The author, Joseph Heller, creates the character of Yossarian as a way to express his true beliefs of what heroism is. The book Catch-22 has impacted many people with how it refers to war and the way the soldiers fought and survived it. Joseph Heller created a new way of how to view the war and how most of the soldiers felt through it at that time. The approach that Heller took towards the meaning of war and what truly happens in it was formed when he himself served. Today, some soldiers still have that feeling, but not quite as strong as back then. During the World War II, Joseph Heller joined the Army Air Corps, just like Yossarian. He was inspired to create the character of Yossarian based on his friend who also served in the Army with him. During combat, men see a lot of terrible things, suffer the death of their friends, and later on realize how it is that the whole system really works like. Yossarian has some principles that do not seem as the most common ones to be thinking about when fighting a war. He is the type of person that would do anything just to maintain himself alive. Yossarian is not considered to be your typical hero that saves everyone because it is the right thing to do. He is just trying to maintain himself alive by as he says “survive the war” and get through it with the least casualties. In order to do this, he is classified as a paranoid person because he thinks everyone is trying to kill him. Heller clearly thought that at that time in history