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Situational Irony
Definition of Stream of Consciousness
Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's extended thought process, often by incorporating sensory impressions, incomplete ideas, unusual syntax... read full definition
Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's extended thought process, often by incorporating... read full definition
Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's... read full definition
Chapter 15: Piltchard & Wren
Explanation and Analysis—Boom-Boom-Boom:
Yossarian, in Chapter 15, flying his plane over Bologna and trying to drop his bomb, is taking heavy bullet fire. This is the first instance in the book of sustained armed conflict. But there is not a wide description of the battle at large. Instead, Heller's third-person narrator shows readers the action though Yossarian's reactions to the situation, or stream of consciousness, with vivid imagery of his perceptions and reactions:
He had been lulled, lured, and trapped, and there was nothing to do but sit there like an idiot and watch the ugly black puffs smashing up to kill him. [...] He was trembling steadily as the plane crept ahead. He could hear the hollow boom-boom-boom-boom of the flak pounding all around him in overlapping measures of four, the sharp, piercing crack! of a single shell exploding suddenly close by. His head was bursting with a thousand dissonant impulses as he prayed for the bombs to drop. He wanted to sob.
