Themes and Author's Purpose

I'm on page 104, and I've stumbled across something in particular that has been redundantly appearing throughout the entire book. "One day--it was the day after the C.I.D. man's first visit --Major Major signed Washington Irving's name to one of the documents instead of his own, just to see how it would feel," (104). The forgery of Washington Irving's name has been a recurring theme. It first started when Yossarian forged his name while he was in the hospital in chapter 1, and it continues throughout as the Chaplain is consistently accused of being the one to commit the forgery all the way up until the end. It's pure coincidence that Major Major and Yossarian both decided to forge the same name and the Chaplain later takes the fall.

It was unclear just what the point of this book was until the end. It wasn't until the death of Snowden was finally revealed that I got it. "It was easy to read the message in his entails. Man was matter, that was Snowden's secret. Drop him out a window and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden's secret. Ripeness was all," (464). Never take life for granted. That was the message I got from this. Despite the fact that this is a book about war, all the deaths were unexpected and shocking in the worst way. Yossarian didn't realize just how serious his situation was until Snowden's death, and it continues to haunt him all throughout the book. The very last thing Yossarian does before the book ends is ditch the army because he would rather do that than betray his comrades, the people he grew to love. Yossarian's will to live is a recurring theme and ties back to Snowden's death. You never know when you will die, and you don't know what will happen afterwards, so enjoy it while it lasts.