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Flashbacks
Chapter 20: Corporal Whitcomb
Explanation and Analysis—Him Hanging Around:
Chaplain Tappman is, through most of the novel, the only consistently morally good character. In Chapter 20, the narrator describes why Colonel Korn intentionally had the chaplain live outside the Group Headquarters. One reason was that Korn, a fundamentally cruel man, knew that if the chaplain lived with his parishioners, it would "bring him in closer communication with them." But in addition, Tappman shows clearly how immoral the officers are:
Another good reason [for keeping Tappman out] was the fact that having the chaplain around Headquarters all the time made the other officers feel uncomfortable. It was one thing to maintain liaison with the Lord, and they were all in favor of that; it was something else, though, to have Him hanging around twenty-four hours a day.
Usually a foil refers to a character whose presence in the story emphasizes, by contrast, the traits of another character or characters. But Tappman is an even stronger foil, for his mere presence in the room, not just in the narrative, emphasizes the negative qualities of the officers, so much as to make them "uncomfortable."
Tappman not only contrasts with the bad qualities of the officers, but he also shows that they are aware of their bad qualities. This is different from many other parts of the book: often Heller presents his characters as unthinking, illogical people, their rude actions only the consequences of logical fallacies and oxymorons. But Tappman shows that the officers in the camp know that their actions are immoral and that they are embarrassed by them. Thus Tappman is an especially effective foil, showing the officer's morality to be unlike anything else in the book.
Related Themes:
