What's It Like To See A Ghost?

Cannons in World War Two had a large impact on Yossarian, the main character in the novel Catch-22. The paranoid and crazy Yossarian is convinced that every stranger he sees or meets is in someway trying to murder him. "Strangers he didn't know shot at him with cannons every time he flew into the air to drop bombs on them, and it wasn't funny at all" (Heller Catch-22 17). Sadly, soldiers like Yossarian also suffered from the paranoia of war. And really, how can you blame them? "You're inches away from death every time you go on a mission" (Heller Catch-22 39). This artifact is significant because it shows the personality of Yossarian, and lets us see his crazy paranoid side. The cannon, and war in general, are reason why Yossarian fakes being sick, so as to stay in a medical ward and avoid being in combat. I predict that the cannon will come back to haunt Yossarian later on in the war. The more he fights, the more he is around these cannons, and the greater chance he has of death. I predict that the ending of the book may in fact be Yossarian being kill in combat, either by cannon, or man.

Emotionally, the cannon greatly changes how I look at war. One machine can kill and seriously injure hundreds of soldiers, most of which are innocent, and are fighting for everything not even tangible. (Johnny Got His Gun-Liberty, Freedom, Democracy) When I read or look at cannons and their impact in World War Two, I feel morose. To me the idea of war is in every way unneciscary, and can be completely avoided. Both World War One and World War Two were ultimately caused by just one person, and that one person has caused several countries around the world to fight and hate one another. War is based on economics. We as humans do not have to kill and destroy nations in order to fix our own. Cannons linked with war do harsh damage when it is not needed.

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