Nately's Whore

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Nately's Whore is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's classic novel Catch-22.

Nately's Whore is portrayed as a very tired prostitute who really has no interest in sex, and would rather sleep. She is constantly hounded by her kid sister. Therefore, Lieutenant Nately (who is madly in love with her), cannot convince her to engage in a (meaningful) relationship with him. She engages him sexually, but it is cold and mechanical, for she refuses to spend any time with Nately without pay. Because of her emotional distance from Nately, Captain Black would frequently sleep with her to aggravate Nately.

However, when she finally does get some rest, she falls as madly in love with Nately as he did for her. Ironically, shortly thereafter, Nately dies on a combat mission. When Yossarian arrives in Rome to deliver the bad news to her, Nately's Whore blames Yossarian for Nately's death. She subsequently dedicates herself to doggedly pursuing and ambushing Yossarian for the remainder of the novel, often to exact revenge for Nately's death by trying to stab Yossarian. She finally succeeds by stabbing him in the side after he is offered a deal by Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn, sending him to the hospital. Another one of her attacks ends up being the last, albeit minor, comical event in the book.

[edit] The Kid Sister

Nately's Whore's Kid Sister is another character in Joseph Heller's classic novel Catch-22.

Her real name is never mentioned, and Heller only refers to her in terms of her relationship with her sister, even though she is specifically mentioned more than once.

In the plot of the story, she constantly interrupts Nately and his whore while they are having sex as the little girl wants to become a prostitute like her sister. Towards the end of the novel, Yossarian tries to save her after she and all of the prostitutes have been thrown out of their apartment by Military Police, and she takes on a symbolic meaning of purity being corrupted^{[citation needed]}. Her whereabouts after this are unknown. At the end of the novel, Yossarian vows to find her and take her with him to Sweden.