Yossarian's Death Analysis

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A combination of nervousness and craziness gives soldiers the edge to survive. In war, soldiers fight for those who order them to fight. Patriotism is not just their belief in fighting for freedom and for their country. Soldiers usually display patriotism, dreaming about their freedom and hopes for the future. In World War II, off the coast of Italy in Pianosa, all soldiers would fight for their country. All of them would die if need be, except for one. This soldier carries around his own set of beliefs which seem odd and irrational to everyone else . While every other soldier believes that his job is worthwhile, and that participating is a righteous deed, one soldier disregards every bit of it. While most generals, colonels, majors and lieutenants…show more content…
All of them know that they might die at any time while going for a mission. Ironically this knowledge of the variability of death accompanies Yossarian on his journey of avoiding death. He suffers the traumatic experience of watching Snowden die in his hands. By watching death firsthand, Yossarian begins to understand the situation it sets. Because of the tragic experience, his rationale on war has changed. He begins to act irrationally and wants to avoid death as much as possible. He wants to the flee war and death in order to live longer rather than running away from it in terror. Though Yossarian understands that no matter how much he flees and escapes death, it will eventually conquer him. Death is looming over everyone in his or her life. One has no choice but to face death head on. In order to avoid fighting in war and avoid possible death, Yossarian on many occasions checks himself into the hospital, giving the excuse of liver pains. “Yossarian ran right into the hospital, determined to remain there forever rather than fly one more mission than the thirty‐two missions he had... Yossarian could run into the hospital whenever he wanted to because of his liver and because of his eyes; the doctors couldn’t fix his liver condition and couldn’t meet his eyes each time he told them he had a liver condition” (Heller 165). Yossarian basically runs from his fears and doesn’t face the concept of death head on. Thus, he is fine being in the hospital forever. No enemies would be shooting at him and no one would be ordering him to go to missions which might possibly lead to shooting. He is fine being in a hospital where he is free from the rule of Catch 22 and the war and does not have to worry about dying. War’s ugliness killed Snowden right in front of Yossarian’s eyes. Yossarian as a result became insane and nothing more than to escape death
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