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Hyperbole
Definition of Idiom
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the words in the phrase. For... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on... read full definition
Chapter 18: The Soldier Who Saw Everything Twice
Explanation and Analysis—Immortal Blunderer:
In Chapter 18, Yossarian states his view on God, how he "believes in a God he doesn't believe in":
"And don't tell me God works in mysterious ways," Yossarian continued, hurtling on over her objection. "There's nothing so mysterious about it. He's not working at all. He's playing. Or else He's forgotten all about us. That's the kind of God you people talk about — a country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed."
Yossarian, discussing his pessimistic worldview with Lieutenant Scheisskopf's wife, predicts that she will tell him that God's true will is unknowable. He does this by invoking an idiom: "God works in mysterious ways," a saying that claims that God is all-knowing and entirely benevolent, even while he allows suffering to take place. (The idiom originates from a hymn written by the English poet William Cowper in 1773, called "God Moves in a Mysterious Way.")
Yossarian responds to this belief of God's omnipotence and benevolence by anthropomorphizing God. In other words, Yossarian describes that God is not perfect: he is just as imperfect as any human being. God is only a "country bumpkin," who is liable to any of the same "brainless" errors as a regular human being. This literary device illuminates, at once, Yossarian's feelings about God and about human beings. In attempting to describe God's tendency to allow people to suffer, or even to inflict suffering himself, Yossarian compares God to human beings: he makes the argument, therefore, that both humans and God are inherently evil. On a deeper level, this anthropomorphism reverses a fundamental Christian belief, that human beings are made in the image of God; in Yossarian's view, God is made in the image of human beings, and that is not a good thing.
