The initial reactions of the characters in both novels are similar in that both characters are frightened. In Catch 22 we begin when Yossarian (main character) has already been in the war for some time but is still very much afraid and wants desperately to live and to go home. He is constantly and frantically trying to find ways so that he wouldn’t have to fly. His gestures that show this are his desperate pleading with everyone that could possibly help him, including the doctor and the chaplain. In All Quiet on the Western Front it begins differently. Befo

This quotation shows Yossarian’s thoughts that he will not make it home alive which adds to his fears and mental instability. This is a major difference between the two novels, Yossarian’s war experiences have made him petrified and almost crazy where as in All Quiet on the Western Front the characters are hardened and desensitized by their war time experience. This difference continues into the end where the outcome of the change personalities by both characters in each novel leads to two different examples of the effects war has on the minds of soldiers.

One of the things (Yossarian) wanted to start screaming about was the surgeon’s knife that was almost certain to be waiting for him and almost everyone else who lived long enough to die. He wondered often how he would recognize the first chill, flush, twinge, ache, belch, sneeze, stain, lethargy, vocal slip, loss of balance or lapse of memory that would signal the inevitable beginning of the inevitable end. (178 Catch 22)

Just as we turn into animals when we go up to the line…so we turn into wags and loafers when we are resting… We want to live at any price; so we cannot burden ourselves with feelings which, though they may be ornamental enough in peacetime, would be out of place here. Kemmerich is dead, Haie Westhus is dying… Martens has no legs anymore, Meyer is dead, Max is dead, Beyer is dead, Hammerling is dead… it is a dammable business, but what has it to do with us now – we live. (124-125 All Quiet on the Western Front)

This transformation happens in both novels and soon we begin to see the actions of the characters in both novels reflecting their psychological change.

Some topics in this essay:
Western Front, World War, Maria Remarqueare, Haie Westhus, Mediterranean Sea, quiet western front, western front, Quiet Western, quiet western, catch 22, main character, effects war, Influence Catch, Maria Remarque, war characters, Erich Maria, catch 22 yossarian, fear betrayal, difference novels, characters novels, desensitized war, effects war characters,