One idea seen throughout Phillip Roth’s, Goodbye, Columbus, is the connection between the little boy in the library and Neil Krugman. These characters share a direct link between them which goes unnoticed by Neil in the book. Neil looks at the boy and comments on his characteristics and traits but fails to see the underlying similarities between them. The main similarity is how both characters are searching for a greater purpose in their lives. Both the boy and Neil place themselves outside their general orbit. Neil notices this multiple times “saying how the euphoria of diction that the boy used would have had him banished from the library”(page 55) he is seeming to say that the boy does not belong in this situation and his pursuit of education