ice anddestroying the target (p. 391), and many admired him clandestinely for his final stand (pp. 393-4).But there is much more to say about this twenty-eight year old oddball bombardier, with a name that made Colonel Cathcart shudder and create malicious freeassociations to it. He was truly alien to the heritage of the Cathcarts, Peckems and Dreedles (p. 207). At various points it is made clear that he is Adam, Pilgrim,Everyman. Indeed, he appears naked in a tree, watching the burial of Snowden and says to the inquisitive Milo, 'It's the tree of life... and of knowledge of good andevil, too' (p. 257), just as he appears nude on parade to receive his medal from General Dreedle, once again because of his horror over the fate of Snowden.Milo Minderbinder and Snowden (whose Christian name, like those of most characters, we are never given) - are the other two main symbolic figures in the novel.Milo does everything; Snowden does one: he dies. Milo is pure opportunist, Snowden pure victim. Milo is the spirit of capitalism incarnate, as well as theembodiment of its false consciousness, its confidence tricks and its painted smiles. He sits beside Yossarian in the tree, o'erlooking Snowden's burial withoutcomprehending anything, with a perfect surface innocence, trying to persuade Yossarian of his patriotic duty to eat chocolate-covered cotton (seeds and all),because Milo has unwisely cornered the Egyptian cotton crop and has to get rid of it somehow. He is the exemplar of the logic of capital and its amorality. If thevicissitudes of the market dictate it, you remove the parachutes from your comrades' planes, take the CO2 out of their life preservers, remove the morphine fromtheir first aid kits (pp. 426, 428) and bomb and strafe your own airfield, causing heavy casualties (pp. 210, 252-4). The strafing was in the contract. He didn't startthe war, after all; he's only trying to put it on a business-like basis. (p. 251). Noble mottoes are paint...
