Psychologically Disabled

Yossarian is definately psychologically disabled. He still has qualities of a hero but the war images that stuck to his mind completely changed him. He showed up completely naked to his medal ceremony because he refused to wear a uniform after Snowden died in his arms and bled all over his clothes. This psychological problems can cast a shadow over hero-like qualities. In today's society, we could never accept a person as a hero or heroine if he or she did something considered obscene or wrong to society's eyes. We usually label people's actions without having any background information on why a person would do such thing. Such behavior may be a cry for help. A hero trying to come out of a shell created by past events and experiences that turns them into something they are not, even if such thing only lasts for a moment.

The love of Heroes

We have already witnessed in "The Three Musketeers" the fact that heroes have a tendency of falling in love very easily. D'Artagnan felt great affection for three different women throughout the story and this kept leading him to more trouble. With Yossarian it is not different. He had just met Luciana, an Italian woman, and he "falls in love" with her. The difference in this situation though is that Yossarian has witnessed nothing but death and sorrow for the past weeks. So, for Yossarian any sign of affection shown by a person of the opposite sex can make him fall in love.

Luciana also shows Yossarian a scar of when the Americans bombed her hometown. This event makes him even more eager to leave the war and feel remorse for being part of something horrible that not only killed many innocent people but also hurt a loved one.

Luciana then parts, and they don't see each other again. Even though they only saw each other for two days, she touched Yossarian's heart. He felt good feelings that only a hero could have felt.

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.