Snowden's impact

“It was easy to read the message in his entrails. Man was matter, that was Snowden’s secret. 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.” (pg. 440)

This is the deepest passage in the entire text from Yossarian in relation to the entire book. This is said when we find out about how his close friend and comrade Snowden died in his arm after being hit with flak on one of their flying missions. As Snowden’s body is oozing out on Yossarian, Yossarian gives his all to save his friends life as opposed to worrying about saving his own and escaping. As this is occurring he realizes and gains a deeper understanding of what life is worth. As he reminisces about his friend’s death close to the ending of the entire book, we get a look into Yossarian’s sense of fears from death as well as his fragility towards preservation of his life and others. He realizes to himself that without a soul or passion to live and experience, the body of man is useless and dispensable. This can be associated to the common soldier in his camp who may be throwing his body into combat without a spirit to truly live and simply locking himself into the war camp. Through the line, “ripeness was all”, we can see the motivation and spirit to survive as opposed to waste away, which in Yossarian’s case is occurring the war. By understanding this secret from Snowden, it is unarguable that this is the final piece of motivation that he needs to cling onto, in order to live for himself and not for the army.