The Symbolism In Death Of Yossarian By Joseph Heller

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Several symbols are put to use by Heller throughout his story in order to represent death or situations of death and overall illustrate his theme wholly. One example of this is the hospital and how it represents a much less chaotic environment that can be almost considered safety for the soldiers. Inside the hospital, the nurses and doctors knew much more about death and “made a much neater, more orderly job of it. They couldn't dominate Death inside the hospital, but they certainly made her behave” (Heller 165). Though death still occurs and cannot be stopped even inside the hospital walls, the environment allows the soldiers to die with dignity rather than brutally as on the battlefield. They naturally feel safer around professionals with the sterile surroundings, however, it is specifically outlined that even there, …show more content…

Though it seems rather blatant in how the remains of man represent death, it is much more symbolic in nature in how it represents its inevitability in consuming the population at a steady rate. As Yossarian was bent over the dying man, looking over his intestines, he realizes that “man was matter...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” (Heller 440). The conclusion to the story is legitimately Yossarian admitting to the inevitability of death, the one thing he had been refusing to admit all along as he had been afraid of losing his life, and how one day he will find himself dying just as everyone else around him. Man is simply mass that occupies space, and the illusion of life will eventually run out of time for every inhabitant of Earth. Heller concludes his story by tying up the loose end that was Yossarian in how he wanted to escape Death and his

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