Images of Death: Chapter 14

In anxious fear for his life, Yossarian turns his plane around after finding something minor wrong with it to avoid going to Bologna. Upon returning to Pianosa interesting things happen while Yossarian walks through the deserted camp in that he walks through death and is reborn again through a swim he takes afterwards. The death that Yossarian walks through can be found in two different areas; the first is being the fallen leaves that swirl around in the windy deserted camp and the second, one that disturbs Yossarian very much, is the mushrooms that have grown in the forests after the rains that delayed the bombing of Bologna. I feel that the reason that the mushrooms disturbed Yossarian so much is because they represent the mission that was supposed to kill them all.

After walking away from the symbolized death, Yossarian takes a swim in the ocean. During this swim he submerges himself several times before going back to the beach for a nap. The swim is a form of cleansing needed after abandoning his fellow soldiers to avoid the deadly mission, or so the reader can assume.