Dunbar (Catch-22)

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Dunbar is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22.

Dunbar is an airman stationed at the same base as Yossarian, on the island of Pianosa. However unlike most of Yossarian's fellows described in the novel, Dunbar serves in a different squadron from Yossarian. He seems to have a personality very similar to that of Yossarian, and so they make fast friends. Like Yossarian, Dunbar's chief goal is to prolong his life to whatever extent possible.

"How is Lieutenant Dunbar?" he (the Chaplain) asked as last.

"As good as they go," Yossarian assured him. "A true prince. One of the finest, least dedicated men in the whole world."

However, Dunbar's method for his life's prolongation is vastly different from Yossarian's: Dunbar theorizes that if he occupies his time with only the most boring or unpleasant tasks, his life will seem much longer.

"Do you know how long a year takes when it's going away?" Dunbar repeated to Clevinger. "This long." He snapped his fingers. "A second ago you were stepping into college with your lungs full of fresh air. Today you're an old man."

"Old? I'm not old"

"You're inches away from death every time you go on a mission. How much older can you be at your age? A half minute before that you were stepping into high school, and an unhooked brassiere was as close as you ever hoped to get to Paradise. Only a fifth of a second before that you were a small kid with a ten-week summer vacation that lasted a hundred thousand years and still ended too soon. Zip! They go rocketing by so fast. How the hell else are you ever going to slow time down?" Dunbar was almost angry when he finished.

"Well, maybe it is true," Clevinger conceded unwillingly in a subdued tone. "Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it's to seem long. But in that event, who wants one?"

"I do," Dunbar told him.

"Why?" Clevinger asked.

"What else is there?"

[edit] Hospital

At the beginning of the novel, Dunbar is in the island's hospital along with Yossarian, but unlike Yossarian, who has a convenient liver complaint, Dunbar has "to keep falling down on his face" in order to stay in hospital. When the mysterious Soldier in White dies, Dunbar accuses The Texan of murder. Though Dunbar, like all the other patients, finds the Soldier in White disconcerting, it is not until the Soldier in White reappears in the hospital during a later admission, that Dunbar snaps; he claims that there is nobody inside the Soldier in White and tries to peer inside the soldier's bandaged mouth. This causes chaos on the ward, and results in Dunbar getting "disappeared" in order to preserve morale in the squadron and prevent further disruptions.