Nately's Whore
Nately's Whore is a Roman prostitute whose profound indifference to her work and to Nately's obsessive love is transformed into violent grief and a relentless vendetta against Yossarian after Nately is killed in a mid-air collision. She embodies the novel's themes of arbitrary violence, the commodification of human connection, and the way grief can be misdirected into a blind, mechanical pursuit of revenge.
Identity and Introduction
Nately's Whore is first encountered by Nately in the enlisted men's apartment in Rome, where she sits naked from the waist down in a room full of grumpy blackjack players who ignore her. She has climbed five steep flights of stairs to sell herself to a group of satiated men, but none want her at any price. She is tall, firm, and truly voluptuous, with pointy, large breasts and a thin white sleeveless sweater that squeezes each contour. Her defining characteristic is a bored, phlegmatic strength with which she accepts mass rejection. She yawns, and Nately is deeply moved by what he perceives as heroic poise. She seems more fatigued than disappointed, resting in vacuous indolence before gathering her energies for the tedious chore of donning her clothing and going back to work. She is a woman for whom sex is uninteresting, a job she performs without enthusiasm.
Arc Through the Plot: From Indifference to Love to Grief
For most of the novel, Nately's Whore remains indifferent to Nately's desperate, mooning courtship. She gives him his money back, is tired of him, and wants to go looking for someone else. She is bored and indifferent even when middle-aged military big shots hold her captive in a hotel, trying to make her say "uncle." She does not care about them a bit, and it upsets them terribly. The turning point comes after Nately, Yossarian, Dunbar, and Hungry Joe rescue her from the hotel. She sleeps for eighteen hours, and when she wakes up, she is deeply in love with him. A good night's sleep is all it takes to win her heart. This love, however, is immediately complicated by Nately's possessive and idealistic attempts to reform her. He forbids her to go out hustling, to associate with her friends, or even to speak to the old man in the brothel. She finds his behavior insane, shouting "Tu sei pazzo!" and continues her life, though she misses him when he is away. Her love is transformed into a murderous rage when Nately is killed in the mid-air collision over Spezia. Upon hearing the news from Yossarian, she utters a piercing, heartbroken shriek and tries to stab him to death with a potato peeler.
Relationships and Conflict: The Vendetta Against Yossarian
Nately's Whore's relationship with Yossarian is defined by her single-minded, irrational, and relentless attempt to kill him. She blames him for Nately's death, screaming "Bruto!" as she attacks him. She pursues him with a terrifying, almost superhuman determination, using a potato peeler, a bread knife, a steak knife, and a carving knife. She ambushes him in Rome, at the Pianosa airfield, in the bushes near his tent, and even disguises herself as a mechanic and a Pianosan farmer. Yossarian is forced to physically subdue her multiple times, once punching her on the jaw to knock her out. He and Hungry Joe even strap a parachute on her and shove her out of a plane over enemy territory, but she returns. Her vendetta is a mechanical, impersonal force, a consequence of her grief and her inability to process Nately's death. She is a figure of pure, misdirected vengeance, and her attacks become a recurring, terrifying motif in Yossarian's life. Her final attack occurs just as Yossarian has made a deal with Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn to be sent home a hero. She stabs him in the side, an act that ironically saves him from the deal and allows him to reconsider his choices.
Change and Ending: Disappearance and Legacy
After Yossarian is stabbed and hospitalized, Nately's Whore disappears. Captain Black reports that the M.P.s have busted up the brothel and driven all the whores out into the street. The old woman confirms that the soldiers with hard white hats and clubs chased them away, citing "Catch-22." Nately's Whore's kid sister is also gone, flushed away with the rest. The fate of Nately's Whore remains unknown. She is last seen as a figure of pure, unresolved violence, a loose end in the chaotic world of the novel. Her legacy is her vendetta, which becomes a symbol of the arbitrary and inescapable consequences of war and loss. She is the embodiment of a grief so profound it can only express itself as a blind, mechanical desire for revenge, a force that Yossarian must ultimately flee from when he jumps out of the hospital window and runs away.
Thematic Significance
Nately's Whore serves as a powerful counterpoint to the novel's male-dominated world of bureaucratic absurdity and self-preservation. Her initial indifference to Nately's love and to the sexual economy she works within highlights the commodification of human intimacy. Her transformation into a figure of pure, irrational vengeance after Nately's death illustrates the novel's central theme that violence begets violence, and that grief, when denied a proper outlet, can become a destructive, mechanical force. She is a victim of the war, not as a soldier, but as a civilian whose life is shattered by its consequences. Her relentless pursuit of Yossarian, whom she holds responsible, underscores the novel's exploration of guilt, responsibility, and the impossibility of escaping the consequences of one's actions in a world governed by arbitrary and absurd rules. She is the human face of the war's collateral damage, a face that will not be ignored.
