Summary: The Inevitability Of Death In War

Snowden is the character that introduces and explains its significance without saying any other words besides “I’m cold.” His death is foreshadowed numerous times through Yossarian's constant memories and flashbacks. Snowden's death revealed a secret to Yossarian, in which man is matter. “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” (page 450). Yossarian's awareness to the inevitability of death gives him a sense of how precious life is and therefore he wants to live as long as possible. Eventually, everyone will die. In books. In movies. In songs. In real life. Snowden is the character that, ironically, brings this to life. His death proves that anything can happen at anytime. There is no avoiding death, just as there is no avoiding its

Over 200 million deaths estimated in just three wars. There are many factors that could play into these death tolls. The amount of deaths in each war over the years with the more and more advanced technology is different than the wars in the earlier years with different weapons but more hostile actions and a longer time period.

Yossarian is constantly afraid of death throughout the story and it is clear that the cause of this fear is derived from the numerous amount of missions Colonel Cathcart puts him through and because of his other experiences in the Air Force. There is a scene in which Yossarian says he keeps a “list” in his head of all

Soldiers did not die only from warfare casualties,especially the war atmosphere in the trenches brought health issues and diseases which caused most of the death during WW1.Some of this diseases were caused because of weather change , lack of hygiene and the filthy environment.Many of this diseases were insignificant colds but others were deadly as Shell Shock or Trench Foot.

In the historical fiction novel The Slopes of War by N.A. Perez, the author illustrates the gruesome battle that befell the little market town of Gettysburg during the Civil War through the various perspectives of all the people whom were immersed and affected. These people included young men fighting, generals arguing about their plans and tactics, and innocent citizens who aided causalities regardless of what color their uniform happened to be. Perspectives from both the Confederate and Union armies are offered in the text to grasp a better understanding of all the thoughts occurring throughout the entire battle, as well as before and after. Throughout the novel, Perez elucidates the emotional and physical aspects of war the people endured, such as traumatizing, graphic images that can serve as bad omens, and loss of loved ones. Also, the book further explains what war truly signified, which was death. The positive results and overall effects of the war as described in the novel, however, somewhat outweighs the negative causes and struggles. In the book Crispin written by Avi, there is a particular quote in the novel on the first page in which reads, “In the midst of life comes death, in the midst of death comes life.” This quote can be related to the novel in numerous ways, and can be applied to life in general, too.

Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War is a novel that is a personal view of the Vietnam War from the perspective of a Vietnamese soldier. Like the American novel “The things they carried”, this novel brings about the effects of war on people, and especially how it defeats the human capacity for things such as love and hope. Bao Ninh offers this realistic picture of the Vietnam War’s impact on the individual Vietnamese soldier through use of a series of reminiscences or flashbacks, jumping backwards and forwards in time between the events most salient in memory, events which take on a different theme each time they are examined. His main protagonist Kien, who is basically Bao himself, looks back not just at his ten years at

This passage helps the reader understand how the emotional burden of uncertain death weighed on the soldier. However, it also acts as a symbol by giving light to the fact that the emotional baggage they carry was brought about by their own fear of humiliation and shame. Many of the soldiers are there only to avoid the persecution that ensued those who evaded the draft. Through the use of symbolism, O’Brien is able to effectively highlight the burdens faced by the soldiers who conformed to the expectations of society.

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque, is a classic anti-war novel about the personal struggles and experiences encountered by a group of young German soldiers as they fight to survive the horrors of World War One. Remarque demonstrates, through the eyes of Paul Baumer, a young German soldier, how the war destroyed an entire generation of men by making them incapable of reintegrating into society because they could no longer relate to older generations, only to fellow soldiers.

Yossarian cannot go home because his superiors require him for their own personal gain, and it makes no difference what justification they might give for making him stay. The rest of Yossarian’s squadron has a ‘false consciousness’; they are accepting of the overbearing military system, ironically calling Yossarian, “crazy”. “They’re trying to kill me,” Yossarian told him calmly. Clevinger answered. "They're trying to kill everyone". “And what difference does that

“The Tragedy of war is that it uses man’s best to do man’s worst” wise words from Henry Fosdick. When it comes down to the time where an individual hits rock bottom, a man either do its best or do its worst. Although, Man can do its best and do its worst at the same time. There are many reasons how man’s best can result to man’s worst. Henry Fosdick statement is both true and false.

Death comprises an integral part of the war because the “war is all – fighting is all – everything else is cropped away” (Junger viii). Soldiers have to fight during the war and they have no other options. As they fight, they naturally die in the fight. In such a situation, traditional values and views of soldiers start changing, including their attitude to death: “‘what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger; and what kills me makes me incredibly strong’” (Junger xix). Hence, the author shows that death is not the ultimate point that puts the end to the soldier’s life or existence but it is just a stage in the soldier’s state of growing in power. The war brings pain and death is

While Heller cleverly waits until the very end of the novel to reveal what exactly happened to Snowden, there are many mentions of Snowden either dying, or revealing his secret. While it is not a spoken secret that Snowden shares with Yossarian, it is rather the turning point in his time in the army, when he realizes that men are indeed mortal, and that death can affect any of the men at any time. This symbolism is two-fold. First and foremost, Yossarian realizes that death is potentially lying in wait to catch him off guard. While Snowden originally seems to have a wound in his leg, the more pressing injury is the injury inside his flak suit. “Yossarian bent forward to peer and saw a strangely colored stain seeping through the coveralls just above the armhole of Snowden’s 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 454) Just as the injury Snowden sustained was hidden from the naked eye, this could perhaps be an analogy for how Yossarian views death- something that is not immediately recognizable, and a ticking time bomb. For even if Snowden’s internal organs had not been exposed, the internal bleeding would have eventually killed him. Whether the process had been delayed or sped up, Snowden would have died regardless. Secondly, this is the moment in which Yossarian realizes that without recognizing the value of an individual’s life, that all men are bodies. “The spirit gone, man is garbage.” (Heller 455) Heller sums up the main idea of death helping an individual to realize the worth of livelihood in this one short sentence. Yossarian realizes that at the end of time, all that bodies are is flesh. It is the person’s soul that is worth protecting. This truth will propel Yossarian throughout the rest of his

Yossarian physiological dies when he is naked in the tree at Snowden 's funeral as it reveals how he has lost his mind as a result of the high ranked officials lack of care toward his fellow soldiers. For example, at Snowden 's funeral, rather than grieving from his loss, Milo has more interest in selling his cotton, showing how self-interested and corrupt he is. Also, Milo is nervous that if all the soldiers die, whether physically or psychologically, the war will end and so will the money Milo makes from his companies. Furthermore, due to the corruption of high ranked officials, Yossarian, along with his fellow soldiers experience both physical and psychological death, fueled by the concept of Catch-22.

During the war, death was a rampant issue that ran amok in the trenches. But it wasn’t always physical, or quick. Joseph Boyden illustrates in his novel that death is different for everyone and every time. For some, it can feel decades long or quick as a breath. It could be world shattering, or just another event that happens in your day.

It can be hard to fully comprehend the effects the Vietnam War had on not just the veterans, but the nation as a whole. The violent battles and acts of war became all too common during the long years of the conflict. The war warped the soldiers and civilians characters and desensitized their mentalities to the cruelty seen on the battlefield. Bao Ninh and Tim O’Brien, both veterans of the war, narrate their experiences of the war and use the loss of love as a metaphor for the detrimental effects of the years of fighting.