Heller uses several debates in the novel to reveal character or to consider values. One of the best known is the one between Nately and the old man at the brothel in Rome. Nately is a sincere, innocent, thoughtful young man who has been raised with all the advantages except street smarts. He is convinced that he is in love with a prostitute who is particularly callous except when it comes to her twelve-year-old sister, who is not yet in the profession. The old man is a practical hedonist. He argues that dying for one's country is a foolish enterprise. "America will lose the war," he says. "And Italy will win it." Italy already is doing better than the United States, the old man argues, because her soldiers are defeated and thus no longer dying. The old man has welcomed the Italian Fascists, the German Nazis and now the Allies into Rome. It was he, we learn, who hit Major _______ de Coverley in the eye with a red rose as the Americans entered the city. Nately is furious with the old man's cynicism but can offer only clichés in response. Anything worth living for, says Nately, is worth dying for. "And anything worth dying for," responds the sacrilegious old man, "is certainly worth living for." Nately counters that it's better to die on one's feet than live on one's knee; the old man answers that it is better to live on one's feet. Nately's innocent devotion is sincere and in some ways admirable, but the licentious old man seems to win the argument. His philosophy is simple: Live and prosper and don't give a damn about principles.
We also learn more about Aarfy's character. He mocks Nately for spending so much on the prostitute and boasts, "I never paid for it in my life." At other times, Aarfy is a sycophant who caters to Nately because he thinks that Nately's wealthy father can help him after the war. Foreshadowing his behavior later in the novel, Aarfy reveals a shallow, sadistic side to his personality. He delights in telling about his college days when he and his fraternity brothers tortured and raped two high-school girls. "Boy, we used to have fun in that fraternity house," Aarfy boasts nostalgically.
