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True to the new beginning made in the previous chapter, chapter seventeen not only carries on the same episode but begins with the same words. Even more, in introducing again the ''soldier in white," chapter seventeen makes this new beginning parallel the opening of the book: we are back at the opening scene, but this time with some background; and that allows a somewhat different forward movement. |
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For example, we find in this chapter how Yossarian came to the idea that everyone is "out to get him," his argument in one of the novel's early "debates." Then true to a "logic" with which we are now becoming familiar, this idea is next reduced to its simplest form: Doc Daneeka's "What about me?" |
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We are able to see now, however, that the adequacy of the hospital as a refuge is only relative to what is going on outside it; it is only satisfactory at all in the face of the catastrophes lurking everywhere. These catastrophes and their lesser and more comic counterpoints are dubbed "acts of God" (as in insurance policies), but this cliche becomes a somewhat serious discussion of what the men perceive to be the injustice of life which undermines "confidence in this universe." |
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The catastrophe which we see increasingly referred to is Snowden's death, a pivotal element in Catch-22; and that death, even though yet to be seen in detail, provides a perspective on the "mission against mortality." We are being led to ask once again, if we cannot escape mortality, if that is a doomed mission, is there any other mission worthwhile and possible? |
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This chapter brings us to the heart of both structure and theme in its episode of the man who sees everything twice. First we see this as simply another ruse used to remain in the hospital. Then it is given an added dimension as a pun — not, as one would expect, seeing double, but seeing two of whatever quantity. |
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This "double vision" prepares the way for the idea of deja vu, the sensation of having seen something once before. And the reader might note the closeness of theme and structure as he finds the novel creating just such a sensation itself. |
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But, as well as structural, this "seeing everything twice" is part of the theme of our perceptiveness, just as were the flies in Appleby's eyes and the continual reference to the eyes of Major — de Coverly. In other words, are there two ways for these men to perceive their world? |
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This episode is followed immediately by the basic issue to be perceived: the problem of pain — how are we to take the existence of pain and suffering |
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