Government's Fault

The reason why these characters are in these situations is because of the government involving itself in the war. They don't want to keep sending people because they waste money doing so, so instead they try to keep the ones they already have deployed in the war zones. That is why they keep raising the amount of missions necessary to be performed in order for a soldier to leave. And also, what I thought to be very interesting, is when the narrator tells us that one mission, Yossarian flew over the target twice before he bombed it instead of once, such mistake lead to the death of a fellow soldier. Instead of Yossarian being dismissed, or even punished for such mistake, he is awarded a medal. The government wanted him to stay around so they ignored his mistake.

A Group Of Heroes

The first few chapters of this book describes its interesting characters. Most of these characters had a comfortable life before the war and now they are being forced to kill and live under pressuring conditions of being killed at anytime. They are afraid of dying, and that does not make them cowards, they are victims. For example, Hungry Joe used to be a photographer for Life magazine, and now he screams at night and keeps waiting for his documents to go back home, which keep on being postponed and will never come. There's also Doc Daneeka who keeps complaining about how this war took him away from his clinic back home where he was making good money.

The question I pose is, are they heroes?
I think so. They are sent to a place where they have to kill people and do their best to survive. Most of them don't want to be there and yet they are forced to. Such events can change a person's life even after the war is over, and if they are capable of staying alive then they certainly are heroes.

Catch-22: Yossarian- Hero or Zero?

In this new book that I have started reading, the main character, Yossarian is completely against the war, which he thinks is a waste of young lives. Yossarian is a bombardier in a U.S. squadron stationed in Italy, with some other interesting characters who make up his squadron. Our hero is tired of the war and he wants the people he hasn't even met to stop trying to kill him. He is constantly faking illnesses in order to be grounded from missions, he also tried to use insanity as a way to stay out of missions. But Dr. Daneeka explains to Yossarian the Catch-22 rule that says that, in order for a soldier to be grounded for insanity, the soldier must ask to be grounded, but once a soldier asks to be grounded it proves that he is sane, since no sane person wants to be shot at, therefore the will to be grounded and live.

Yossarian is almost the opposite of D'Artagnan. What D'Artagnan lacked in ethics he made up in courage, while Yossarian is a "coward", who doesn't want to go to war. Well, that doesn't take his heroism away because to fight in a war such as WWII, you couldn't rely only on your skills to stay alive while in D'Artagnan's time his skills in sword fighting was enough for him to fight his way through his "troubles".