Yossarian realises that Ore was rehearsing his trip to Sweden which inspires him to escape. He also realises why one of his other friends spoke with horse apples in his mouth. I didnt understand what his realisation was here, and why he got the whore to beat him over the head with a shoe.
This might be obvious but any help would be appreciated.
It was still Orr who spoke with horse apples in his mouth and got the girl to beat him over the head.
My understanding was that he wanted the girl to beat him over the head so that he'll be injured enough to go home?
it's been a while since i read catch-22, but from what i remember, everything orr did was to make people think he was some sort of fool or madman - not so that he could be discharged (catch-22 would not allow that) - but so that nobody would suspect that he was deliberately crashing his plane as practice for his escape. i think that he was laughing when the whore was hitting him with her shoe - making people think he was some sort of nutter. there were many things, particularly obsessive acts (i think he kept taking some oil heater or something apart and re-assembling it) to detract from his escape plans - he was the last peson they expected to make a break for it - and succeed. genius.
shareThat's exactly hit. Orr wanted people to think he was an idiot or crazy so they'd send him home sooner. He was planning everything.
shareHe was planning his escape (why he was practicing crashing his plane and survival techniques etc.) - he wasn't behaving like a fool/madman so that they'd send him home sooner - Cach-22 would not allow that - he just didn't want people to realise that there was an ultimate purpose behind some of his actions - he wanted them to think whatever he was doing was just symptomatic of his general madness along with the crab apples in his mouth (if that's what they were, can't quite remember), laughing when a whore hit him repeatedly on the head with her shoe etc. That was my understanding anyway...
shareah yes, this is right.
x
Oh, you're right. I dragged my copy of Catch-22 out after that, and saw my mistake.
sharemy idea crab apple/horse chestnuts/rubber balls thing was that he could shape his cheeks to get more air (to make it look like he accidently got out of the plane last) and to shape his hands so that he could more easily paddle/swim with them. that popped into my mind the night i finished the book.
I would like to give you a brief history of the inside of my pants.
-Stephen Hawking