“Fortunately, just when things were blackest, the war broke out.” (40)
“Yossarian, we live in an age of distrust and deteriorating spiritual values.” (41)
“Every place we pitched our tent, they sank an oil well. Every time they sank an oil well, they hit oil. And every time they hit oil, they made us pack up our tent and go someplace else. We were like human divining rods.” (43)
“Luckily, the war broke out just in the nick of time...” (44)
“I’d rather have peanut brittle crumbs on my face than flies in my eyes,” (47)
“Yossarian longed to sit on the floor in a huddled ball right on top of the escape hatch inside a sheltering igloo of extra flak suits that he would have been happy to carry along with him, his parachute already hooked to his harness where it belonged, one fist clenching the red-handled rip cord, one fist gripping the emergency hatch release that would spill him earthward into air at the first dreadful squeal of destruction.” (49)
Here is a photo of the bombardier's compartment of a B-25 bomber:
“Every time Colonel Cathcart increased the number of missions and returned Hungry Joe to combat duty, the nightmares stopped and Hungry Joe settled down into a normal state of terror with a smile of relief.” (54)
“Everybody has nightmares.” (54)
"Threatening to do so was merely his idea of a joke, like dying of pneumonia..." (57)
"Catch-22 says you've always got to do what your commanding officer tells you to." (58)
"But Yossarian still didn't understand either how Milo could buy eggs in Malta for seven cents apiece and sell them at a profit in Pianosa for five cents." (67)
1. This book is full of paradoxes. For example, in our last reading, Heller said, "Under Colonel Korn's rule, the only permitted people to ask questions were those who never did" (35). Or from this reading: "Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy" (46). It seems like a lot of the situations in this book are illogical or just extremely strange. Take Chief White Halfoat and his family of "divining rods" for example. Does Heller simply say these paradoxes and make up these stories to add to the absurdity? Or does Catch-22 have a different significance in this context of war?
2. Heller describes Hungry Joe in detail in chapter 6. He says, "He was a hero now, the biggest hero the Air Force had, Yossarian felt, he had flown more combat tours of duty than any other hero the Air Force had" (52). Based on the chapter, I think "hero" is a strange word to describe Hungry Joe with, but I may be wrong. Do you agree with Yossarian? Is Hungry Joe a hero? Either way, what point do you think Heller is trying to make with his description of Hungry Joe, who has flown over 50 missions?
3. Finally, in the last chapter of the reading, we get to know McWatt a little bit. Yossarian states, "McWatt was the craziest combat man of all time probably, because he was perfectly sane and still did not mind war" (60). Just a chapter before, McWatt and Yossarian had a short conversation where they talk about having to fly more missions. Yossarian and McWatt don't seem upset by this fact, stating, "I guess we do," and "Oh, well," respectively (55). I found this interaction really strange after reading that Yossarian was so scared of the enemy fire earlier. So, does Yossarian fear death? Do you think that men like McWatt or Havermeyer, who seems fearless, no longer fear death?
I think part of Heller’s reasoning is to add to the absurdity, but I do not think Catch-22 is Heller’s only (so specific) catch. I am not entirely sure what the catch is yet, but I think that maybe it is related to this notion of opposites and that things are never as they seem. Hungry Joe always smiles and looks “relieved” when he is told he cannot go home yet, and he is always screaming and panicking at night in his sleep and while playing cards, which one would typically assume to be times of peace. It’s like learning to become insane is an act of sanity, but there is only rarely a right time. Yossarian gets the timing right with his liver problems, but proving sanity or the lack of is a much more different/difficult thing.
ReplyDeleteOr… Maybe Heller is saying that nobody is “evil or ridiculous or disgusting” like in Slaughterhouse Five because even if we have nightmares, everybody (the greater institution of society that we are all a part of) has nightmares; therefore, we have done nothing wrong, which makes it easier to live with anything from nightmares to killing people to getting shot at. It’s like Clevinger saying, “No one’s trying to kill you [...] They’re trying to kill everyone” (16). It’s easier to be blamed or shot at as a unit rather than an individual because then it's harder to label fault or to take things personally. Just distract from the crab apples with the rubber balls.
Well, I don’t really like the term “hero,” as I’ve mentioned in class, but sure, Hungry Joe is a hero, because HJ has survived the longest of all the other men. To me, heroes are portrayed as the people who never die against the greatest odds and HJ seems to fit this definition. He lives in terror every night and cannot even play cards without losing his mind, but he is still breathing, which is noteworthy. I think HJ is the only bombardier who understands the catch. He has accepted that he must be the reciprocal of his usual self in order to survive by acting relieved in the face of additional missions and by refusing to see Doc Daneeka.
I think that as an understatement, Yossarian is utterly terrified of death. All he wants to do is live. Yossarian is afraid of not existing, which is demonstrated earlier in the book when he asks where all the Snowden’s (the soldier who dies) go. I think that Harvermeyer is the typical soldier that it is easy to imagine likes playing violent video games, so they went to war to see what it’s like in real life (although there is a draft at the time.) I do not know that McWatt does not fear death per se, but he seems to be incredibly pragmatic. He may die, he may not die, but he’s not going to stop wearing red pajamas or stop being clean-shaven while he figures out. McWatt seems so normal, which in a war setting, I think is incredibly abnormal, which is why McWatt is “the craziest of all.” Maybe it’s as simple as, if you act/continue living as a civilian, you’re crazy.
This book is so complicated.
Yes. I think that Heller is using these paradoxes to show the absurdity in war. As we have seen in some of our other stories, there is an absurdity in war, and I think that Heller is trying to highlight that. The paradoxes he uses reminds me of the idea that the terror bombing of cities, with the goal of taking as many civilian lives as possible, was necessary to help save lives; it doesn’t make sense. I think Heller is showing the absurdity in smaller ways, not speaking about greater military practices, but just showing how some smaller, more specific absurdities affect these soldiers.
ReplyDeleteI think Yossarian is using the word “hero” very intentionally. I think that, while Yossarian may not think he is a hero, the Air Force does, or, at least, says they do. I’m sure they were told that, if they fly more missions, they will be more of a hero. This contrasts what we see of the “biggest hero the Air Force had,” a man who has nightmares nightly, tucks his wristwatch into a sock on the other side of the room when he sleeps, and occasionally babbles incoherently. I think that Heller is saying: “This is what your heroes look like. The heroic missions they flew turned them into this, a man who can’t sleep at night, who snaps at the smallest of sounds. You lied to us.”
I fully believe that Yossarian fears death, I think he just realized that, due to the catch, there is nothing he can do about flying those missions. He will fly them, but, as he does fear death, he will fly as crazily as possible, attempting to dodge the anti-aircraft fire. As for McWatt of Havermeyer, I’m not sure if they fear death. I think that they probably do, as it is part of life to fear death, but just have come to terms with it, and recognize there is nothing they can do to prevent it. Then again, they are crazy, so who knows.
1. Well, Heller uses the absurdity of these tangents in the story to highlight the absurdity of war, but he then takes those tangents to make a broader comment or criticism on some facet of American life or its military. Heller uses the contradictory Catch-22 law, Milo’s strange profit margins from selling eggs, and Coronal Cathcart’s ordering of his men to battle for his gain as a criticism of the Army’s bureaucracy that gets men like Yossarian killed. Heller also uses smaller moments in the novel to criticize smaller aspects of American society. For example, Heller criticizes the hypocrisy of Cheif White Halfoat when he talks about how terrible racial prejudice is, yet he then lists off several stunning racial slurs.
ReplyDelete2. I do not agree with Yossarian in his statement that Hungry Joe is a hero. I would imagine that the argument for Hungry Joe’s heroism is his willingness to brave the dangers of battle time and time again, but as we see in the novel, bravery is not why Hungry Joe keeps flying. Much the contrary, Hungry Joe is so afraid and terrorized by his nightmares when he is off of combat duty that he is relieved when he can return to a state of simple “terror.” I would consider him a hero if he acknowledged the dangers of battle, feared them and fought for what he believed in anyway, but he just seems like a coward to me; for whatever reason, he is more afraid of being done with his missions than he is flying them. He is just doing what scares him the least, and his choice is neither reprehensible nor heroic.
3. I think that the men other than Yossarian do not fear death to the degree that a “normal” person does. I think they are somewhat desensitized. On the other hand, Yossarian is obviously terrified of death; he says so himself. He claims he is the best shot caller for evasive action because he is the biggest coward of the soldiers.
1. I think that it is safe to say that Heller includes all of these paradoxes to highlight the absurdity of war. Absurdity is a word that has been related to war countless times throughout our different readings, and I think Heller, like Vonnegut and Hemingway and others, views war as absurd. Through the various paradoxes he outlines, Heller makes it very clear that war is not what it seems to be on the surface — the men fight amongst themselves and hate their comrades, Hungry Joe is “relieved” when he returns to active duty, etc. In a similar vein as Tim O’Brien, Heller’s tangential war story makes us aware of the fact that rationality, truth and reality are not straightforward concepts, especially in war.
ReplyDelete2. At first I thought that same thing, that using the word “hero” in connection to Hungry Joe was a bit strange. However, after looking up the definition, my perspective shifted a bit. A hero is defined as “a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.” While I would not characterize him as an exceptionally courageous or noble figure, Hungry Joe has completed 50 missions, which I think many would consider to be an “outstanding achievement.” Furthermore, despite all of his trauma, Hungry Joe continues to complete more and more missions, refusing to give into his fear. Some may view this as heroic, or insane, or maybe as Heller’s critique of the Army and the bureaucratic system that repeatedly forces men beyond their breaking point.
3. Yes, Yossarian definitely fears death. Perhaps he does not actually fear death, but he certainly wants to live; he does not want to die. The other men, on the other hand, have lost this same appreciation for life exhibited by Yossarian. It is clear that they have become desensitized to the point where simply living becomes a mission. Characters such as McWatt or Harvermeyer reminded me of Billy, a man who is not necessarily unafraid of death, but one who does not care enough to actively avoid it either. I think that this is another critique of Heller’s.
I agree that this section in particular focuses a lot on paradoxes. Even Yossarian’s liver condition is a paradox in and of itself, almost there, not horrible, but not getting better. I think that this idea of paradoxes showcases the inevitability of everything in war. War is inevitable in the grand scheme of things. In addition, it brings back the question of free will. Perhaps the outcome is always inevitable, however, the paradoxes make it seem like you had many different options.
ReplyDeleteI think in the eyes of the army and the public, Hungry Joe would be considered a hero because of his service. To those that have not met him, this statistic would seem heroic, as he has “saved” countless lives from his actions and missions. However, in real life, it is quite the opposite for those who surround him. He is the one that keeps the rest up, and thrashes and screams in his sleep with nightmares. He represents the duality and the facade of what war is like to the public.
I think that Yossarian does indeed fear death. In a sense, I believe that’s what everyone does. It is the reason that no one is asking to be sent home because they know they will be sent on more missions. They are not intentionally signing up for more missions, but more going along with orders. All of them know they can’t get out and be sent home, so they just have to come to terms of the inevitability.
Good questions, Sam. Complicated questions for a complicated book.
ReplyDelete1. I don't think I'm saying anything new; I think Catch-22 applies to the world itself. War may be the most extreme version of it—there was an anti-war slogan in the 60s about the absurdity of killing for peace, which, agree or not, speaks to an absurd contradiction. Certainly the examples Heller gives are outrageous and absurd in their numbers. But they often are real. The lengthy and beautifully detailed description of a bombing mission in Ch 5 starts with the three enlisted men in each crew barred from the officers briefing about the mission. Why can't they know the plan? Well, because enlisted men's lives don't count as much as officers' lives. And I am assuming this is an accurate picture of what really happened. Then there is the funny little story about Corporal Snark poisoning the squadron to prove they didn't know the difference between good and bad. Milo thinks Snark's thesis was disproven, but Yossarian says he was right: the sweet potatoes were devoured even as bad as they tasted. I wrote in my margin "teachers." Leave any food in the teachers lounge and it will be devoured. Doesn't matter if its origin is a mystery or its been in the fridge over the weekend, we will eat it. Like the squadron.
2. Agreed with the wise posts above. We have learned this year of the way "heroism" and "hero" can be manipulated to fit a simple and pointed narrative. Vonnegut said there are no villains in SH-5, nor are there heroes—you can't have one without the other. I think Heller would agree—even if the book is full of evil people. Hungry Joe refuses to refuse the outrageous—and absurd—mission requirements, as does Yossarian. I agree with Keyes that he is terrified. To say no to what Ruby says could be an insane requirement would take courage: but I'm not even sure then that would be heroic.
3. Yes, Yossarian fears death. He fears it so much that "he decided to live forever or die in the attempt" (29). How's that for a Heller absurdity. To live is all that matters to him. The alternative is to end up like Snowden or Kraft who "instead of being liked...was dead" (54-55). When McWatt and Yossarian talk about going back for a second run, it is in the past—the Yossarian of the present doesn't care where the bombs fall as long as he lives. Havermeyer doesn't seem afraid of death. He's a fool in my opinion.
1. I do think all of these paradoxes and strange stories are to add to the absurdity and backwardness of war. Everything you think you know to be true in life, gets flipped the other way around in war; you are only crazy enough to be able to leave war if you want to stay (catch-22), Hungry Joe is relieved when he goes back to active duty but has night terrors otherwise, the only people who are allowed to ask questions are the ones who never do, etc. This book doesn't really make any sense, but that is on purpose because neither does war and the things that happen during war.
ReplyDelete2. For me personally, I would say that for someone to be classified as heroic it requires more than just being the last man standing or being the one who has fought the longest, but it entails bravery and courage. Hungry Joe is the opposite of brave. He has not flown more combat tours of duty than anyone else for heroic reasons, he is not still there because he believes so strongly in the cause and wants to do whatever he can and fight as much as he needs to and put himself in danger for it to get done. Hungry Joe is unlucky and traumatized. He keeps flying more because everyone that he's with wants to get him away because he keeps them up at night with his night terrors, and he hasn't left yet because the number of required flights keeps increasing and he keeps missing it.
3. I think Yossarian is terrified of death. We see all throughout these chapters Yossarian being the only one who cares enough about living to ask to go home whereas it seems all the other soldiers know by now that that is not going to work so they might as well just get used to war and being on the cusp of death. Yossarian cannot just become desensitized or accept being this close to death like the others have, and this is we where we see the difference between him and McWatt or Havermeyer. It's not that McWatt doesn't fear death because I'm sure he does, but he's used to it and isn't going to think about it much anymore the way I'm sure he did at one point and the way that Yossarian still does because just freaking yourself out about it isn't going to change anything and McWatt has realized this unlike Yossarian.
1) Yes, I think the main reason for these stories is to show the absurdity of war, yet some of the stories take place in a non-war setting or could happen outside of one. Therefore, I think they have to have some significance outside of war, and like John wrote, I think this idea of absurdity applies to the world and society as a whole. Humans often do things that don’t make a lot of sense and then try to find logical explanations for them.
ReplyDelete2) I don’t think that I consider Hungry Joe a hero. I think a hero has to want to act heroically, and as Keyes wrote, Hungry Joe acts out of fear/ necessity. The military is set up to make him fly more and more missions, so I don’t think he is a hero just because of the number of flights he has been coerced into doing. He is more of a victim of war than a hero. I believe Heller is making the point that the “heroic” actions during war may not actually be heroic. If the number of enemies a soldier has killed or the number of missions they have flown are high, they are applauded by the military, but in reality, these really may not be particularly heroic actions because the soldiers may not be fighting for the right reasons (but I’m not really sure that there are many right reasons). Also, this is just another example of the absurdity of war. Hungry Joe has obviously been extremely damaged by the war and, in my eyes, should not be serving, yet he is arguably still the best member of the Air Force. It makes no sense, but I guess that is the whole point.
3) With all the evidence in the above posts, I think it is clear that Yossarian is extremely afraid of death and of dying. I think that everyone fears death to some degree, but there is very little that these men can do about their fears. Because of all the bizarre rules, they cannot leave, so they are stuck doing these deadly missions. Like Molly wrote, I think the other men like McWatt just try to avoid dealing with their fear of it. However, I also think that if I were to successfully fly as many life-endangering missions as these men have, I would probably feel a bit invincible after a while. Sometimes, the more exposure you have to the things of which you are afraid the less you fear them.
Prompt One: Well, I think it isn’t that these paradoxes have a certain significance against the backdrop of war, rather, they enforce Heller’s point that war is itself a paradox itself. The idea that one enters war, willing to make an exchange of their life, for some freedom or victory or other they will never be able to enjoy is strange. If, on a smaller scale, I asked you all to give me your lunches one day at school, you might say no. I, wanting them, would then declare a small scale war. You would then prick yourself with a needle -- signifying this death -- and then I would still get your lunch because how can you enjoy it from the grave? These terms seem rather harsh, but they are an inevitable consequence of such a dangerous profession as pilots, and as we see from the characters in this book, everyone wants out. But what’s really strange is that becoming a pilot was a lifeline for many of them… The doctor… Chief White Halfoat… These are men who were “saved” by their deployment. How can something so harrowing, so tormenting, also have been exactly what these two needed? I’m sure as we read on, we’ll find many more examples of this paradoxical nature of war.
ReplyDeletePrompt Two: Hungry Joe is a hero because of the way he focuses himself each time the flight requirements are raised. All of these men, Yossarian most evidently, are trying to get home… work their way out of the catch-22. Joe is a hero because he fights within this system, standing up to the leaders who make the arbitrary requirements. Joe does his flights so that he can get home and Yossarian admires him for this.
Prompt Three: Thinking that McWatt is the craziest man, because, of course, anyone sane would fear for their lives, perhaps Yossarian is not wrong. On the other hand, this smiling demeanor could only be another ploy at being called “crazy.” Already Yossarian has caught on. And perhaps he could do something similar, between McWatt and Hungry Joe, working within the system to escape. But I think he realizes this won’t work, and thus tries everything he can to not fly in futility.
1. Much like what others have written, I believe that these absurdities serve multiple purposes. I think they provide insight into the insanity of war, serving as a lense through which the reader can see the lives of soldiers and the atrocities that so routinely occur. But I also believe that these absurdities, specifically those outside of the context of war —think back to Doc Daneeka’s story about the young couple on page 42— represent some kind of a common ground between war and civilian life. In other words, Heller is trying to say that yes, war is crazy and will change you as it subjects you to the absurd events. But civilian life has a similar effect.
ReplyDelete2. This class has definitely highlighted the hollowness of the term “hero”. I’m reminded of the men in Saving Private Ryan who laughed at the surrendering soldiers before shooting them point-blank. The American people would likely associate these men with heroism, but I’d argue they are not heroes. I think Joe also falls under the category of people who are soldiers and therefore are considered heroes but in reality are not. But, to be fair, I don’t think anyone is really a hero. That term doesn’t really mean anything. Sure, maybe fighting for one’s country is a “heroic” act. But Joe is aggressive in ways that heroes are not usually thought to be, and he struggles with nightmares when heroes are not really supposed to be weak at all. I think Joe is a person who acts in ways that make sense given his situation, but he is not a hero.
3. I think that Yossarian fears death. He seems incredibly concerned with the thought of people killing him in previous chapters, and I don’t believe that that fear has dissolved within the course of a few pages. But I think Yossarian recognizes that death is a part of war, and knows that being scared is not reason enough to not do what he has been told to do. War may be insane, but it's still happening whether he’s scared of it or not. He is a cog in the machine, and must do his job. I think that McWatt and Havermeyer treat war in the same way. Even if they are scared, they don’t show their fears because they aren’t productive or worth anyone’s time. Suppressing one's emotions is much more efficient in a war setting than dealing with fears head on.
1. These stories add to the general satirical narration about life, but I think are really intended to highlight the absurdities of war. The frequent confusing and roundabout conversations in this book are a key aspect of the paradoxes. These conversations seem to add a bit of comedy but also show that words are only as powerful as their understanding. Like in Chapter 4, when ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen causes General Peckem a great deal of worry by calling him and saying, “T. S. Eliot” a simple, harmless phrase that Peckem interprets as something complicated and sinister. It’s seen so insubstantial and yet these memos are often what dictate the actions taken by soldiers. As Ruby said, the juxtaposition between the actual fighting and the bureaucracy that controls it is one of the most aggravating parts of Catch-22.
ReplyDelete2. Heller is making the case that it is all about perspective. When given one aspect of hungry Joe, he certainly comes across as a hero, but when given another he comes across as a scared child. The amount of missions he has flown would certainly make him appear as a hero, fifty missions seems impossible, but his constant crying makes the image of him as a hero more opaque. Also, his photography, or attempted photography, of naked women would also add to the argument against being a hero. I think Heller is using Hungry Joe to create another example of how war makes people crazy. The fact that he used to be a photographer for Life Magazine, but now can barely work a camera shows how disruptive war can be on one’s life.
3. Yossarian certainly fears death. He also seems to have no sense of duty, so he really detests his missions. He tries to keep his liver problem “just bad enough” to not have to fly, although as Milo points out, he cannot keep returning to the hospital when given orders to fly out on a mission. McWatt seems sane, so he must fear death and I think his jovial attitude is a mere coverup for his actual sadness regarding the course of his life. Do I have proof of this? Not as such, but I do not see how Heller could make a happy character that sticks around longer than a chapter. I think Havemeyer may actually not fear death because he seems crazy (although as this book demonstrates crazy is subjective) and has been so desensitized to war that death may even come as a reward to him.
Like everyone else has been saying, I think it does add to the absurdity of both war and life. After all, the picture of America at peace we’re getting is also pretty messed up, from the satiric exploitation of Chief White Halfoat’s family, which points to real inequalities, to the patriotic beliefs of the racist, anti-Communist Texan in the hospital who manages to drive everyone back to active service through sheer irritation. There’s so much ridiculousness and exploitativeness going around. That being said, I think Catch-22 specifically and the context of war raises the stakes. Not that people aren’t dying outside of war, but the outrageousness of the way that they are exploiting the bombers to fly more missions is amplified by the high death rate and the fact that surviving all those missions is near impossible.
ReplyDeleteI think there’s a sense that he’s a hero for simply surviving that long. It’s deliberate shot against our standard ideas of military heroism, just like the fact that Colonel Cathcart's disregard for the lives of his men when he never leaves the ground is described as "courage". He’s not the most successful, the best bomber, or anything like that, but he gets to live another day, which is all Yossarian and his non-crazy crazy friends want to do. His existence proves that it is possible, if improbable, for people like Yossarian to survive.
Yes, Yossarian definitely fears death, as everyone has been saying. He certainly goes out of his way, what with his liver disease and time in the hospital, and his excellent evasive action in flight, to avoid dying and to avoid putting himself in situations where he might die. In fact, he seems the sanest of all the crazies in this regard, as well as what, compared to Vonnegut’s middle-age mentality, might be called the youngest. As Heller says, “Yossarian had...more fear even than Dunbar, who had resigned himself submissively to the idea that he must die someday. Yossarian had not resigned himself to that idea, and he bolted for his life wildly on each mission the instant his bombs were away…”(50). He hasn’t accepted death is inevitable yet, unlike Dunbar or Billy, and thus is still desperately (and perhaps futilely) doing everything in his power to survive. That seems pretty sane, especially when compared to McWatt, and the fact that he’s described as knowing the reality of war and still feeling no fear. I’m supposing that either he’s wonderful at compartmentalizing or completely witless. That, or death is such an inevitability that it makes him more reckless. I don’t think McWatt has a death wish, per se, but “Oh well, what the hell,” kind of reminds me of, “So it goes.” Why bother with caution when he will die anyways?
I agree with Sarah and others that these paradoxes in the novel exist to show the absurdity involved in war. The way that every aspect of Yossarians life seems to contradict itself points out how the war itself does not follow a sensical order. I think that the idea of catch twenty two also shows how little control Yossarian and the other men have over the war and their lives in general. Every time the soldiers believe in one truth, that truth seems to change. An example of this unreliability is with the missions. Every time the number of missions changes, Yossarians' future is altered. The foundations that these men stand on constantly breaks and changes. This may be a stretch, but this could relate the way the foundation, or the motives, of war are never entirely clear. I also think it is interesting that Heller chose to write a war novel composed of several absurdities but never zooms out to ask the big picture questions such as what is this war about, why are the characters fighting it, and more. By not asking these questions, I believe, Heller is further showing that war really is only a series of absurdities that in the end mean nothing.
ReplyDeleteI do think that if you look at Hungry Joe through a certain lense, and forget about other parts of his personality he is a hero, thus “hero” is a subjective title. He is a hero for flying more combat tours of duty and really for just being a soldier. But by calling someone who takes pictures of naked women and screams at night a hero, Heller is asking us as the readers to rethink what a hero means or if it is even possible to be a hero in war. Although Hungry Joe is an extremely odd man, in the end, he is simply a product of the trauma of the war. Though he is stange, I do not think he is unique because so far all the other characters are pretty crazy as well, and it is hard to find a “hero” among them. By saying Hungry Joe is a “hero” in an ironic way because of his combat accomplishments, Heller is also saying that war accomplishments do not really mean much in the end.
This is a really interesting question! Yossarian does fear death for all the reasons Anna pointed out. One of the scenes that proved that Yossarian definitely fears death was when Milo and him were talking about the hospital, “You can’t keep running into the hospital every time something happens you don’t like. No, the best thing to do is fly the missions. It’s our duty”(65). From reading this section, one can go so far as to call Yossarian a coward, but at the same time, isn’t it completely normal to fear death? I think the other men are also afraid of death but they do a better job suppressing this fear. For example, Milo can motivate himself by understanding that fighting is his “duty.”