Snowden

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For other uses, see Snowden (disambiguation).

Snowden is a character appearing in Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (ISBN 0-684-83339-5). His first name is identified as Howard in the sequel Closing Time.

Snowden's character is vital to Heller's story, acting as catalyst for fundamental change in the mentality of the main character Yossarian.

Snowden is a member of Yossarian's flight on a mission during World War II (the setting of the novel). After their plane takes heavy anti-aircraft fire, Snowden is mortally wounded. Yossarian attempts to come to Snowden's aid and does his best to treat his wounds with white bandages and white sulfanilamide powder.

Critically, however, Yossarian only notices and treats a wound on Snowden's leg. Eventually Yossarian notices the major wound, a stomach/chest wound, and realizes that his care for Snowden was useless and there was nothing he could have done to save him. Snowden grows weak and cold in the chill of high altitude flight, and dies muttering "I'm cold" in response to Yossarian's "There, there." In a last, vain effort to save him, Yossarian tries to warm the boy up by wrapping him in a white parachute.

Before Snowden dies, the contents of his intestines and other body-matter empty out onto his uniform from a large hole caused by a chunk of flack more than three inches long, which ripped straight through Snowden's ribs. The sight shocks and horrifies Yossarian and he realizes that a body without a soul is simply an empty shell, which is nothing more than garbage. Yossarian's realization of this as he looks Snowden can be connected to Dunbar as he looks into the Soldier in White specifically by the prevalence of white in the scene.

The experience on the plane and his realization after Snowden's death quickly and dramatically change Yossarian's attitude towards life. He now looks only to protect his own life and, to a lesser extent, the lives of his close friends. Yossarian also turns against the military after this flight and refuses to wear a uniform. His justification is that Snowden died in one, and his remains were soaked into Yossarian's.