IRA 10

Hungry Joe could no longer stand the strain of waiting of shipping orders and crumbled promptly into ruin every time he finished another tour of duty. Each time he was taken off combat status, he gave a big party for the little circle of friends he had.  He broke out the bottles of bourbon he had managed to buy on his four-day weekly circuits with the courier plane and laughed, sang, shuffled and shouted in a festival of inebriated ecstasy until he could no longer keep awake ad receded peacefully into slumber. As soon as Yossarian, Nately and Dunbar put him to bed he began screaming in his sleep. In the morning he stepped from his tent looking haggard, fearful and guilt-ridden, an eaten shell of a human building rocking perilously on the brink of collapse. (53)

                This passage is describing a man who without the stress of war turns into a very stressed out individual. This though it would be common of trauma victims, seems very ironic when placed in this story. He serves almost as a foil to Yossarian who feels oppressed by the war to Hungry Joe who thrives under the stress. Many people say some stress is good for you, but being stressed about things you can change, stress about things you can’t change is bad.  Hungry Joe feels trapped by the freedom of being done with the war, some people are like that. They need boundaries and fears to make them feel safe. A similar example would be “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Paul feels more at home on the war front, he feels disconnected to civilian life.  Paul doesn’t agree or enjoy the war when he is on the front line but when he goes home after an injury he feels that he is no longer suited for his old life.  Hungry Joe feels similarly he sees the vast expanse and possibilities of being a normal human being again and is scared. Backed during the two wars in which these stories take place in we didn’t have a correct understanding of how the mind works and how situations change the mind in radical ways. Stress can essentially break your brain, just as lack of stress can. Slowly the stress of war takes its toll on soldiers and civilians alike. Hopefully these two books can help explain to people how a soldier’s mind works.  The army has obliviously realized the impacts of war on mental health because soldier’s are required to go through therapy before being fully discharged.  Merry Christmas!