In the entire novel, Snowden represents the worst of what can happen –everyone’s worst nightmare. Yossarian’s continual flashbacks reveal how affected he was by the death of this fellow airman. Interestingly enough however, details of Snowden’s death are not revealed until a late chapter in the book. Yet, there are those continual flashbacks and references as to how the death affected all the men in the unit. Robert Merrill refers to Snowden’s death:

“Major Major, ‘born too late and too mediocre’, discovers that he is being utterely taken over by ‘prolix bulletins’, and so he ‘grew despondent’. One day he signed Washington Irving’s name to a document, an act of rebellion which functioned as catharsis: henceforth he exploits as a counter-strategy the names of other famous writers… in order to fight back.” (Walsh).

Yossarian realizes that his life can quickly be taken away. He is especially frightened after he sees the death of Snowden, one of the men assigned to his plane.

his neighbor and never even bore false witness against

Some topics in this essay:
Joseph Heller, Walsh Major, Master Heller’s, Merrill Snowden’s, Doc Daneeka, Master Yossarian, Major Major’s, Major Major, Lansing Michigan, Jean Kennard, major major, own life, snowden’s death, trying kill, major major major, makes reader, his/her own life, elders disliked, control own, told kill, death snowden, situations heller, germans trying kill,