Yossarian lives in a tent along with his roommate Orr. Orr is described
as "a grinning pygmy with pilotós wings." He is very enterprising and has
equipped the tent with a fireplace, running water and a cement floor. In
the next tent lives Havermeyer. He shoots tiny field mice every night.
McWatt and Nately have a tent close by. McWatt is a "crazy" pilot who flies
his plane as low as possible over Yossarianós tent to frighten him. Nately
is in love with a Roman prostitute. Another officer, Appleby believes in
God, Motherhood, and the American way of life. Yossarian hates Appleby.
Yossarian is now out of hospital. Before he had entered the hospital, Yossarian
had told Clevinger that some people were trying to kill him (Yossarian),
but that he had no idea who they were. Yossarian believes that they will
not succeed in killing him because he is a hero: "a Tarzan, Mandrake, Flash
Gordon." Clevinger tells Yossarian that he is crazy.
Yossarian meets Doc Daneeka and asks to be taken off combat duty and sent
home. Daneeka tells him that he must complete fifty missions in order to
be sent home as Cathcart has raised the required number. Yossarian has only
completed forty-four.
Analysis
One of the aspects of Heller's style is a disjointed logic familiar to viewers
of comic routines popular during World War II, such as the Marx Brothers'
dialogues or Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?" An early example is
the exchange between Yossarian and Clevinger in Chapter 2. Yossarian complains,
"They're trying to kill me." "Who's they?" asks Clevinger. "Who, specifically,
do you think is trying to murder you?" Yossarian answers, "Every one of
them." The dialogue continues:
"Every one of whom?"
"Every one of whom do you think?"
"I haven't any idea."
"Then how do you know they aren't?"
Part of Yossarian's problem is that he quite justifiably, quite sanely thinks
that the enemy gunners shooting at his plane are trying to kill him! He
takes it personally. Clevinger, who is very bright but a conformist, accepts
the madness of war as reasonable.
Other characters introduced in these chapters are of varying importance.
The Texan is a very pleasant, very ignorant bigot who maintains that "people
of means ù decent folk ù should be given more votes than drifters, whores,
criminals, degenerates, atheists, and indecent folk." Yossarian can't stand
him. After ten days, the Texan's disgusting charm has cleared the ward,
sending Yossarian back to his tent in the squadron. Chaplain Tappman is
briefly introduced as one of Yossarian's favorites; we'll hear much more
from him as the novel develops. Dunbar is one of Yossarian's best friends.
Dunbar has a theory that he can extend his life by exposing himself to as
much boredom as possible, thus making time seem to pass more slowly.
Perhaps representing the anonymity of the individual in the institutional
military, the "soldier in white" is especially important to the grave tone
in the background of the opening chapters. The enigmatic soldier in white
was smuggled into the ward in the middle of the night and is "encased from
head to toe in plaster and gauze." The soldier's four limbs are pinioned
in air by lead weights. No one knows for sure if the soldier is black or
white, male or female, or even if there is a body inside the casing. The
closest anyone ever comes to seeing the actual soldier is a frayed black
hole over its mouth. The soldier in white is fed intravenously from a jar
hanging above its casing; the soldier's urine drips through a tube into
another jar, on the floor. When the feeding jar is empty, it is simply switched
with the collecting jar so that the soldier apparently is "fed" its own
urine. After Nurse Cramer's thermometer registers no temperature from the
soldier in white, she declares the soldier dead. Yossarian and Dunbar accuse
the bigoted Texan of murdering the soldier because the soldier is black;
the Texan denies it, pointing out a historical fact: the Army was still
segregated in 1944, and black soldiers would be in a different ward. Within
the convoluted logic of the novel, in which cause and effect get confused,
it is actually Nurse Cramer who has "murdered" the soldier; if she had not
taken its temperature, the soldier would not have been declared dead.
Notes
We are introduced to some of Yossarianós fellow soldiers. They appear grotesque
in character. Hellerós characters are drawn almost to the point of caricature.
We can remember some of the characters by the unique things they habitually
do: Havermeyer shoots tiny field mice at night, and McWatt loves to fly
his plane as low as possible.
Yossarian hates Appleby because Appleby believes in the American system,
and Yossarian no longer does. Yossarian deserves a rest, yet Cathcart keeps
raising the required number of missions to bolster his own status. of America.
Yossarian knows democracy does not exist within the armed forces and throughout
the novel he will fight for his rights as a soldier.
There is evidence that Yossarian is beginning to lose his sanity when he
says that everybody is trying to kill him. But it is also Hellerós way of
exposing the utter indifference of the administrative officers, and the
low morale of the fighting men. Yossarian believes that his commanding officer
is trying to kill him by sending him on more missions.