| Yossarian |
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''' off the coast of Italy during World War II , and also lost crew members when his plane was attacked on his flight to bomb the city of Avignon . His first name is given quite late in the book version of ''Catch-22'', on page 438 in some versions. Yossarian is also the protagonist of Catch-22's sequel, '' Closing Time '', which was published in 1994 . Although the book describes him as being Assyrian , his name indicates an Armenian background. In ''Closing Time'', he is revealed to be an Armenian jokingly posing as an Assyrian. Throughout the book, Yossarian's main concern is the idea that people are trying to kill him, either directly (by attacking his plane) or indirectly (by forcing him to fly missions). His suspicion becomes full-blown Paranoia when he finds out, because of Air Force red tape, he cannot leave. He is unable to fly the required number of missions to be discharged from duty because his superiors keep increasing the number of required missions. Additionally, he cannot obtain a Section 8 by pretending to be Insane because his superiors see his wanting to get out of flying as a sign of perfect Sanity (hence ''Catch-22''). Because of this, Yossarian Boycott s flying missions as much as possible, either through Feigning Illness or inventing an excuse to return to base (like a busted radio.) In fact, the book begins with Yossarian staying in the hospital due to an invented Liver condition. Yossarian is also haunted by memories of the final moments of Snowden , one of his crew. Snowden, hit by flak fire during a bombing run, was tended to by Yossarian. When Yossarian finished patching what he assumed was Snowden's only wound (severe yet not life-threatening) he realised that, in actuality, Snowden's stomach had been opened, and he had tended the wrong wound. However, in all likelihood, Snowden would have been killed by the unseen wound despite Yossarian's intervention. Snowden's death apparently manifests Yossarian's desires to evade death in combat. Ironically, he is described as preferring to die naturally than being killed in combat. It is a particular species of death that Yossarian apparently dreads. The bulk of ''Catch-22'' concerns Yossarian's relationships with the other soldiers in his squadron, such as the , the Chaplain, McWatt , Nately , and Hungry Joe . Two characters whom Yossarian argues with, but appears to show sadness when they die are Clevinger and Orr. The book also concerns the efforts of Yossarian's superiors, especially the egomaniacal Colonel Cathcart and the Joe McCarthy -like careerist Captain Black , to continually up the number of missions required before the aircrews can rotate back to the US, in an attempt to make themselves look good to their superiors. Whenever on leave, Yossarian and his friends carouse, drink, and sleep around as much as they can, knowing and fearing they could die on any given mission. One of the Prostitute s they employ becomes Nately's unofficial girlfriend (she is referred to only as " Nately's Whore " and "Nately's Girl"). Despite Nately's repeated advances, she spurns him cruelly, and, when Nately is killed, blames Yossarian for his death; she manifests a towering rage and tries to kill Yossarian several times during the remainder of the narrative. By end of the book, just about every other member of his squadron has been killed, disappeared, gone AWOL or otherwise removed. Through a convoluted chain of events, Yossarian earns Cathcart's ire for a Smuggling scam that was actually perpetrated by Milo and is threatened with imprisonment. When Yossarian threatens Cathcart with exposing his opportunistic manipulation of missions, however, Cathcart backs down and offers to release him from duty as a reward for not telling anybody, as well as praising Cathcart and Korn on his return to the States. Yossarian cannot betray the members of his squadron who are still on the island, nor those that have died as a result of Cathcart's despicable self-serving mission's policy, so decides that he will run for freedom. The book is left with Yossarian running through the camp, a plan to make for Sweden in his head. There is nothing for the reader to know whether Yossarian makes it, however, the sequel tends to suggest he does (although, there was a gap of 33 years before he reappeared). |
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