Yossarian and Orr

Yossarian and Orr share the most luxurious tent in the 256th Squadron, a tent Yossarian chose and the two raised together. Orr, a grinning pygmy with pilot's wings and thick, wavy brown hair parted in the middle, furnishes all the knowledge, while Yossarian, taller, stronger, broader and faster, does most of the work. Each time Yossarian returns from a holiday in the hospital or a rest leave in Rome, he is surprised by some new comfort Orr has installed in his absence: running water, a wood-burning fireplace, a cement floor. The tent is big enough for six, but only the two of them live there. When summer comes, Orr rolls up the side flaps to allow a breeze that never blows to flush away the air baking inside. The dead man in Yossarian's tent, Mudd, whose belongings still lie in a tumble on a cot, disturbs even Orr, who is not easy to live with either.

The Dynamic of Irritation and Dependence

Yossarian finds Orr's behavior maddening. Orr tinkers endlessly with a stove he is constructing, taking apart a tiny valve and reassembling it over and over, and Yossarian feels compelled to murder him in cold blood if he does not stop. Orr tells long, circular stories about walking around with crab apples in his cheeks to get big cheeks, and about walking around with rubber balls in his hands to protect his good reputation in case anyone caught him with crab apples in his cheeks. Yossarian finds it pretty tough to understand him and wonders if Orr is talking to him with the tip of his tongue in one of his apple cheeks. Yet Yossarian also depends on Orr. Orr's stove, once finished, works perfectly, with a strong, robust blaze that can be raised or lowered by turning the tap Orr finally finished repairing. When the cold weather comes, Yossarian is warm because of Orr's marvelous stove. Orr can do everything: he can use a soldering iron, hammer two boards together so the wood does not split and the nails do not bend, drill holes, build a fire, dig holes, and bring water for them both in cans and canteens from the tanks near the mess hall.

Orr's Hidden Competence and Yossarian's Refusal

Orr is the best pilot around when it comes to ditching or making crash landings. He is knocked down into the water or has an engine shot out almost every time he goes up. Yossarian knows this, and after the first Avignon mission, he goes to Piltchard and Wren and asks them not to assign him to any plane piloted by Orr, Dobbs, or Huple because he does not have confidence in them at the controls. Orr learns of this and confronts Yossarian without bitterness or reproach, but with injured humility, which is infinitely more painful to observe, although he is still grinning and snickering as though the situation were comic. Orr insists that Yossarian ought to fly with him, that he is a pretty good pilot and would take care of him. Yossarian laughs and shakes his head, saying Orr will only get knocked down into the water again. Orr does get knocked down into the water again on the rumored mission to Bologna, landing his single-engine plane with a smashing jar on the choppy, windswept waves. He ends up alone in a raft that begins drifting away. Yossarian walks back to his tent to wait for Orr to show up any minute and lights a fire to make things warm for him. He cooks a can of hot soup to have ready for Orr and eats it all himself as the time passes. He hard-boils some eggs for Orr and eats those too. He knows that any moment Orr will come walking into the tent with big, glistening, rain-soaked eyes, cheeks and buck teeth, looking ludicrously like a jolly New England oysterman in a yellow oilskin rain hat and slicker, holding up proudly for Yossarian's amusement a great dead codfish he has caught. But he does not.

The Revelation and Yossarian's Transformation

Weeks later, the chaplain bursts into Yossarian's hospital room with the electrifying news that Orr has washed ashore in Sweden. Yossarian leaps out of bed with an incredulous yelp. He roars in laughing exultation, declaring that Orr did not wash ashore in Sweden; he rowed there. He planned it that way from the beginning. He even practiced getting shot down. He rehearsed for it on every mission he flew. Yossarian now understands what Orr was trying to tell him. He even understands why that girl was hitting Orr on the head with her shoe: because Orr was paying her to, but she would not hit him hard enough, so he had to row to Sweden. Yossarian throws his arms up into the air in a gesture of mighty and despairing self-recrimination, crying out, "Oh, why didn't I listen to him? Why wouldn't I have some faith?" He realizes that Orr invited him along, and he would not go with him. This revelation transforms Yossarian. He decides to run away to Sweden himself, declaring, "I'm going to run away," and when Major Danby protests that he cannot row, Yossarian replies, "But I can get to Rome if you'll keep your mouth shut." He takes off, jumping past Nately's whore who is hiding just outside the door, and the novel ends with him in flight, inspired by Orr's example.