The symbols in both Catch-22 and “The Veldt” create an all too real reality whether it is in an authoritative military society or a virtual world. Yossarian thinks “it’s cruel” his superiors focus more on the bombs exploding “close together” while “reducing a whole community to rubble” than the lives of the bombardiers and the “undefended village” (Heller 325-326). Each mission Yossarian risks his life for a photograph of the bombing patterns. The military “is less concerned with the pilot’s safety than” the patterns of the explosions (Novels for Students 1:93). The bombing patterns represent the death the bombardiers face each mission. Supposedly, the lions emerge in a virtual reality, however, they look too genuine to be the product of a technologically advanced nursery. As the lions…show more content… Catch-22, an unwritten law, gives the officers the power to do anything, even kill. Whether Catch-22 exists or does not, the “nation is helplessly victimized by accepting” Catch-22 as a law (Seltzer 15:192). The children become corrupt when they learn they have the power to control the nursery with their demonic contemplations, giving them the incentive to kill. The nursery “has become a channel toward-destructive thoughts” threatening the Hadley’s life which is why George kills the power, its only source of life, but “nothing ever likes to die” (Bradbury 204-205). The Hadley’s feel vulnerable to their children’s “evil thoughts” and the “evil things” the nursery creates (Short Stories for Students 20:275). George thinks killing the root of his anxiety will comfort him; and like the house he does not want to die. Although the nursery represents death, the house appears to be alive heightening “the tension and the threat” throughout the story (20:276). The struggle to determine reality from fantasy reflect the fear of
