Bob Slocum's psyche directs the novel. As Heller explained in an interview with George Plimpton, Something Happened is about Slocum's "interior, psychological survival," in counterpart to Yossarian's exterior, physical survival in Catch-22. There is a war in Slocum's soul. One side of him is the cynical seeker of self-gratification — the sex-obsessed consort of whores, the chooser of promotion over friendship.

However, the other side is the mourner of lost innocence — haunted by memories of the little boy inside himself, frustrated by his unfulfilled desire for the allegorical Virginia, and deeply attracted to his oldest son's generosity and ability to love. In one sense Slocum is the consummate corporate man eager to climb the ladder to success; yet conversely in his Happiness Charts he notes that those individuals who most closely identify with the corporation are the least happy, he attacks his company's practices, although participating in...