Talk:Yossarian

message: Yossarian didn't strike me as an anti-hero.  He seems to be the only unflawed character in the novel. PoptartKing 00:29, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes but in a classical sense he is not a hero - he is proud that he is a coward and does not want to risk his life for his country. Hence he is an anti-hero, even if we love him for it. --Lethaniol 11:21, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think that Yossarian is an anti-hero in a sense; A hero in war novels is traditionally more like Havermayer; Always willing to go straight into the thick of battle, or maybe like Nately; with blind patriotism demonstrated in the argument with the old man in Rome. But while being an anti-hero, he is not a bad character, he is ac ting upon the basic human instinct- to survive, and while he seems crazy to the other characters, he seems to be one of the few sane ones, as he is only trying to lengthen his own life, while Havermayer with his disregard for his own life, Nately with his blind and unbreakable patriotism and Aarfys psychosis are the trul insane ones. Orr too is sane, as he is merely trying to survive by practising crash landings to perfection so he may one day escape Pianosa without accusations of desertion.-Chrislewisfulham 20:09, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Anti-hero?

message: I'm not sure one throwaway comment by Cathcart is enough to say for certain that Yossarian's first name is John.
:There are multiple other references given from Closing Time. --Lethaniol 11:21, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: John???

message: I thought they were going to stick him for desertion - there was no mention of smuggling in my copy of the book, though it does mention Milo tried to smuggle something in Italy, which he told the police commissioner in Rome.
:That is correct that is not in the book (maybe it is from the film). In fact that whole last paragraph is completely wrong will sort it tomorrowLethaniol 23:54, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Yossarian earns Cathcart's ire for a smuggling scam that was actually perpetrated by Milo and is threatened with imprisonment. 

message: Is it just me, or would it make more sense to have all of a novel's chracters on one page, as opposed to twenty different sites for all of them? 11/27/05
:See discussion on main Catch-22 article please --Lethaniol 11:21, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree that Talk:Catch-22 and perhaps Talk:List of Catch-22 characters are better places for discussing one-page-per-character vs all-characters-on-one-page. --DavidCary (talk) 14:45, 2 November 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Multiple character pages

message: Not yet classified, could I suggest to the assessor that it be marked as START (as clearly it is devoid of a lot of useful information and necessary), and as HIGH importance. I believe it should be rated as HIGH as the novel Catch-22 is likely to be promoted to TOP, and as the main protagonist and with a cult anti-hero following, especially at the time of the Vietnam War, and to a lesser extent now. Anyway that's my opinion. - Added by User:Kevinalewis
:Agree have changed to High. Cheers Lethaniol 22:52, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Wikiproject Classification

message: This section is rather strange. Why is there such an add of the book in the main characters article? I will delete as such, as it has no real value into the whole piece. --Soetermans 22:44, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sorry I have reverted your good faith edit. Both of these sections are very important (especially the theme section) but currently well underdeveloped. Hence why they have the  template there - to encourage people to expand. Lethaniol 22:50, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Eh, could you stop deleting sections just because nobody's really touched them yet, Soetermans? I mean, they're going to get done... eventually, once all the... you know. Sometime. Apparently we're trying to follow the Novel Project template, so if you have a beef with empty/arbitrarily-placed sections, take it up with them. (No one listens) Or at least mention it here, otherwise you'll just get reverterised.Artiste-extraordinaire 23:49, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

text: Hmm. My bad. I probably meant you'd got rid of the same section more than once before. Never mind. The reason for having the (admittedly sparse) Themes secton is that, especially in a novel as complex as Catch-22, different characters are used to explore different aspects of the novel's many themes. Appleby is used to comment on the validity of always following instructions (eg, the Great Atabrine Insurrection) and Havermeyer is used as an example of how excelling in whatever does not necessarily mean that a person is particularly well-balanced, mentally. (I obviously suck at thematic discussion, so I'll leave it to others.) Yossarian, as the protagonist, is used to explore in a way most of the themes (God, survival vs. duty, etc), as well as representing the author's conclusion (unless we're all Post-Structuralistas) which means that his Themes section will be similar to the main novel's one, although it will focus more heavily on his contribution to the literary discussion of the ideas Heller presents. Artiste-extraordinaire 02:55, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with Artiste - the themes are the most important part of Catch-22 but unfortunately also the most difficult to write. This is because we (as Wikipedians) can not write up from scratch the theme sections (see WP:OR]]) but need to get the info from reliable sources (see WP:RS) - which is going to take a lot of work - but needs to be done. Until then people can put basic information into the themes sections - but it will eventually need backing up with sources. Cheers Lethaniol
Understood! Too bad my understanding of literature doesn't suffice to help this article, but I'm glad to know what the goal is here. And sorry for correcting your "cheching", Artiste. --Soetermans 08:40, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Major themes?

message: I was checking out the Italian version of this page, and it made me remember this little catchcry that I've seen pop up from time to time. Apparently a full-page ad was taken out in the NY Times as promotion for the book prior to its release, and all it said was YOSSARIAN LIVES. And although it's been a while and I was never really fussed about it, I seem to recall it being somewhere in Closing Time. Anyone have any solid basis for either of those, and want to chuck it in somewhere?Artiste-extraordinaire 23:49, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yep this is correct, I think it mentioned in the preface of my copy of Catch-22 - will also go check the NY times website Cheers Lethaniol 23:54, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

text: A related aside. I do not know if this is mentioned in the above sources, but shortly after the novel came out, a friend of mine and fellow graduate student, who was himself of Armenian ancestry—his father had emigrated to the US from Armenia—told me that in Armenian, 'yossar' means "still alive". I've verified this recently with another independent source, someone I came to know recently who is also of Armenian extraction. Since '-ian' is a typical ending for an Armenian surname, this makes sense in context. Furthermore, as Yossarian in Heller's novel is constantly avoiding being killed, it also makes sense as a name that means something (just as many names in Heller's novel mean something, e.g., Major Major, Colonel Scheisskopf, etc.). It is also consistent with the text "YOSSARIAN LIVES" of the ad mentioned above. So it may well be that Heller knew of this fact and used it in a subtle way in his novel. Bill Jefferys (talk) 21:28, 14 September 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Yossarian Lives

message: This page needs a spoiler-warning... Can someone who knows the stuff fix one? I didn't want to know what is revealed late in the book(in the process of reading it, and checked the name since I saw one guy using it as nickname, thinking it might have other connections as well) - but now I evidently do.. Darn (: —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Abach (talk • contribs) 02:49, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Spoiler 

message: Iirc, it is not yossarian who poisons the squadron, it is the mess officor (forgotten his name), who does it to prove that they "have the taste of philistines". Why then does the article state that he does it?"(e.g., poisoning the squadron and moving the bomb line during the “Great Big Siege of Bologna”)". Yes, he move the bomb line, but he dosn't poison anyone.Laurielegit (talk) 11:23, 24 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Poisoning the squadron 

message: This page should be expanded to cover Yossarian's entire fictional life in all Heller works in which he exists, not just the (extensively Wiki-article laden) Catch-22, in particular Closing Time.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jszigeti (talk • contribs) 16:29, 12 December 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  The article is "Yossarian" not "Catch-22" 

message: The article notes:
Yossarian's name is described as being "an odious, alien, distasteful name, that just did not inspire confidence." It was "...not at all like such clean, crisp, honest, American names as Cathcart, Peckem and Dreedle."
These are not normal American names, and while I laughed out loud at it, people who are not familiar with American naming conventions have no indication that this is meant as humor rather than fact.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.231.190.143 (talk) 19:16, 1 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ironic humor may not be the best thing for a Wikipedia article 

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thread_title:  External links modified