Chapter 31 - 34
Nately's prostitute finally falls in love with him when he rescues her from men holding her captive and refusing to let her sleep. All she needs is a good night's sleep to wake up in love with Nately. She is angry and confused when he tries to get her to give up prostitution and wear clothes more regularly, but she is in love with him.
All is not well, however. Doc Daneeka is officially dead, even though he never went up in the plane with McWatt. So, he cannot draw pay. His wife takes all the life insurance and moves away so that she does not have to deal with the confusion over having a dead husband who is alive. The officials on the base try to avoid being near Doc Daneeka, because his presence is a reminder of a rather ugly administrative problem of having a dead man living on base.
Yossarian is also incensed when he gets four new roommates, young, enthusiastic replacements. He wants them out of the tent but will not leave the tent himself because he does not want to give up on Orr. He knows that he just needs to "be patient with them until one or two of them were killed and the rest wounded, and then they would all turn out okay" (360).
Worst of all, Nurse Duckett warns Yossarian that people are planning on "disappearing" Dunbar. When Yossarian goes out to warn Dunbar, he cannot find his friend.
Analysis
The enthusiasm of Yossarian's roommates sharply contrasts with his own fear and pessimism. They can be optimistic because they just arrived. Yossarian has seen how awful things can be in war. Snowden's death, the Kid Sampson incident, and Mudd, the dead man in his tent, are all reminders of how terrible war is, so these new roommates are infuriating because they do not fear war. They move all of Mudd's belongings out into the bushes, cheerfully disposing of a man who Yossarian wanted to force the army to recognize.
Doc Daneeka is the exact opposite of Mudd. He is actually alive but accounted for as dead, while Mudd cannot be accounted for as dead even though he is. These two men demonstrate that the army's rules are absurd and do not take into account real people and real situations.
Our Networks