How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #16
Captain Piltchard and Captain Wren, the inoffensive joint squadron operations officers, were both mild, soft-spoken men of less than middle height who enjoyed flying combat missions and begged nothing more of life and Colonel Cathcart than the opportunity to continue flying them. They had flown hundreds of combat missions and wanted to fly hundreds more. They assigned themselves to every one. Nothing so wonderful as war had ever happened to them before; and they were afraid it might never happen to them again. (15.1)
As implied in Heller's logic before, one must be crazy to enjoy war and constantly risk one's life. These soldiers love what every man fears – combat missions. This passage is funny, also, because of the disparity between the men's docile appearances and their bloodlust for war.
Quote #17
Aarfy was like an eerie ogre in a dream, incapable of being bruised or evaded, and Yossarian dreaded him for a complex of reasons he was too petrified to untangle. Wind whistling up through the jagged gash in the floor kept the myriad bits of paper circulating like alabaster particles in a paperweight and contributed to a sensation of lacquered waterlogged unreality. Everything seemed strange, so tawdry and grotesque. His head was throbbing from a shrill clamor that drilled relentlessly into both ears. It was McWatt, begging for directions in an incoherent frenzy. Yossarian continued staring in tormented fascination at Aarfy's spherical countenance beaming at him so serenely and vacantly through the drifting whorls of white paper bits and concluded that he was a raving lunatic just as eight bursts of flak broke open successively at eye level…(15.39)
Aarfy's bizarre fearlessness and the strange sight of paper particles "snowing" down in the plane create a surreal, dreamlike state where time slows. Yossarian briefly loses his ability to understand anything; he cannot "untangle" why Aarfy scares him; McWatt's pleading for instructions is only an "incoherent frenzy". Fear creates this absurd mindset in Yossarian's head.
Quote #18
[Yossarian:] "I'm asking you to save my life."
"It's not my business to save lives," Doc Daneeka retorted sullenly.
"What is your business?"
"I don't know what my business is. All they ever told me was to uphold the ethics of my profession and never give testimony against another physician." (17.86-89)
It is absurd that Doc Daneeka does not know what his business is, especially since he denies that his job – as a doctor – is to save lives. This is another instance of incompetence and/or carelessness.