Luciana

Luciana is a character in Joseph Heller's classic novel "Catch-22",

Yossarian meets Luciana in Rome, Italy, and takes her out for dinner with full intention of sleeping with her. Yossarian is charmed by her personality and lets her drag him through Rome. She insists that she must return to her mother, much to Yossarian's outrage, as her mother would not want her messing around with soldiers. She then visits him in the morning for 'ficky-fick' before she goes to a daily office job. Luciana has an "invisible scar" that she received from an American bomb run. She refuses to let Yossarian see the scar although he can feel it under her pink chamise. After asking her to marry him, they engage in a typically Hellerian exchange in which Luciana explains to Yossarian that he is crazy for wanting to marry her because she is not a virgin, and, because he is crazy, she will not marry him. Eventually, Yossarian convinces her that she is crazy which makes her laugh appreciatively with the circular logic and ridiculousness of the situation.

At that moment, they are interrupted by Hungry Joe who bursts in unintentionally. However, upon seeing Luciana and Yossarian entwined, he leaves to grab his camera, hoping to capture a photograph of the two in action. Yossarian and Luciana hurriedly and triumphantly side-step his attempts. As she departs for her office job, Luciana gives Yossarian her address, telling him she believes he will throw it away. Luciana believes he'll feel egotistically proud for sleeping with a beautiful girl like herself without exchanging any money for it. Yossarian refuses her explanations and promises he will do no such thing. But he tears it up as soon as she leaves, only to regret his actions soon after. With memories of her swirling through his mind, he intensely searches for her, but he never is able to find Luciana's address or Luciana again. Unable to find her and feeling extremely panicked, he runs to Michaela, a maid that has sexual liasons with many of the men. After having sex with her, he is returned to a state of calm.

Luciana's ScarLuciana represents Rome. She is everything: the beauty, the sacred, the painful, the dirty, the joy, the intellect, the art, the clean, the tragedy, and the callous. She is everything, including the possibility of positivity and of happiness. Luciana's scar, however, is representative of a flaw (infedelity, past abuse, addiction, etc.) that is only revealed in the security of a relationship. It is a flaw that can destroy or enhance a relationship once it is revealed. Luciana cautiously reveals only simple facts about her scar, intelligently doubting Yossarian, their relationship, and his new exuberance. Like she predicted, Yossarian discards her once she is not with him; in that moment, he solely remembers her sexuality, not her emotions nor her personality. He lets physical moments (which can be repeated with other women) override the entirety of positive possiblities Luciana represents. His memories of her vigor and her personality return to and haunt him once he has discarded her. It is then that he regrets throwing her away; thus, he runs to Michaela who represents innocence and solace.