Hospitals: The And Now

When one thinks of World War II, they usually think of relentless fighting on endless battlefields. Maybe they think of the German Nazis trying to exterminate the Jews. Another crucial theme of World War II was the aircraft dogfights. Medical services, however, seemed to have been overlooked as part of fighting wars. For many centuries, soldiers were the central cause to the war efforts. As technology improved, more components of war became more necessary. Boat captains, navigators, and pilots started to become more relevant in wars, and by the time World War II was fought, these people played vital roles in the American army. Medical services are a component of war that has become very important to fighting. Hospitals are also a key factor towards war. Developing medical services provide treatment and care for fighting soldiers, in order to keep them healthy enough to continue serving our country.
In the novels Catch-22 and Closing Time by Joseph Heller, the main character, Yosarrian, is a United States Army Air Forces Bombardier during World War II. He spends much of the duration of the book trying to stay grounded in the hospital to avoid fighting in the war. Although Heller uses black humor to develop themes in his writing, as the novels continue, the reader can see how the nurses treated different patients, and how the hospitals ran during that time.
Many times in his novels, Heller brings humor into the hospital rooms. He portrays many of the scenes as jokes. When the nurses don’t know exactly what is wrong with their patient, they sometimes treat them for what they think may be wrong. One patient is in a full body cast, and the nurses continually switch his IV with his bedpan. Yosarrian always stays in the hospital by convincing everyone that he has problems with his liver. The nurses don’t know whether he really has pain in his liver or not, but they treat him anyways. Also, the nurses were quite easy to manipulate into having affairs with patients....