Although Heller's novel Catch 22 is an iconic work for portraying the absurdity of war, Something Happened takes on the much more terrifying idea of the average man. The main character becomes a self proclaimed failure partially because he is a product of his times, but also because he fails to take control of his own life. The idea that something happened that he was unaware of that leads to his miserable adult life is much more resonant, at least to me, than Heller's earlier work. The novel serves as a reminder to actively cultivate the life that you want, and not become a lost and unhappy adult like Slocum who doesn't understand how his life turned out the way that it did.