and sanity" and the other is the geometrical sexual connections shared by the characters. Analysis Dearborn calls Rojack the "quintessential Mailer hero" as he exemplifies many of the traits and accomplishments Mailer himself as a war hero, a successful politician, a television personality, and a professor of "existential psychology". Mailer commented in a later New York Post interview: "I wanted a man who was very much of my generation and generally of my type". Rojack feels that his reality is created by the public and that he has become just a shell, a mere actor, which creates a crisis of identity and precipitates his actions. Like Mailer's Hipster, Rojack does not live until he has experienced death — so his murder of Deborah frees him from his hollow public life and initiates his transformation. It's only through the lowest and most severe forms of physical transgression that Rojack, like Mailer's Hipster is able to begin his journey toward psychic redemption. Rojack's journey reflects a seminal theme for Mailer in the importance of growth by confronting serious existential situations with courage. In a 1963 letter, Mailer defines what he means by "existentialism" as "that character can dissolve in one stricken event and re-form in startling new fashion". Likewise, states Dearborn, Rojack believes that in killing Deborah, he has cured himself of cancer, a theme that becomes explicit in the novel's epilogue where "Cancer is the growth of madness denied". In a later interview with High Times, Mailer elaborates further noting "A lot of people get cancer because they were too responsible with their lives. They led lives that were more responsible then they wanted to be. They lived their lives for others more than for themselves. Denied themselves certain fundamental things, whatever they were. . . . Cancer is a revolution of the cells". Leeds adds that, for Mailer, cancer represents moral failure and is a significant theme in much of Mailer's work. It is not easy to accept or to excuse Rojack's ability to escape punishment for his transgression of murder. Often characters cannot so easily get away with murder unless it stems from revenge. Murderer's gambit, whose success requires the approval of the reader, can be applied as a way for the "novelist to gamble with the reader's empathy in the hopes of either winning greater sympathy or . . . greater interest in the character's situation". Yet, there