
             food, liquor, sex, just as the only real horror is physical pain and
             ultimately death." Heller goes on to assess his reasoning for why the
             characters need such transient things, when in actuality they could die the
             very next day. His whole philosophy throughout the entire novel is very
             dependent upon the existentialist ideal that is characterized by a "sense
             of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or
             absurd world", as stated in a New York Times book review. Heller explores
             the possibilities of our existence through these characters and according
             to Jean E. Kennard, he plainly states his belief that "The world has no
             meaning but is simply there; man is a creature who seeks meaning. The
             relationship between man and his world is therefore absurd; human action
             having no intrinsic value is ultimately futile; human beings have no innate
             characteristics" and encourages his readers to do the same through analysis
             of the simplistic and supposedly mundane. By finding humor in the usually
             dark and depressing, the human mind is able to realize that the hilarity of
             such desperate situations and desperate desires. And while the characters
             in this novel are very realistic, they "are, however, caricatures,
             cardboard figures who are distinguished for the reader by their particular
             obsessions. According to Kennard each lives with an illusory view of the
             world which isolates him and makes the results of his actions very
             different from his expectations." We can relate to these people through our
             own desires and by the simplicity of our own lives. We know that we don't
             want to die, but we don't know why we don't want to die. We know that we
             want sex, but we don't know why we want sex. We want to have sex to
             reproduce. But ...