Henry Miller

Henry Miller both narrates and writes the story. He tells about the people he meets and lives with, his impressions of Paris, America, New York City, and waxes philosophically on the meaning or meaninglessness of life in a mechanized age during the Great Depression. Sometimes he works, and other times he lives off the good will of others. His amoral approach to life situations frees him to think in ways that most do not, and if he feels trapped into a situation, he seizes the first opportunity to remove himself.

Henry and his friends take sexuality lightly in the moral sense. He is married to Mona whom he thinks of occasionally and who lives in America, but he views most other women as sexual objects with the notable exception of Tania. The Parisian culture of the day also treats sex lightly. So, Miller decides to remain in...