New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve on Pianosa is the novel's most concentrated eruption of the carnivalesque, a night when the thin veneer of military discipline dissolves into a raw, violent, and grotesque saturnalia. It is the night when Yossarian's accumulated terror and rage, honed by the deaths of Snowden, Kid Sampson, and McWatt, finally overflow into a blind, misdirected act of violence that shatters the fragile camaraderie of the squadron.

The Saturnalia of Fear

The celebration begins as a grotesque parody of Thanksgiving, fueled by Milo Minderbinder's fantastically opulent meal and the cheap whiskey he dispenses without limit. The air turns foul as young soldiers with pasty white faces vomit and pass out drunkenly on the ground. The aimless, riotous celebration spills through the woods to the officers' club and up into the hills. There are fist fights, a stabbing, and men with cut fingers, bleeding heads, and broken ankles limp penitently to the medical tent, where Gus and Wes paint their gums and toes purple and give them a laxative to throw into the bushes. The stillness is fractured by wild, exultant shouts, the cries of the merry or sick, the recurring sound of retching and moaning, and bottles shattering against rock. It is, the narrator notes, "worse than New Year's Eve."

The Machine-Gun Prank and Yossarian's Collapse

Yossarian goes to bed early for safety, but his sleep is shattered by the sound of a machine gun. A tortured, terrified sob rises in his throat. His first thought is that Milo is attacking the squadron again, and he rolls off his cot to the floor, lying underneath in a trembling, praying ball, his heart thumping like a drop forge. A drunken, happy laugh sounds from afar, and a triumphant voice shouts "Happy New Year!" between short, sharp bursts of fire. Yossarian realizes he is the victim of an irresponsible joke—some men have gone to a sandbagged machine-gun emplacement and are firing it for fun. He blazes with hatred and wrath, feeling that they are endangering his life. In moccasins and coveralls, he charges out of his tent for revenge with his .45 pistol, ramming a clip of cartridges into the grip and slamming the bolt back to load it. He is ready to shoot.

The Misplaced Blow

Nately runs after Yossarian to restrain him, calling his name. With blind, ferocious rage, Yossarian races across the squadron past the motor pool and pounds up into the hills along a narrow, winding path. Nately finally catches up, pleading "Yo-Yo! Yo-Yo!" and grasping Yossarian's shoulders to hold him back. Yossarian twists free, turns, and as Nately reaches for him again, drives his fist squarely into Nately's delicate young face as hard as he can. Nately drops with a groan, curled up on the ground with his head buried in both hands and blood streaming between his fingers. Yossarian, his rage momentarily spent, whirled and plunged ahead up the path without looking back, but the perpetrators have already fled into the night. The machine-gun pranksters have escaped, leaving Yossarian only with the consequence of his own misdirected fury.

Aftermath and the Broken Nose

The next morning, Yossarian and Dunbar check into the hospital as patients after learning Nately has checked in with a broken nose. Nately beams in frightened surprise as they pad into the ward. His nose is in a bulky cast, and he has two black eyes. He keeps blushing giddily in shy embarrassment and saying he is sorry when Yossarian comes over to apologize for hitting him. Yossarian feels terrible; he can hardly bear to look at Nately's battered countenance, even though the sight is so comical he is tempted to guffaw. Dunbar is disgusted by their sentimentality. The New Year's Eve incident, born from a drunken prank, has left a physical scar on the group's most innocent member, a permanent reminder of the violence that festers just beneath the surface of their lives.