So it's gone

Joseph Heller's narrative from Catch-22 resembles that of Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut. Both of these works are narrated in non-linear ways that convey different meanings to their stories. In Slaughterhouse-Five the jumping narrative is structured like that because the main character, Billy Pilgrim, travels between different times of his life. As of now, Catch-22's narrative style has no connection to a single character, but one could say that to all of them: war has made them only one. Whether it is Billy Pilgrim or the vast array of characters in Yossarian's squadron, their unhinged ways of living and the different views on death are conveyed by the narrators.

Slaughterhouse-Five recounts the events of Billy Pilgrim's life in an odd fashion that certainly shows his detachment from life.  This behavior is embodied after he came "unstuck in time" and in the way he saw life go by: "so it goes". Billy's beliefs that life happens all at the same time is constantly occurring are manifested by the narrator's soothing and easing recount. Furthermore, when Billy was abducted by aliens in the middle of war he detached himself from human customs and embraced alien ones. War disrupted Billy's rationality to an extent where he no longer appreciated life. Indifference is his new way of life. His indifference in front of death is certainly opposing to Yossarian's fear of it. Every time someone dies in Slaughterhouse-Five the narrator says "So it goes", showing how every death is just another death and nothing more. Billy feels no pity or fear of death, whereas Yossarian does everything in his power to avoid death. The repetition of death and the indifference towards it, portray its inevitability in war.

Catch-22 jumps along different perspectives and parts of Yossarian's experience in war. Characters come and go in a very fast paced manner with their peculiar behaviors, but as the story progresses one gets a sense of similarity in all of them. It is a feeling of inanity that makes these soldiers relatively equal in from of one thing: death. "Of course you're dying. We're all dying. Where the devil else do you think you're heading" (chapter 18) said a doctor to Yossarian. This rather explicit quote from one of the few apparently sane characters (who was present only at that situation),encapsulates the narrator's apprehension of the inevitable death. Disregarding their rank and their mental state they are all facing death and it shall come. The narrator presents a variety of characters who essentially face the same problem to equalize them and define war not too far from death.

Both Slaughterhouse-Five and Catch-22 depict the inevitability of death throughout different narration styles. One does it in a very indifferent manner and the other in a much more dooming one. Slaughterhouse-Five's indifference expresses the unimportance of life since it is constantly vanishing, whereas Catch-22's conglomeration of characters captures an essence of equality in front of death. The dehumanization and ferocity of war is presented via similar concepts of death in both works, expanding on war's broadest exit: the inevitable death.