The immobilized hero, then, who is city-pent and agoraphobic, shares these characteristics: he "writes" in the first person; he is antiscientific and antimaterialistic; he searches his own mind instead of going to the outside world for answers to his questions; he lives alone, counting and listing a small stock of possessions; he is a single man; he is likely to be an artist of sorts; his sense of humor is mordant, ironic, and often private; and he either loves or hates himself to the point of mental and physical pain.