Captain John Yossarian
E945040
Captain John Yossarian is the cynical, self-preserving U.S. Army bombardier protagonist of Joseph Heller’s satirical World War II novel Catch-22.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Yossarian | 4 |
| Captain John Yossarian canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11754216 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Captain John Yossarian Context triple: [Catch-22, mainCharacter, Captain John Yossarian]
-
A.
Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko
Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko is the fast-talking, scheming U.S. Army motor pool sergeant and central comic character from the classic television sitcom "The Phil Silvers Show."
-
B.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman is the brutal, foul-mouthed Marine drill instructor in the film "Full Metal Jacket," known for his intense and dehumanizing training methods.
-
C.
Maynard G. Krebs
Maynard G. Krebs is a beatnik sidekick character from the American TV sitcom "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," known for his goatee, bongo drums, and comic aversion to work.
-
D.
Sergeant Calhoun
Sergeant Calhoun is a tough, battle-hardened space marine and the heroic commander from the in-game world of "Hero's Duty" in Disney's animated film *Wreck-It Ralph*.
-
E.
Sergeant Joe Bomowski
Sergeant Joe Bomowski is a tough but comically beleaguered Los Angeles police detective whose overbearing mother constantly interferes in both his personal life and police work.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Captain John Yossarian Target entity description: Captain John Yossarian is the cynical, self-preserving U.S. Army bombardier protagonist of Joseph Heller’s satirical World War II novel Catch-22.
-
A.
Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko
Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko is the fast-talking, scheming U.S. Army motor pool sergeant and central comic character from the classic television sitcom "The Phil Silvers Show."
-
B.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman is the brutal, foul-mouthed Marine drill instructor in the film "Full Metal Jacket," known for his intense and dehumanizing training methods.
-
C.
Maynard G. Krebs
Maynard G. Krebs is a beatnik sidekick character from the American TV sitcom "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," known for his goatee, bongo drums, and comic aversion to work.
-
D.
Sergeant Calhoun
Sergeant Calhoun is a tough, battle-hardened space marine and the heroic commander from the in-game world of "Hero's Duty" in Disney's animated film *Wreck-It Ralph*.
-
E.
Sergeant Joe Bomowski
Sergeant Joe Bomowski is a tough but comically beleaguered Los Angeles police detective whose overbearing mother constantly interferes in both his personal life and police work.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
fictional character
ⓘ
literary character ⓘ |
| adaptedIn |
1970 film Catch-22
ⓘ
linked to:
Catch-22
1973 television pilot Catch-22 ⓘ
linked to:
2019 television miniseries Catch-22
2019 television miniseries Catch-22 ⓘ |
| appearsIn | Catch-22 ⓘ |
| characterTrait |
anti-authoritarian
ⓘ
cynical ⓘ pacifistic tendencies ⓘ paranoid ⓘ self-preserving ⓘ |
| conflict | World War II ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| creator | Joseph Heller ⓘ |
| ethnicBackground | Assyrian-American (inferred from surname and text) ⓘ |
| familyName |
Yossarian
ⓘ
linked to:
Captain John Yossarian
|
| firstAppearance |
novel Catch-22
ⓘ
linked to:
Catch-22
|
| firstPublicationYear | 1961 ⓘ |
| genre | satire ⓘ |
| givenName | John ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | postmodern literature ⓘ |
| literarySignificance | iconic antihero of 20th-century American fiction ⓘ |
| loveInterest | Nately’s whore’s younger sister (unrequited/protective) ⓘ |
| militaryRank | Captain ⓘ |
| narrativeRole | protagonist ⓘ |
| nationalityInFiction | American ⓘ |
| notableAction |
refuses to fly more combat missions
ⓘ
walks away from the war at the end of Catch-22 ⓘ |
| notableConcept | Catch-22 ⓘ |
| occupation |
U.S. Army Air Forces officer
ⓘ
bombardier ⓘ |
| opposes |
military bureaucracy
ⓘ
pointless missions ⓘ |
| portrayedBy |
Alan Arkin
ⓘ
Christopher Abbott ⓘ Richard Dreyfuss ⓘ |
| primaryGoal | to survive the war ⓘ |
| relationship |
friend of Dunbar
ⓘ
friend of Nately ⓘ friend of Orr ⓘ subordinate of Colonel Cathcart ⓘ subordinate of Colonel Korn ⓘ |
| servedIn |
256th Squadron (fictional)
ⓘ
U.S. Army Air Forces ⓘ
linked to:
United States Army Air Forces
|
| stationedAt | Pianosa (fictionalized Mediterranean island) ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
individual resistance to absurd authority
ⓘ
the absurdity of war ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Captain John Yossarian Description of subject: Captain John Yossarian is the cynical, self-preserving U.S. Army bombardier protagonist of Joseph Heller’s satirical World War II novel Catch-22.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Captain John Yossarian
linked to: Captain John Yossarian
linked to: Captain John Yossarian