How Does Yossarian's Attitude Change

Catch-22 is a satirical novel by Joseph Heller. The novel was published in 1961, and its setting takes place during World War II. The unique title, Catch-22, refers to an unsolvable puzzle in which a character is frustrated by a paradox situation that prohibits any attempt to break free from them. Catch-22 is often referenced as one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century. The novel follows John Yossarian, an Air Force bombardier. It focuses on Yossarian and the other airmen, and their attempts to keep their sanity in order to complete their duty so that they can go back home. In the novel Yossarian develops and is affected by the actions of the other characters throughout the novel. This is showed in how he stopped avoiding …show more content…
For example, it is the character Yossarian whose development from egocentricity to kindness is the moral of the novel. In the beginning, Yossarian is satisfied in forging signatures, resististing orders, and avoiding responsibilities. But Yossarian’s attitude changes because several of his friends either die or disappear. Yossarian matures in his recollection of Snowden’s death. “Snowden was wounded inside his flak suit. Yossarian ripped open the snaps of Snowden's flak suit and heard himself scream wildly as Snowden's insides slithered down to the floor in a soggy pile and just kept dripping out” (Heller 338). This horrifies Yossarian and causes him to see the weakness of human life. Later in the book, Yossarian is called to make a moral choice. He can either accept Cathcart and Korn’s arrangement, leaving the Army and deserting his fellow soldiers, or continue flying missions. Yossarian, ultimately, takes a moral stand against war, and what it does to the individuals forced to fight in …show more content…
Early in his military career, in Colorado in 1942, he discovers the joy of dodging the war and the refuge of the hospital. He fakes appendicitis, avoiding training as he starts a long affiliation with hospital life. The hospital is Yossarian's home away from home and much more civilized than the war front; in fact, the novel opens and closes with hospital scenes. Yossarian matures through most of the novel, but his maturity had its own journey to achieve. He walks around naked for a while after Snowden dies, he constantly complains to the chaplain and other officers, and he fakes multiple illnesses. None of these methods are successful, and he is forced to continue flying. Through the lack of success he realizes what he’s doing isn’t working and he must grow and mature. He deals with a period of depression by treating women as sex objects. “Yossarian and Orr found themselves jammed into the same double bed with the two twelve-year-old twenty-eight-year-old prostitutes, who turned out to be oily and obese and who kept waking them up all night long to ask them to switch partners” (Heller 176). Yossarian even has a relationship with Nurse Duckett all in an attempt to feel in control over his body and his