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Catch-22
By Joseph Heller
Joseph Heller Biography

His Life and Times

Joseph Heller was born on May 1, 1923, in the Coney Island district of Brooklyn, New York, the son of
Isaac and Lena Heller. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. Isaac, who arrived in America in
1913, was agnostic, interested in socialist politics, and a delivery truck driver for a wholesale baker.
Joseph had a half-sister, Sylvia, seven years older than he, and a half-brother, Lee (originally Eli),
fourteen years older and born in Russia; their mother had died.

Joseph's father died following an operation in 1929, as Joseph began his formal education at Coney
Island's Public School No. 188. Lena never learned to speak English well, and the family struggled
financially. After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1941, Joseph immediately went to work
as a file clerk for an insurance agency. When the United States entered World War II in December of that
year, he took a job as a blacksmith's assistant in the Norfolk Navy Yard. World War II would become the
key formative event in Heller's life, providing him with rich experiences in the military and, eventually, a
formal education.

In 1942, as the war progressed, Heller joined the Army and worked as a file clerk. In October, he
switched to the Army Air Forces, as the aviation branch was known prior to the establishment of the
United States Air Force in 1947. Joseph initially intended to be a gunner on a bomber; when he was told,
erroneously, that the average life span of a gunner in combat was three days, he quickly enrolled in cadet
school to become an officer and bombardier.

After graduating from cadet school as a first lieutenant early in 1944, Heller was assigned to the 488th
Squadron of the Twelfth Air Force in Corsica. Heller later said that, as a twenty-one-year-old officer, he
initially had no serious complaints about his life in a combat unit. He enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow
airmen on the base and the pleasures of visits to the group's officer apartments in Rome, following the
city's liberation in June. The bombing runs went well enough.

All that changed on Heller's thirty-seventh mission, a raid on Avignon, on the Rhone River in southeast
France, the basis of a fictionalized account that is central to Catch-22. During the bombing run, a co-pilot
panicked and set the B-25 into a dive, causing Heller to be pressed against the top of the bombardier's
compartment. After the plane was again under control, the co-pilot called over the intercom, "Help him!
Help him!" Heller replied, "Help who?" "Help the bombardier!" was the co-pilot's response. "I'm the
bombardier; I'm all right," Heller answered. When he then checked the rear of the plane, however, Heller
found that one of the gunners was, in fact, wounded, and Heller realized that death lay near on these
flights. The young lieutenant's war was not the same after that. He did complete sixty missions in the
Mediterranean and received an Air Medal as well as a Presidential Unit Citation with his honorable
discharge.
Because of the GI Bill, a federal program that helped tens of thousands of veterans to pursue higher
education following the war, Heller was able to enroll at the University of Southern California in 1945. He
published his first short story in the prestigious Story magazine that year and was married to Shirley Held,
with whom he eventually had two children, Erica Jill and Theodore Michael. The next year, he transferred
to New York University.
At NYU, under the tutelage of Professor Maurice Baudin, Heller came to believe that he could be a
professional writer. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948, with the distinction of being named
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to the academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa. That year he also published two short stories in The
Atlantic Monthly and two more in Esquire. Heller earned his Master of Arts degree in American Literature
from Columbia University the next year as well as a Fulbright Scholarship to study for a year at Oxford
University in England.
Following a short teaching stint at Pennsylvania State University, Heller joined the corporate world as
advertising manager at Time magazine. In 1953, he began working on a novel tentatively titled Catch-
18.He later changed the title to avoid confusion with Leon Uris's novel, Mila-18. Heller accepted a
managerial advertising job at Look magazine in 1956 and moved to McCall's in 1958, still spending two
hours a night on his novel. He later said that he once became discouraged, leaving the manuscript for a
week to seek diversions, including watching television, but he was so bored that he hurried back to the
book. He wondered how in the world people lived without a novel to write.
Catch-22 was published in 1961. Although he taught creative writing courses at Yale and the University of
Pennsylvania, Heller became a full-time writer for most of the next decade, returning to teaching at City
College of New York from 1971 to 1975.
Heller's personal life took traumatic turns in 1981 as he separated from his wife, Shirley, from whom he
was divorced in 1984. In December 1981, Heller discovered that he had Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare
paralytic disease. His struggle with and slow recovery from the disease is recorded in No Laughing
Matter(1986) written with his friend Speed Vogel. During his rehabilitation, Heller met a nurse, Valerie
Humphries, whom he married in 1987.
In addition to his fiction and memoirs, Heller wrote for the theater, television, and motion pictures. He
continued his writing and teaching career until his death, of a heart attack, at his home in East Hampton,
New York, on December 12, 1999. (For a detailed chronology of Heller's life, see Catch-22: Antiheroic
Antinovel by Stephen W. Potts.)

Major Works and Literary Reputation

Joseph Heller was an unknown novelist on November 10, 1961, the official date of the publication of his
first book, Catch-22. Within two years, the novel and the author had made a place for themselves in
literary history. (The critical reception of Catch-22 is discussed in detail in the "Introduction to the Novel"
section.) It was a hard act to follow. Throughout his career, Heller's work was repeatedly compared,
usually unfavorably, to his first effort. Interviewers often implied that he had not written anything
sinceCatch-22 to match that classic. On one occasion, Heller simply replied, "Who has?"
Between the publication of his first and second novels, Heller experimented with drama, his most notable
play being We Bombed in New Haven, which was first produced at the Yale Repertory Theater in 1967
and ran on Broadway for eighty-six performances in the fall of 1968. As with most of Heller's work, the
play opened to mixed reviews. Legendary critic Clive Barnes said that he would "call it a bad play any
good playwright should be proud to have written, and any good audience fascinated to see" (New York
Times,October 17, 1968). Heller toys with the meaning of reality in the play, in which a group of actors put
on their own performance in which they are airmen bombing into oblivion such places as Constantinople
(not Istanbul) and Minnesota. Levels of reality become confused when characters begin to be killed in the
fictional bombing raids but then can no longer be found in the daily lives of the acting company. Clive
Barnes was "unconvinced" by the fantasy but moved by the atmosphere of "callousness, brutality, cynical
jokiness, dissent, and protest," terms that could be applied to Catch-22 and other Heller works.
Heller's second novel, Something Happened (1974), was initially panned but earned increasing critical
respect over time. Novelist Kurt Vonnegut was among the first to notice this critical trend. He wrote,
"There will be a molasses-like cautiousness about accepting this book as an important one. It took more
than a year for Catch-22 to gather a band of enthusiasts" (The New York Times Book Review, October 6,
1974). The novel deals with the struggles of Bob Slocum, a white-collar mid-level manager in corporate
America, a man who seems to have lost all hope. He is world-weary and, as the title implies, he wonders
what has happened to his life.
Good as Gold (1979), Heller's third novel, caused a stir initially because of its controversial treatment of
what the book calls "the Jewish Experience in America," a topic familiar to the Jewish Heller; again, the
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work grew in its reputation — as an outrageously comic novel. Jack Beatty found it "exuberantly funny"
and recognized the central character, Bruce Gold, as an individual rather than a representative of all
American Jews (New Republic, March 10, 1979). Gold exploits his Jewishness at the same time that he
betrays it. He seeks fame, power, and wealth in Washington, where he hopes to be the first Jewish
secretary of state, having dismissed Henry Kissinger as not really Jewish because he supported the
Vietnam War and prayed with Richard Nixon. Initially condemned as anti-Semitic, the novel was soon
recognized as a brilliant satire.
God Knows (1984) was less popular but has received increasing critical acclaim. An ambitious novel that
many appreciate for its wildly comic premise, its narrator is the Old Testament David (of Goliath fame)
whose tone has been compared to that of a stand-up comic as he rants about his idiotic son, the biblically
wise Solomon. Stuart Evans of the London Times called it "a very funny, very serious,
very goodnovel." Picture This (1987), an ambitious novel concerning Rembrandt's Holland and Aristotle's
Athens, received less critical acclaim.
Closing Time (1994) is sometimes called the sequel to Catch-22, but it's really more of a novel about
confused realities in which a few of the same characters appear in different contexts. Milo Minderbinder,
for example, has become a billionaire international arms dealer. Sammy Singer, the fainting unnamed
gunner in Catch-22, is here one of the narrators. Considering the risk of bringing back characters from a
classic, the book received favorable reception.
In 1998, Heller published an anecdotal memoir, Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here, casually
covering his life to that point. His final novel, Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man, was published
posthumously in the spring of 2000 but was not well received. It is the story of an elderly writer, Eugene
Pota (acronym for Portrait of the Artist), struggling to cap his career with one last triumph. He offers
several false starts, such as a book portraying Tom Sawyer as a would-be novelist; another with Tom
Sawyer as a yuppie lawyer from Yale; and a third that is a rewrite of The Iliad from the Trojans' point of
view. Perhaps too true to his topic — perhaps just old and tired — Heller produced a work that critics
found dreary and anticlimactic. At the end of his career, it could be said that, without Catch-22, Heller was
still a noteworthy novelist. With it, he created one of the classics of the twentieth century.

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Catch-22 Summary

Captain John Yossarian, a World War II bombardier, is stationed on the island of Pianosa. He is an
individualist who seeks to protect his own life by fleeing to the hospital, since a “catch-22” in the Air Force
regulations prevents him from being grounded for illness or obtaining a leave. He enjoys living in the
ward, where all his meals are served to him. In turn, he simply needs to feign pain in his liver and censor
the letters of enlisted men. Bored by his job, Yossarian takes on the pseudonym “Washington Irving” and
pretends to be Chaplain Tappman. Alarmed by these strange occurrences, the government sends two
C.I.D. men to investigate. Other men also seek the haven of the hospital by feigning illness, but after the
mysterious death of the soldier in white, the Texan forces them to return to the front.

On the front, the other men are equally as crazy as Yossarian. His roommate, Orr, crash-lands every time
he goes on a mission and talks about putting apples and horse chestnuts in his cheeks.Clevinger, a
Harvard graduate, argues with Yossarian about whether or not people must obey their institutions and
fight the war. Havermeyer munches on peanut butter brittle all the time, loves to shoot innocent field mice
with his pistol, and earns the wrath of his men by never taking evasive action on a mission. Doc Daneeka,
the squadron's doctor, is a hypochondriac who belittles everyone else's illnesses rather than treating
them.Chief White Halfoat constantly gets drunk and brags about his displacement by “Americans” who
strike oil wherever he and his family go. McWatt, Yossarian's brainless pilot, irritates Yossarian by flying
his airplane a few inches above Yossarian's tent. Hungry Joe has screaming nightmares although he
denies them each morning, and he gets into fistfights with the cat that belongs to his roommate. Chaplain
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Tappman, along with his assistant, has been ejected from the Officers' Headquarters and spends his
time peacefully in the woods on the periphery of camp. He tries to stand up against Colonel Cathcart on
Yossarian’s behalf, but he is too spineless. His assistant, the atheistic Corporal Whitcomb, constantly
abuses the chaplain and collaborates with Colonel Cathcart to have the chaplain court-martialed.

Likewise, the commanding officers engage in squabbles and pointless activities. General
Peckem and General Dreedle vie pointlessly for power. However, since ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen, who is in
charge of mail, destroys General Peckem's letters because of their verbosity, General Dreedle always
wins. Meanwhile, Wintergreen repeatedly goes AWOL. Each time, he is punished by being forced to dig
six-foot-deep holes. Colonel Scheisskopf is so obsessed with winning the weekly parades that he ignores
his own wife's sexual overtures. Colonel Cathcart attempts to become a general by volunteering his
squadrons for the most dangerous missions possible. He also tries to gain favor by constantly raising the
number of missions that the men must fly to obtain leave. Major Major, who is newly promoted, hides in
his office away from everyone else, pitting the C.I.D. men against each other by signing his name as
“Washington Irving.”

After a cancelled mission to Bologna, Nately, one of Yossarian's colleagues, becomes love-struck with a
whore he meets in an apartment. Aarfy and the other soldiers mock him, and the whore rejects Nately
and says he is boring. Nately, however, insists that he wants to marry her. Captain Black sleeps with her
repeatedly to torment Nately. When Yossarian attacks Nately in a fury, the whore blames him and tries to
attack him. Shortly afterwards, Yossarian breaks the terrible news of Nately's death to her. She doggedly
follows him from Rome back to his military camp and tries to kill him with a knife. Finally, Yossarian
disposes of her by throwing her out of the back of an airplane. When he hears that her younger sister has
been wrongfully driven away from Rome, he tries to find her.

Perhaps the most unusual officer is Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder. He starts his own enterprise called
M&M Enterprises. He persuades everyone to join his syndicate by arguing that, because everyone has a
share in M&M Enterprises, everyone profits from his work. Milo also tempts the officers with offers of
delicious food such as lamb chops and fresh eggs doused in butter. He recruits people from both sides
and, since he owns the planes for both sides, he charges each side a commission when they engage
each other. Milo makes a critical business error when he purchases the entire crop of Egyptian cotton
only to discover that there is no market for it. His attempt to destroy his own crop creates widespread fury,
but Milo pacifies his angry clients by bribing the government to purchase it from him. At the end, Milo tries
to persuade Colonel Cathcart to relieve him of the enterprise so he can fly missions like everyone else. At
first, Colonel Cathcart agrees, but when he realizes how much work there is, he instead offers Milo all the
planes he wants and any medals that may result from the men being killed during the missions.

The war takes an especially harsh toll on the men and their morale. Yossarian continuously opposes the
war and Colonel Cathcart’s frequent increases in the number of missions that are required to obtain a
leave. Yossarian argues with Clevinger that everyone is trying to kill him. He says that anyone who tries
to make him fight is just as dangerous as the enemy. Yossarian's various attempts to be grounded fail.
Doc Daneeka repeatedly refuses to grant him the orders, basing his arguments on the “catch-22”: if
Yossarian were crazy, he would not object to flying the missions. But if he is not crazy and does not want
to fly the missions, then he is capable of flying them and must do so. Chaplain Tappman pities Yossarian
because of the latter's mentally debilitating state, and he appeals to Colonel Cathcart to have Yossarian
go home. He is too spineless, though, to be effective. Clevinger argues that the war should be fought. He
bases this conclusion on the intellectual argument that if they do not fight, others will be killed in their
stead because of their own cowardice. Meanwhile, all the officers consider Yossarian to be crazy, and
they merely dismiss him.

In protest against being forced to fly more than the required number of missions as designated by the
Group Headquarters, Yossarian uses various strategies. At the beginning of the book, he flees to the
ward and discovers that it is a haven. To prolong his stay there, he pretends to have a strange disease
that makes him see everything twice. In combat, he takes evasive action during his flights to avoid being
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killed. He also turns back once, pretending that his intercom is defective. When Colonel Cathcart
volunteers his squadron for the dangerous Bologna mission, Yossarian moves the bomb line on the map
to deceive the men into thinking that it has already been captured, and the air strike is called off. Despite
these tactics, he cannot avoid combat entirely and is haunted by the death of his comrades. At Avignon,
Snowden is killed, and Yossarian has terrible memories of his attempt to save Snowden. After this
traumatic experience, he walks around naked and watches Snowden's burial from a tree. Then, an
otherwise unknown man, Mudd, is killed just two hours after his arrival and is dumped in his tent.
Everyone denies the existence of Mudd, so he lies there despite Yossarian's protests. When Nately,
Yossarian’s dear friend, is killed, Yossarian refuses to fly any more missions.

When the Air Force realizes that Yossarian cannot be dissuaded, the officers try to make a deal with
Yossarian that will allow him to fly no further missions. The only catch is that the deal is ethically repulsive
to him; they will send him home as long as he likes them. If he does not give in, he will be court-martialed
for being involved in black market practices. Yossarian protests against such wrongful accusations, but
the officers claim they are justified in jailing an innocent man to keep the war effort going. Left without any
other choice, Yossarian runs away both to avoid a court-martial and to avoidNately's whore, who is trying
to kill him to avenge Nately's death. The confusion of wartime life is not resolved.

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About Catch-22

In the preface to his new edition, Joseph Heller recalls when he originally submittedCatch-22 to various
magazines, including The Atlantic and The New Yorker. He describes how the novel was dismissed, not
even making the New York Times bestseller list. It was even snubbed among elitist literary circles.
Despite this initially lukewarm reception, the popularity of Catch-22 eventually soared among readers.
Readers felt that the phrase “catch-22” very accurately expressed their frustrations with the contradictory
institutions and bureaucracies with which they were constantly dealing in modern society. The black
humor and wit of Catch-22 also appealed to many. Eventually, “catch-22” became a common phrase for
situations in which there is no possible positive outcome--situations without hope because of a
technicality or because of hopeless alternatives.

After Catch-22's immense popularity, though, Joseph Heller felt a need to redefine himself through other
means. He attempted to address other issues, such as the Jewish identity in American society and the
degenerative mental disease that he developed later in life. Nevertheless,Catch-22 provided the high
standard against which Heller was continually measured. None of his other works was nearly as
successful.

The movie based on the book was well-received and well-loved. The book itself had become a symbol for
many groups who were rebelling against “the institution,” and the movie only fed the frenzy more. After
exploring other avenues in his literary career, Heller returned toCatch-22 and wrote a sequel, Closing
Time. This novel touched upon the lives of many of Catch-22's characters, including Yossarian and Milo
Minderbinder. Unfortunately, the reaction to Closing Time was considerably mixed. Some readers found it
well crafted and just as humorous as its predecessor, but other readers felt that it was an attempt to
resurrect Catch-22 without the craft or freshness. Heller claimed that the portrayal of Yossarian as a
hypochondriac sixty-eight-year-old businessman was partially autobiographical and reflected his true
voice.

Despite such difficulties throughout Joseph Heller's literary career, Catch-22 remains widely admired
today and is considered the hallmark of Heller's works. Not only has the behavior of Yossarian provided
much amusement for the mass of readers, but it also has become the source of much psychological
analysis of the isolated character trying to flee from neurotic or hostile societies and circumstances,
situation that tend to fail to recognize the needs of the individual. As people find themselves struggling
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between the impositions of social institutions and the need for personal expression, they find themselves
in their own “catch-22” situations: how can a society recognize individuality and still make collective
decisions? How can a bureaucracy ever be nuanced enough to take individual differences into account?
Such topics continue to generate much interest in Heller's writings because the question of individual
versus community is an enduring problem for society, philosophy, and politics.

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Character List

Captain John Yossarian

A squadron bombardier who represents the individual. He views the war as a destructive tool both to
institutions and their supporters. While his arguments about self-survival seem unusual and even
paranoid, they sometimes possess an amazing amount of common sense and lucidity. He futilely protests
when Colonel Cathcart continuously increases of the number of missions that Yossarian must complete.
At the end of the book, Yossarian decides to flee rather than face an unjust court-martial hearing.

Orr
Yossarian's roommate. His strange habits include putting apples and horse chestnuts into his cheeks,
installing new luxuries such as running water into his tent, and crash-landing every mission. Yossarian
dismisses him as crazy, but one day Orr disappears after another typical crash landing. At the end of the
book, Yossarian realizes that he had tricked everyone into thinking that he was crazy so he could escape
without being caught.

Mudd
The dead roommate in Yossarian's tent who, except for his name, remains unknown and unclaimed. He
is killed just two hours after his arrival in Pianosa and does not even have a chance to unpack his bags.
Yossarian bemoans the wrongful, immediate death.

Clevinger
A Harvard graduate who argues with Yossarian about his tactics to try to avoid flying more missions.
Always questioning everyone about deep issues, Colonel Scheisskopf constantly recruits cadets to testify
against him, although Clevinger cannot be charged with any crimes. One day, Clevinger mysteriously
disappears and is presumed dead. By the end of the book, Yossarian assumes that Clevinger has come
to his senses and has deserted.

Havermeyer
The other leading squadron bombardier, who enjoys chewing peanut butter brittle and shooting field mice
with his 0.45 pistol. Unlike Yossarian, he never takes evasive action but volunteers to go on every
mission. Consequently, he becomes the darling of Colonel Cathcart and the object of hatred of the other
troops. At the end of the book, though, he secretly admits to Yossarian that he is sick of flying missions
and asks Yossarian to take him along if Yossarian gets an order to leave.

Chief White Halfoat

Captain Flume's alcoholic roommate. He curses the Americans for the wrongs they have committed
against his people, and he enjoys scaring Captain Flume. He forges other men's signatures to procure
more alcohol, and one drunk night, he steals Captain Black's car and drives it into a ditch. Confirming his
prediction in the beginning of the book, he dies from pneumonia.

Captain Flume
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Chief White Halfoat's roommate. He is in constant fear that Chief White Halfoat will slit his throat while
he is asleep. Consequently, Captain Flume goes to live in the woods where the chaplain finds him. When
winter comes, though, he moves back inside, hoping that Chief White Halfoat will die of pneumonia.

Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder

An unscrupulous but very shrewd businessman in the squadron and the owner of M&M Enterprises. His
sense and duplicity allow him to earn immense profits during the war. He expands his business by
arguing that everyone has a share of the syndicate and should support him. Milo manages to earn a great
deal of business by bribing the officers with delicious specialties such as artichokes and baby lamb
chops. He makes the terrible mistake of buying the entire crop of Egyptian cotton, though, and loses all
his profits since there is no market for the cotton. After attempting to destroy the unwanted crop, Milo
decides to bribe the government into buying it from him. Later, he tries to transfer control of the syndicate
back to the army so he can fly missions again, but Colonel Cathcart persuades him to continue running it
by offering him more planes and medals.

Corporal Snark
Milo's cynical, bitter assistant cook. He despises all the men as being philistines who are unable to
recognize good food. To prove his point, he mashes tons of GI soap into the mashed potatoes, and
although it gives them diarrhea, they clamor for more.

Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen
A nasty man who is in charge of the mail. He constantly manipulates and plays politics with everyone's
correspondence. Every time he goes AWOL, he is required to dig a six-foot hole as punishment. He
actually cherishes his job and hopes to win a medal for his exemplary work. He is also involved in the
feud between Generals Peckem and Dreedle, constantly throwing out General Peckem's letters because
they are too verbose.

Chaplain (Captain) Albert Taylor Tappman

The squadron's nice but ineffectual chaplain. He is kind and weak-willed, but he firmly believes in trying to
save human life, particularly Yossarian's. The chaplain enjoys his isolation in the woods despite the black
presence of his assistant and his questions about God, life, and creationism. Outside of his little world,
though, problems arise. He appeals hopelessly to Major Major and Colonel Cathcart to stop the ongoing
increase of required missions. He is also wrongfully interrogated about absurd incidents such as the theft
of a plum tomato and Colonel Cathcart's insincere condolence letters.

Corporal (later Sergeant) Whitcomb

The atheistic chaplain's assistant. He tries to make his superior's life as miserable as possible by
criticizing him and taking over his operations. Unfortunately, the chaplain is too weak-willed to oppose
him, and eventually Whitcomb reports the chaplain's various misdemeanors to Colonel Cathcart in an
attempt to gain power and authority for himself.

Dunbar
Yossarian's wardmate, who enjoys shooting skeet to kill time. He tells Yossarian about his strange
dreams, which Yossarian passes on to the ward psychiatrist. After realizing that the soldier in white is
empty, he is "disappeared" by the doctors.

Captain Aardvark
Nicknamed Aarfy, a constant nuisance in the cockpit. He pretends to be friends with Nately in an attempt
to endear himself to Nately's rich father. He is always persuading "nice girls" not to sell their bodies, much
to the anger of Yossarian and the other men. Brainless and senseless, Yossarian resents seeing him and
constantly punches him when they are together in the cockpit.

Nately
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One of Yossarian's co-pilots. He falls in love with a whore he meets in Rome while staying at a specially
rented apartment. Nately pursues her to no avail until one night when he and his friends rescue her. After
a good night's sleep, she awakens and falls in love with him, too. Unfortunately, Colonel Cathcart
threatens to send Nately home without the whore unless he continues to fly more missions. Nately is
killed just after he tells Yossarian that he will probably manage to survive after flying so many missions.

Admiral Kid Sampson

One of Yossarian's crew members. He turns around the plane when Yossarian claims that he cannot hear
him. Later, he is sliced in half by McWatt when the latter flies his plane just a few inches above the water.

McWatt
Yossarian's pilot. He enjoys infuriating Yossarian by flying his airplane just a few inches over Yossarian's
tent. Once, during combat practice, Yossarian loses his temper with McWatt and threatens to choke him
to death. McWatt becomes frightened and realizes that Yossarian is indeed going insane. One day,
McWatt is flying just above the beach water, and he accidentally slices Kid Sampson in half. Immediately
after this, McWatt crashes into the side of the mountain and dies.

Doc Daneeka
The squadron's insensitive doctor. He refuses to help any of the men with their illnesses or problems and
evokes "catch-22" as an excuse not to ground the men. A hypochondriac himself, he is wrongfully
declared dead because he is supposedly in McWatt's plane when it crashes.

General Peckem
A pseudo-sophisticated general who is trying to displace Dreedle. However, ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen
continuously throws out his correspondence because they are too verbose. After much effort, he
succeeds in displacing General Dreedle, only to have General Scheisskopf become his superior.

Lieutenant (later Colonel and then Lieutenant General) Scheisskopf

An officer obsessed with the weekly parades and trying to get Clevinger into trouble for unknown crimes.
He is too busy trying to figure out how his unit can win the parades to care about his wife's sexual
overtures. Upon becoming a colonel, he works under General Peckem, who despises Scheisskopf for his
ignorance and stupidity. Finally, Scheisskopf is accidentally promoted to Lieutenant General due to an
oversight and a misunderstanding of memos by General Peckem. Upon this, Scheisskopf sends out
commands ordering all the men to march.

General Dreedle
A nasty man who taunts General Peckem for his veneer of sophistication. He also hates his son-in-law
and tortures him by keeping a beautiful nurse.

Colonel Moodus
General Dreedle's highly despised son-in-law. He is constantly abused by his cruel father-in-law and the
beautiful nurse whom General Dreedle keeps to torment him. Chief White Halfoat also enjoys punching
Colonel Moodus in the face when he is drunk.

Colonel Cargill
A subordinate of General Dreedle. Formerly an idiot in the area of marketing, he prides himself on his
exemplary stupidity.

Major Danby
The goggle-eyed group operations officer. At the end of the book, he encourages Yossarian to run away
to avoid being court-martialed for rejecting Colonels Cathcart's and Korn's "odious" deal.

Major -- de Coverley
An almost Jehovah-like figure who is feared and admired by everyone, especially Captain Black.
Ironically, though, he puts an end to Captain Black's ludicrous Glorious Loyalty Oath crusade. He enjoys
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renting floors of apartments filled with beautiful women so that the enlisted men and officers can enjoy
themselves on their rest leaves.

Colonel Cathcart
A ruthless, cold-blooded, ambitious officer. His goal in life is to become a general. He is determined to get
attention for himself, and he continuously raises the number of missions that the men must fly to obtain
leave. In the end, he makes a dirty deal with Yossarian to try to cover up his illegal number of missions.

Major Major
A shy, awkward boy misnamed by his cruel father. This Henry Fonda lookalike is promoted by Colonel
Cathcart to squadron commander and is banished away to a trailer where he is forced to sign piles of
useless papers. Eventually, he pretends to be "Washington Irving" and pits the two C.I.D. men against
each other for his own amusement.

Sergeant Towser
Major Major's assistant.

Captain Black
Another cold-blooded officer. He starts the Glorious Loyalty Crusade to get back at Major Major.
Eventually, his idol, Major -- de Coverley puts an end to such foolishness.

Colonel Korn
Colonel Cathcart's competitor and sometimes sidekick. He is just as cruel as Colonel Cathcart, although
he is more inclined to admit to his stupidity sooner. He also joins Colonel Cathcart in trying to coerce
Yossarian into making the dirty deal to cover up the illegal number of missions.

Nurse Cramer
A puritanical nurse who diligently cleans the soldier in white. Yossarian suspects that she killed the
soldier in white because she is the one who discovers that he has died. She is a good friend of Nurse
Duckett, but she strongly disapproves of Nurse Duckett's love affair with Yossarian.

Nurse Duckett
One of the nurses in the ward who is a good friend of Nurse Cramer. She despises Yossarian at first, but
later, she pursues a passionate fling with him. She enjoys flirting with the other men, but she eventually
leaves Yossarian for a doctor.

The Soldier in White

A soldier encased entirely in white bandages. He is attached to two zinc jars, one to feed him and one to
collect his waste. When the latter is full, the jars are switched. Both Nurses Cramer and Duckett vigilantly
watch over him. Nobody talks to him except the overfriendly Texan, and the soldier in white never replies.
When he dies, Yossarian suspects both the Texan and Nurse Cramer of murdering him. He reappears a
second time, much to everyone's alarm, and when Dunbar claims that no one is inside, the doctors
"disappear" him.

Giuseppe
The soldier who sees everything twice. Yossarian imitates him to avoid leaving the ward. After he dies,
Yossarian impersonates him.

Luciana
A beautiful young woman with whom Yossarian falls madly in love when he goes to Rome. However, he
foolishly tears up her address after she leaves him, and, despite a frenetic search, Yossarian never sees
her again.

The maid in lime-colored panties

 10

A woman who will sleep with any man, regardless of creed, color, or religion. Yossarian goes to bed
with her after he cannot find Luciana. Later, as Rome is being destroyed, Aarfy rapes her and throws her
out a window.

Nately's whore
The woman with whom Nately falls passionately in love when he meets her in an apartment in Rome. She
treats him with apathy and resents his attempts to regulate her life. When Yossarian hits Nately in the
nose and tells her the news of Nately's death, she becomes extremely vindictive. After doggedly following
him back to his camp, she tries to kill him with a butcher knife.

Nately's whore's kid sister

The whore's younger twelve-year-old sister. She constantly imitates her big sister and follows her around.
After everyone is driven out of Rome, Yossarian returns to look for her.

Nately's old man

A disgusting old man Nately meets. He is guilty of having thrown the firecracker that claimed Major -- de
Coverley's eye. He is strongly anti-American and pro-Italian, and his ugly, grotesque features painfully
remind Nately of his own father, who is handsome and well-mannered.

Lieutenant Scheisskopf's wife

A sensual woman who sleeps with many officers. Yossarian particularly enjoys having an affair with her to
get revenge on Lieutenant Scheisskopf for his cruel treatment of Clevinger.

C.I.D. man
An official sent by the government to investigate the mysterious "Washington Irving," a pseudonym used
by Yossarian when censoring the enlisted men's letters.

Second C.I.D. man

Another official sent to investigate "Washington Irving," the pseudonym used by Major Major to sign
useless memorandums. Major Major pits the two men against each other for his own amusement.

***********************************

Glossary of Terms

4-F
The designation by the government for one who is unfit for military service due to a physical or mental
problem.

Antihero
The main character of a story when such a characters flaws outweigh his virtues, such as if he lacks
courage, idealism, or other "heroic" traits.

Atheism
The belief that God does not exist.

AWOL
Absent without leave.

Bureaucracy
Excessive hierarchy and regulation in a group that creates inefficiency.

C.I.D.
Criminal Investigation Department.

Calvinism
A Protestant sect known for its strict rules.
 11

Catch-22
A phrase describing a paradoxical situation where a person feels trapped.

Chaplain
A clergyman who is connected to an organization, such as the armed services or a hospital.

Circular Reasoning
A faulty process of reasoning where the premise depends on the conclusion.

Conscientious Objector
One who refuses to fight in a war or serve in the military on moral grounds.

Dystopia
A vision of society where man is miserable or oppressed; the opposite of utopia.

Fatalist
One who believes in the philosophy that one's fate is inevitable and cannot be changed.

Flak
Antiaircraft fire that bursts midair, damaging or disrupting an aircraft.

G Man
An agent of the F.B.I.; a "government man."

Horse Chestnut
A large, shiny seed.

Hypochondriac
A preoccupation with one's health where an individual is constantly worried about becoming sick,
sometimes even developing psychosomatic symptoms.

Impotence
Weakness or ineffectuality; medically, a man's inability to maintain an erection.

Insomnia
Sleeplessness; the inability to get enough sleep.

Jaundice
A sickness caused by bile buildup in the body due to a malfunctioning liver. Symptoms include yellowing
skin and eyes.

Milk Run
An easy mission with little or no flak.

Misogyny
A tendency to denigrate or look down on women.

Paranoia
A neurosis characterized by feelings of persecution.

Prolix
Tediously verbose.

Semantic
Having to do with words or phrases and what they mean.

Semiotics
An analysis of communication systems such as language and syntax.

Syndicate
 12

A group that cooperates to carry out a task or operation.

**************************

Major Themes

Lack of Communication

One of the most frustrating aspects of the novel is the frequent breakdown of communication. This is a
widespread epidemic that affects hierarchical explanation, broad decision-making, and even simple
conversation between soldiers. It is often comical, sometimes even resembling an Abbott and Costello
routine, but this lack of communication ultimately contributes to a general lack of agency. Many of the
difficulties in communication in the novel can be traced to bureaucracy. Many characters are forced to
communicate through a middleman, and in many cases, the transmissions are dramatically altered or do
not reach their recipients at all. Yossarian edits the letters soldiers are sending home while he is in the
hospital, and he takes joy in augmenting them. Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen does not even relay messages he
considers too "prolix," and overseas communiqués never get through because of his preferences.
Messages do not always stay the same from source to destination, and even when they do, they are
sometimes misinterpreted.

When the men are supposed to bomb Ferrara and Yossarian moves the bomb line so it appears as if the
men have already bombed it, the lack of communication leads the men to believe that it actually has been
bombed. No one claims full responsibility for the bombing, so no one can disprove its having taken place.
Since the men feel very removed from the object of winning the war and accomplishing important goals in
that pursuit, they are very happy about this prank. But such an error can lead to other men dying because
they do not receive the support they need. Though this reversal of cause and effect seems comical, it has
real consequences that are very serious. Though Heller never describes a bloody scene where men are
massacred without this support, the reader can imagine the very real effects of communication
breakdowns.

Other times, lack of communication takes on a more dream-like, nightmarish quality. As Yossarian is
trying to avoid enemy fire on a mission, Aarfy invades his personal space, distracting him and poking him.
Yossarian tries to tell Aarfy to move back, but Aarfy does not understand, and he continues to distract
Yossarian, bringing him to tears. The most disturbing part about this scene to Yossarian is Aarfy's lack of
comprehension of the danger they are in and how he is contributing to it. This is not a case where two
men cannot communicate about an idea; they cannot communicate about the direness of their situation,
and Yossarian's inability to instill fear and alarm into Aarfy's smug mind puts them both in harm's way.
The stakes are very high in war, and this makes miscommunication deadly. The fact that it has a slapstick
quality to it does not diminish this fact.

Insanity

Insanity is a very broad term with different clinical, legal, and colloquial connotations. It can be used to
mean how an individual cannot learn from his or her mistakes. It can also mean that one cannot conform
to society or is simply foolish. Every definition of the word, however, pertains to some deficiency in one's
relationship with oneself or the world. If a man cannot get along with people in the world because he does
not operate by the same set of logical principles, moral precepts, or social graces that the society around
him accepts, that society might consider him insane. In the world of Catch-22, however, not only are the
rules of society different from those of a non-military society, they are different from tent to tent, from
person to person. There seems to be no standard for logical thinking, no universal moral compass.
 13

Therefore, the fact that the men often characterize each other as "crazy" is no surprise; everyone has a
different set of rules, so to each man, everyone else is not following the rules.

Sanity serves man by making him competent to solve problems and survive in his environment by being
able to interact positively in his circumstances. Therefore, a man like Yossarian who fakes illness to stay
in the hospital and takes wild evasive action on every mission to avoid danger is, by some standards,
quite sane. He is a survivor. In this way, Doc Daneeka is correct when he declares Yossarian sane for not
wanting to fly more missions. Technical definitions aside, however, the men use the term "crazy" to
describe the world around them because war is unfamiliar, unnatural, and cruel. They are on some level
reacting with incredulity to the fact that they must go about their daily lives dealing with death and danger.
Paranoia and extreme fits of anger usually mark a person who is not fit to get along in his surroundings,
but calm nonchalance amidst destruction and death can be seen as disturbing or perverse behavior, too.
The different ways the men find to reconcile this disparity informs their respective worldviews.

Brutality/Violence

Violence and brutality are disturbing to humans because it is difficult to imagine how harming one’s fellow
man could be a good choice for anyone. To comprehend such choices, society tends to dehumanize
those who commit extreme violence against others. Killers are "cold-blooded" villains. In Catch-22,
however, Joseph Heller does not rationalize the violence of war by showing soldiers to be savages.
Instead, he shows that violence and death occur as part of daily life, and he does not infuse his
characters with an excess of bloodlust. This makes the violence in the novel more strange because it
cannot easily be dismissed or condemned. The men committing the violence are normal people who were
civilians before the war started, not murderers. The choices to be violent were made initially by others.

There is not much graphic violence in this war novel. The death of Kid Sampson is perhaps the most
gruesome incidence of violence in the novel; he is cut in half by the propellers of a plane while other men
relax on the beach and watch. Heller never breaks stride to inject his description with extra pathos or
pause. Though the death is an unthinkable image for many readers, Heller does not give it more weight
than other events. Heller's consistency of tone makes this event more disturbing. It is not an act borne of
cruelty or hatred but simply a mistake, a practical joke gone wrong. After the accident, McWatt crashes
his plane, seemingly on purpose. This is a mysterious event, because his thoughts are not explained. It
seems most likely that his conscience is unbearable, and he takes his own life out of guilt. This makes the
scene still more uncomfortable because not even the man who killed Kid Sampson feels that there is a
good explanation or rationalization for the death. The senselessness of violence in the novel, time and
again, is what is most jarring about it.

The most shocking act of actual human brutality in the novel comes when Aarfy rapes and murders
Michaela. The candor with which he commits these crimes is what shocks the reader the most. In some
ways this could be considered inhuman, but his almost naïve demeanor while causing the death of
another is similar to McWatt's accidental manslaughter, too. Both men kill someone because they do not
see their actions as having catastrophic effects. They both see their actions as innocent expressions of
abandon and fun. What sets Aarfy apart, however, is that after McWatt kills Kid Sampson, the reader is
led to believe he feels empathy and remorse, almost immediately killing himself, too. Aarfy feels neither of
these things.

The world the men live in has little hatred or rancor, but terrible things happen. This is a tragedy in itself.
When characters like Aarfy do not even care when horrible things occur, however, this is a greater
tragedy. The level of desensitization that Aarfy has reached is too much for Yossarian to bear. Not only is
their world brutal and violent, but Aarfy has grown accustomed to it. Or has he always lacked empathy
and simply feels more at home in this more chaotic world? His affable manner and calm demeanor are
chillingly antithetical to his inner feelings. There is, perhaps, something about war that brings out the
violent tendencies of people and can desensitize them to violence and death.

Justice
 14

Nature itself has no sense of moral justice. Yossarian receives a medal for actions that get Kraft killed
because his superiors do not want to admit his mistake. Major Major is promoted because of a computer
error, and whenever he is to be promoted or demoted, Wintergreen intercepts the order and thwarts it.
Simply because Clevinger is intelligent, he makes his superiors uncomfortable. They call him into an
inquisition where they make up charges to level against him. In the world of the novel, men are rewarded
for wrongdoing and punished for being capable. Justice here is not so much faulty as farcical and
inverted.

When the Man in White is found dead by the nurse, she is blamed for his death by the men. None of them
thinks that she actually did anything to kill him; her declaration that he is no longer alive is what makes
her culpable. This is very strange, for it shows that the men view life almost more as a state of mind or an
agreed-upon state than an actual scientific truth. The nurse is almost certainly not at fault for the man's
death, but her acknowledgement of the grim reality shatters the other men's willing suspension of
disbelief. The way the men blame her is not just. It shows their extreme self-absorption, for they care
more about their individual states of mind than they do about the well-being of others.

Misdirected Priorities

Clevinger and Yossarian argue about a soldier's duty to his country. Clevinger argues that a man has a
responsibility to fight because if he does not, another man will have to. He argues that running away from
combat and one's duty puts other men's lives in danger. Yossarian argues that he has a duty to protect
himself from all those who are trying to kill him. While Clevinger's point is predicated on the idea that the
war and its missions are basically inevitable, Yossarian's point assumes that war is a choice. It is a choice
to begin it and a choice to participate in it, and he sees it as a personal affront that he is robbed of his
own choice to abstain from participation. Yossarian has empathy and cares about his friends. He does
not want to leave because he has a callous heart or because he does not care about the lives of others.
He simply values his freedom, and he sees war as inhumane, unjust, and dangerous. His priority is self-
preservation.

Very few of the men have the defeat of the enemy as their top priority. Milo is obsessed with profit, Major
Major is focused on his inability to gain approval from anyone, and Doc Daneeka is concerned with
proving that his problems are greater than those around him. Major Scheisskopf is the best example of a
man whose priorities have nothing to do with winning the war. He is consumed with the idea of winning
parades–demonstrations that have little to do with victory or readiness for war. This insular world of
parades has its own rules and its own rewards, and he is too consumed with them to pay attention to
anything else (including his wife, let alone the enemy or the war as a whole).

The men are not short-sighted due to stupidity. They turn to their small personal battles and wars
because they feel isolated from the larger war they are fighting. They do not take place in planning or
decision-making and are not rewarded for their actions. When a pilot flies his required number of
missions, he is rewarded by being assigned more to fly. He understands that missions are chosen
because of how they will look on his commanding officer's resume, not because they are important to the
war as a whole. Any investment a soldier feels in the war his country is fighting feels futile because his
role is unclear, even misdirected, and there is nothing he can do about it. This makes the men become
self-absorbed out of necessity. They find a smaller world that they have more control over, and they
invest themselves in that world.

Atheism

God plays a part in the novel, but does not come up very frequently. The part God plays in the novel can
be seen as small because of this, or it can be seen as large because of the conspicuous absence. In
times of suffering, questions of God tend to come up; religious men ask for God's guidance, and atheists
point out how a good God cannot exist because he would not let terrible things happen. There is little of
this discussion, though it crops up occasionally as an undercurrent. Dunbar is the stark voice of atheism
in the novel, flatly declaring, "there is no god." Though there is little debate on the topic, there is little hope
 15

or good will to speak of among the men. There are few good Samaritans, and not often does a
character "turn the other cheek." The good are not rewarded, and the evil are not punished. If the
conventional Judeo-Christian God is present in the lives of the men, he does not have a loud voice.

The first character introduced in the entire novel is the chaplain. Yossarian is "madly in love with him."
A.T. Tappman has "diffident" eyes and frequently fidgets. He is very nice, has a girl back home named
Mary whom he misses "tragically," and all he wants to do is help others. However, he does not know how
to help the men; he says that he makes most of the men "uncomfortable." Some of them are atheists,
most of them do not trust authority of any sort, and not many of them get along with others very well.
Mostly, though, there is little the chaplain can do to change any of their situations, and his impotence is as
frustrating to him as it is to them. He cannot heal their wounds, he cannot keep them from flying
dangerous missions, and he cannot write them orders to be sent home. As he talks to Yossarian in the
first chapter, he repeatedly asks if there is anything he can do for Yossarian. "No," Yossarian tells him,
"I'm sorry."

Lieutenant Scheisskopf's wife and Yossarian have the most overt theological debate in the novel. She is
brought to tears when Yossarian goes on a diatribe about how God is either "playing" or has "forgotten all
about us." He calls God a "clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed." When she begins to
hit him for his comments, he is incredulous. He asks her if she even believes in God, and she says she
does not. But she says, "the God I don't believe in is a good God, a just God, a merciful God." They
reconcile that they both "won't believe in the God" they want to. This conversation, while comic in its
illogic, highlights how the characters in the novel want to believe in God but are disheartened by suffering.
They want to believe in goodness and hope, but they are frustrated by the realities of the world, and they
do not see a supreme being coming to the rescue. While Yossarian and Lieutenant Scheisskopf's wife
both admit that they do not believe in God, they both belie their desire to believe. Atheism in the novel is
the state most characters find themselves in as frustrated believers. On such points they are more
confused than determinate.

Misogyny

There is a prevalent air of misogyny in Catch-22, and Yossarian is the prime culprit, a womanizer who
sleeps with any woman he can. He does not factor in his or their feelings; he only wants to have as much
sex as possible with as many women as possible. The perfect girl for him is one who will have sex with
him and not care about him after they are through. When he meets Luciana, he tells her he wants to
marry her because he feels he has fallen in love. His feelings for her are out of the ordinary, but when she
gives him her number, he still tears up the piece of paper out of habit. He treats women as objects for his
pleasure, so when one actually affects him, he is confused. He does not even know how to treat a woman
with respect or love, so he loses his chance to be with Luciana, whom he actually cares about.

Aarfy takes misogyny to an extreme. He actually rapes a girl and kills her, feeling no remorse for his
actions. This comes as a surprise, for Aarfy does not seem depraved like Hungry Joe. Hungry Joe
desperately tries to take pictures of naked women and have sex with them. He is almost like a wild
animal, a creature in need, and his needs are visceral. Aarfy, however, displays restraint with women,
talking to them for hours and even taking them home, but not sleeping with them for fear he would be
"taking advantage" of them. When he commits the rape, it becomes clear that he only acted with such
chivalry before because it fit his idea of manners, not because he respected any of the women he courted
or cared at all about them as individuals. When he feels like it, neither rape nor murder goes against his
desires; most of the time, he simply finds these actions coarse but does not reject them on principle.
Heller's military is a man's world, and women occupy a small and specialized part of it. They are bit
players who only serve as accessories to men.

In some ways, the men's careless and sometimes cruel pursuit of women in the novel is a response to
their lack of control in the military. They react to the severities of war by ravaging (for the most part)
innocent women. They react to their dangerous situation and lack of control by taking control of what they
 16

see as conquests they can conquer, members of the "weaker sex." Their emotional distance from
women is also a reflection of the aloofness they feel in their daily lives as soldiers. They are emotionally
desensitized from combat; getting attached to anyone seems pointless when tomorrow could bring a
transfer to another island, papers sending them home, or the deadly mission that will end the war for
them in a different way. Misogyny is a form of psychological protection for many of the men.

Chapters 1-7

Chapter 1: The Texan

Captain John Yossarian, a World War II bombardier, feigns a pain in the liver so that he can remain in the
ward and not have to fight more combat missions. The doctors, extremely frustrated by a liver that is
"short of being jaundiced," patiently give him pills everyday, hoping that either he will be cured or his liver
will become jaundiced so they will know how to cure him. In the meantime, Yossarian maintains a daily
fever of 101 and is very happy having all his meals served in bed. He plans to remain sick until the end of
the war. Yossarian writes everyone he knows, saying that he is going on a dangerous mission and will
write back when he returns. His only work is to censor the letters of the other patients. This quickly bores
him, and he makes it a game, crossing out all modifiers one day, leaving just articles the next. Eventually
he marks out the addresses on the envelopes and signs himself as "Washington Irving" and then "Irving
Washington." The authorities send a C.I.D. man to investigate but have no luck in finding anyone called
"Irving" or "Washington."

Others in the hospital are feigning illness as well. The artillery captain Dunbar falls on his face everyday
to have his meals served in bed. The Texan is obnoxiously gregarious and zealously patriotic. A strange
soldier in white gauze was smuggled into the hospital at night; a bottle with liquid drains into his mouth,
and another bottle is connected to his kidneys with rubber tubing to collect the waste. When the bottle
connecting his mouth is empty and the other bottle full, the bottles are switched. No one knows the
colonel’s illness. One day the nurse realizes that the soldier encased in white is dead, and Yossarian and
Dunbar throw accusations without evidence.

Yossarian tries to earn the chaplain's sympathy by describing his feigned illness. The chaplain is nervous
and shy and promises to return.

Suddenly, without any explanation, the Texan leaves the ward and Yossarian, Dunbar, and the others
follow him in a hectic exodus. Everyone except the C.I.D. man with pneumonia return to the front because
of the Texan.

Chapter 2: Clevinger

Back on the front, the war is going on. Yossarian resents the Texan for having sent them back and is
miserable. In the officers' club, Yossarian claims that everyone is trying to kill him, but Clevinger and the
others merely dismiss Yossarian as being crazy. Clevinger passionately argues that everyone is trying to
kill everyone else, so there is nothing particularly important about Yossarian being killed.

The camp is also filled with other crazy people. Orr, Yossarian's roommate, has decorated their tent
extensively; Havermeyer next door eats peanut butter brittle and shoots field mice. McWatt enjoys flying
his plane just right above Yossarian’s tent to drive him crazy. McWatt’s roommate, Nately, has fallen in
love with a whore in Rome, and is lavishly wasting his money on her.

The officers sit around making fun of Yossarian for being crazy. Yossarian adamantly claims that they are
poisoning his food and claims various random identities, which annoys Clevinger and leads to an
argument. Yossarian helps himself to a delicious and large dinner until he remembers that they are trying
 17

to kill him. He runs to Daneeka to get off combat duty, and Daneeka tells him that Colonel
Cathcart wants fifty missions, but Yossarian has flown only forty-four.

Chapter 3: Havermeyer

Yossarian is frustrated with his two roommates. One just hangs around because he is dead, and
Yossarian has reported this corpse to Sergeant Towser and Major Major, but they refuse to acknowledge
the dead man's existence or to do anything. Orr has strange obsessions and activities and talks about
putting crab apples rather than horse chestnuts in his cheeks.

There are plenty of other troublesome people in the camp as well. Hungry Joe keeps on having
nightmares and screams every night, although when he wakes up the next morning, he denies anything
has happened. He also enjoys fist-fighting Huple's cat and taking pictures of the large-breasted women at
U.S.O. shows. General P. P. Peckem andGeneral Dreedle squabble for power, and Peckem always loses
because his verbosity annoys ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen, who throws away General Peckem's
correspondence. Peckem retaliates by sending more U.S.O. troupes. In Yossarian's squadron, men
pester Towser about whether their orders to leave are in yet. Colonel Cargill, a failed marketing executive,
orders his troops to attend the U.S.O. shows.

These constant troubles drive Yossarian back to Doc Daneeka, who belittles Yossarian's troubles and
bemoans his own. He advises Yossarian to be more like Havermeyer, the other lead bombardier.
Yossarian turns sick at the idea. Havermeyer is the darling of Colonel Cathcart and is hated by the other
men because he refuses to take evasive action. He never misses his target, unlike Yossarian, who is
trying to stay alive no matter whether he hits his target. Yossarian is loved by his men and relies on
Havermeyer to hit the targets he has missed. Havermeyer himself is strange; he baits and kills field mice.
One night he frightens Hungry Joe so much that Joe begins to scream all night, and Havermeyer proudly
announces that Hungry Joe is crazy.

Chapter 4: Doc Daneeka

Yossarian knows Hungry Joe is crazy, but ironically, Hungry Joe thinks Yossarian is crazy. Doc Daneeka
snickers at Yossarian for this and begins to complain about his troubles as a doctor in the army. Doc
Daneeka believes that he himself is sick and tries to have his temperature taken every day. He has two
very efficient enlisted assistants, Gus and Wes. They send all the men with temperatures over 102 to the
hospitals. Those who have a temperature below 102 have their gums and toes painted, are given a
laxative, and sent to the bushes. Those with temperatures of 102 have to return in an hour to have their
temperatures rechecked.

The bored Doc Daneeka sits around and watches Major -- de Coverley, who wears a transparent eye
patch, pitch horseshoes. Daneeka also worries about his health, the flight time, and the Pacific Ocean. He
hates airplanes and refuses to perform any favors for Yossarian. Essentially, Doc Daneeka sits around
and feels sorry for himself. He always asks, “Why me?” This reminds Yossarian of when he and Clevinger
would ask Corporal Black nonsensical questions during the education sessions. This questioning had
alarmed the Group Headquarters, so Colonel Korn had passed a rule saying the only people who can ask
questions are those who never do.

Cathcart and Lieutenant Colonel Korn both live in the Group Headquarters, where there is a modern
skeet-shooting range. Yossarian always misses skeet and also fails to make money off of gambling.
Dunbar wastes his life, arguing that an hour shooting with Havermeyer and Appleby is worth years. This
initiates yet another argument with Yossarian, Orr, and Dunbar, and ends on a very confusing note about
whether a long, boring, meaningless life is worth living.

Chapter 5: Chief White Halfoat

Daneeka tells Yossarian about his days as a doctor before the war. Initially, his practice had been a
failure, but when the other doctors started leaving for the war, his practice flourished. Once a couple who
 18

had difficulty having a child came to see him. Although they claimed to have sex every day, Daneeka
discovered that the beautiful, impressionable young wife was still a virgin. He showed the couple, using
plastic models, how to have sex correctly. A few days later, the husband returned and punched Daneeka
in the face.

Upon the arrival of Daneeka's roommate, Chief White Halfoat, Daneeka leaves. Halfoat claims that
wherever he or his family go, the people strike oil. He rattles on about discrimination against Indians and
his unsettled childhood. Yossarian knows he is lying but keeps his mouth shut. Finally, Halfoat resents
that after his tribe went to Canada, they were not allowed to return because they were not American
citizens.

After one more mission, Yossarian again asks Daneeka to ground him because he is crazy. This time,
Daneeka claims that Catch-22 prevents him from doing so. If the men are really crazy, then they will want
to fly the missions, regardless of whether or not they want to be killed. If they do not want to fly the
missions, then they are sane and must fly them. To Yossarian, the same logic applies to Orr's claim that
Appleby has flies in his eyes. While Appleby cannot see the flies, Yossarian claims he cannot see them
because they are in his eyes.

While the squadron is preparing for another mission, Yossarian has a flashback about Snowden's death.
Suddenly the bombs at Avignon started flying everywhere, and as they were taking evasive action, he
heard Dobbs crying to help the bombardier. Actually, Yossarian the bombardier was fine, but Snowden
was on his back dying.

Chapter 6: Hungry Joe

Hungry Joe ignores Daneeka's snide comments and instead picks on Huple. Joe is skimpy and sweaty
and overeats. He enjoys taking pictures of nude women and is very good at persuading them to pose for
him. His pictures never turn out because he always forgets to put in the film, turn on the lights, or remove
the lens cover.

Joe is the most avid flyer, having more missions than any other person in the squadron. Each time he
meets Colonel Cathcart's quota and is removed from combat status, he waits fruitlessly for the orders to
go home. As they never come, he gradually begins to blame Sergeant Towser. Joe also begins to have
shrieking nightmares, and the other men, including Dobbs and Sergeant Flume, imitate him.
Consequently, Colonel Korn has Joe fly the carrier ship, so he will be gone four nights per week.
Ironically, each time Cathcart increases the number of missions and places Joe on combat duty again,
Joe stops having the nightmares.

Yossarian advises Hungry Joe to see Doc Daneeka about his nightmares. Joe points out that daily
nightmares are perfectly normal. Meanwhile, Yossarian keeps on missing the bombing target, so the men
must keep returning. The problem is that Colonel Cathcart enjoys volunteering his men for the most
dangerous missions as some kind of game.

Meanwhile, Chief Halfoat has frightened Captain flume into thinking that he will slit his roommate's throat
when the latter is asleep. As a result, Captain Flume stays awake or has dreams that he is awake when
he is actually asleep. Halfoat also enjoys hittingColonel Moodus in the nose to amuse General Dreedle.
Despite this, Halfoat is still an outcast like Major Major, who was arbitrarily promoted by Colonel Cathcart
while playing basketball.

Yossarian again asks Daneeka to ground him, saying that Cathcart is disobeying the rules by demanding
more than the required number of missions. Daneeka again argues that Catch-22 requires that Yossarian
must obey his superior, even if his superior is disobeying Group Headquarters. To his shock, Yossarian
discovers just before his departure that Cathcart has again increased the number of missions, this time to
fifty-five.

Chapter 7: McWatt
 19

McWatt, Yossarian's pilot, is considered the craziest man. He annoys Hungry Joe by snapping cards
during games. He is impressed with Milo. Corporal Snark comes in and tells Milo that Yossarian is entitled
to all the fruit and fruit juices. Yossarian asks who Milo is and is told that Milo is the new mess officer.
McWatt comes out with half a bedsheet, and Milo laughs that McWatt did not even know that his
bedsheet was stolen. Yossarian explains to Milo that he does not actually have a liver condition but has
Garnett-Fleischaker syndrome. Yossarian says he does not eat the fruit because it is good for his liver,
and he does not want to lose this special syndrome. Instead, he gives most of the fruit to Dunbar as well
as Aarfy and Nately.

Milo asks Yossarian to join him as a partner in his firm. Yossarian refuses but Milo trusts him with almost
all his confidential secrets. He tells Milo about his first chef, Corporal Snark, who views all the men as
Philistines and poisons the squadron by mashing cakes of GI soap into the sweet potatoes. The men love
the stuff although it makes them sick.

A C.I.D. man passes by, and although Yossarian reassures Milo that the officer is only looking for
“Washington Irving.” Milo says that it is a trick to make him confess about his black market operations.
Yossarian infuriatingly declares that he will not fly the 55 missions and will go see Major Major. Milo
replies that doing so is futile, so Yossarian says he will return to the hospital. Milo then asks Yossarian to
give him one package of pitted dates; in return, he gives Yossarian a quarter of McWatt’s yellow
bedsheet.

McWatt arrives, flustered and confused about what to do with his bedsheet. When Milo suggests that
McWatt form a syndicate, Yossarian becomes confused as well. Later, Milo admits to Yossarian he is
frustrated with McWatt because the pilot failed to recognize that he had traded a quarter of his bedsheet
for the dates.

******************

Analysis
The first chapter is freewheeling and almost random, setting the satirical tone for the rest of the novel.
Heller's cynicism about the war and the government is clear. An entire ward is pretending to be ill and is
waiting for the war to end. Oddly, no one realizes what a widespread tactic this has become. Even worse,
the men manage to avoid the front by the most ludicrous tactics, such as Dunbar's literal falling on his
face. Meanwhile, Yossarian is forced into performing the menial governmental duty of censoring. As he
quickly discovers, the letters are quite boring and there is very little to censor. Consequently, Yossarian
begins to censor everything that should not be censored. His games fail to attract any notice, though, until
he actually begins to mark the envelopes themselves. The C.I.D. man fails to find out who this
nonexistent "Irving Washington" is and apparently does not realize that this is a fake name. The C.I.D.
comes to symbolize the obtuseness of the government.

The medical establishment is also severely ridiculed. Ironically, the men are seeking to avoid actual injury
or death by pretending to be ill. Dunbar claims he can lengthen his lifespan by lying in a deathlike state
for hours on end. Somehow the doctors are all deceived into believing that the entire ward is ill while the
nurses have come to realize that the soldiers are simply pretending. Despite their extensive medical
testing and knowledge, the doctors fail to realize that the men are faking their illnesses. They have been
trained such that they can only recognize certain types of diseases, such as jaundice, and the fake
illnesses that do not fit a known category bewilder them. Moreover, their methods of treatment are
absurd. They keep on giving Yossarian a daily pill, hoping he will either get well or become jaundiced.
The encased man is fed his own urine. All of this symbolizes the futility of life. At last, the stupidity of the
doctors is exposed when the ill-educated, bigoted Texan proves that everyone in the ward except the
C.I.D. man is a hypochondriac and sends them back to the front.
 20

Heller also cleverly uses irony for more humorous purposes, especially in character development. The
Texan talks about being American as apple pie and the Brooklyn Dodgers and decries the lack of
patriotism among his comrades, yet he turns out to a hypochondriac avoiding the war just as much as
everyone else in the ward. Yossarian, the pathetic censor, claims to be the famous literary figure
Washington Irving. The man who is encased in white bandages turns out to be a cleverly concealed black
man.

Perhaps the nicest example of Heller’s ability to pile up one ironic incident after another is the interaction
between Yossarian and the chaplain. One time when Yossarian is censoring the letters, he deletes the
entire letter except for the salutation and then writes an absurd sentence in which the group’s chaplain is
pining away for love for her. Then when the chaplain does arrive, Yossarian is censoring romantic
passages from the letters. Yossarian himself suddenly falls in love with the chaplain, who for his part is so
shy and lacks confidence that he is worried that Yossarian does not even like him. Such cleverly placed
layers of irony within this chapter foretell this technique’s extensive use for the rest of the novel.

Finally, the common feature in the first chapter is the constant presence of suspense and foreshadowing.
Heller cleverly uses the technique of writing a cliffhanger and then going off on a tangent until much later
in the chapter. The result is a strange discontinuity and constant switching between descriptions of the
characters and recollection of the events. Chapter One begins with, "It was love at first sight. The first
time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him." But the subject is then abruptly changed
to Yossarian’s rather irrelevant background. It is not until the end of the chapter that the chaplain
reappears in a rather casual interaction. Another suspenseful scene, in which the Texan is accused of
murdering the encased black man, is never explained. Then suddenly at the very end of the chapter,
everyone abruptly departs. The only tantalizing clue is that "the Texan drove everybody in the ward back
to duty." Whether or not this is connected to the alleged murder will remain an issue for future chapters.
Clearly, the discontinuity of this chapter leaves much room for plot development and explication for the
rest of the novel.

Chapter 2 introduces Clevinger, a foil to Yossarian. Clevinger comes to represent the defender of the
ideas of social and political institutions and a person indoctrinated to believe that their impersonality is
part of life. He argues that war is impersonal and everyone has to become used to it. Yossarian, on the
other hand, represents the individual who protests against such mass destruction, even if that destruction
is not intentionally targeted against him in particular. Under normal conditions, Yossarian would be
considered paranoid, claiming that everyone wants to kill him. However, under the circumstances of war,
his declarations are strikingly accurate.

Yossarian's loud declarations of being various personas will become particularly important later, when a
psychiatrist diagnoses him as having split personalities. In the second case, though, Yossarian is simply
being misinterpreted. What is amazing, at first, is the fairly dismissive reaction Yossarian receives. In a
camp where each person has his own madness, Yossarian fits nicely into this atmosphere of madness.
Presently, what seems to be a person's eccentricity will change Yossarian and the other men's lives.

Nately's whore will try to kill Yossarian, McWatt's habit of flying a few inches from the surface will result in
Kid Sampson's death--in the end, it will be not the seemingly major but hollow decisions that will affect the
men, but the unimportant details and a few superficially unimportant incidents that have the most impact.
First, Yossarian's “inane” declarations that the cooks are poisoning the food will be justified. Indeed,
Corporal Snark is putting cakes of GI soap into the mashed potatoes, and most of the men do not even
notice the difference in taste and clamor for more--despite the diarrhea. Second, Yossarian's gorging on
what seems to be luxurious food points to an important development in the plot: M&M Enterprises. Finally
we keep hearing that Colonel Cathcart has increased the number of missions required to go home, a
recurring theme in the novel.

Chapter 3 discusses in greater detail the characters who were only briefly mentioned before, including
Orr and Havermeyer. The incidents with which they are introduced become their trademarks. Orr,
 21

Yossarian's roommate, is engaged in peculiar activities, such as putting together a faucet with almost
invisible pieces, putting apples in his cheeks, and being beaten by a whore. For now, these incidents will
remain obscure; only after Orr's disappearance will Yossarian realize what the motive is behind such
strange behavior. Whether Orr's madness actually lets him see the light or whether Orr is a brilliant man
who can pretend to be mad is never clearly determined.

Two other episodes form the terrible web of events for the book. First, the strange infighting between
Generals Peckem and Dreedle is mentioned. Their attempts to outwit each other will result in strange
incidents such as the eventual promotion of Lieutenant Scheisskopf. Second, Doc Daneeka's refusal to
help Yossarian (and later the other men) to be grounded because of illness or insanity becomes a way for
Colonel Cathcart to trap his men into flying an unacceptable number of missions.

Colonel Cargill, General Peckem's colonel, represents certain losers who enter the military ranks. To
prove his obtuseness, he orders his men to enjoy themselves at the U.S.O. shows, as if he controls their
emotions. His attempts to sound patriotic prove his stupidity. He is so dull that he does not even
recognize that his own men make fun of him. Such idiocy makes the reader wonder how he came to be in
charge of the enlisted forces.

Havermeyer, the title character, is a brainless man who has been converted into a war machine. Unlike
Yossarian, who is sensitive about the possibility of dying and insists upon retaining his independent
thinking, Havermeyer cares nothing about his own life or his men and readily accedes to all the demands
made by his superiors. Havermeyer is not brainless in the way that Aarfy is, though. He has a cruel,
destructive streak. War has become a game in Havermeyer's mind. He takes a disgusting pleasure in
shooting field mice with a 0.45. This inhumane, bloody act only demonstrates how war and death can
destroy people's sensitivity and caring.

In chapter 4, several important institutions are satirized: the medical establishment, the military
bureaucracy, and the officers. Doc Daneeka comes to represent the ineffective doctor whose only
interests are improving his financial and personal situation rather than caring for his patients. The doctor
himself is a hypochondriac and is too concerned with all his own potential illnesses to care about the
diseases of others. He is not only useless as a healthcare provider; he also fails to provide his patients
with the emotional empathy and compassion they need. Despite Yossarian's pleas for help, Daneeka
ignores him or coldly blows him off with the strange “Catch-22” argument. It seems as if his soul and heart
have died.

The military bureaucracy is not only cumbersome but also stifling. It prefers to remain on the safe path
and seeks to stop people such as Yossarian who ask disturbing questions, such as the location of
Snowden, the man who died on the Avignon mission. Instead, they prefer to keep the men's brains happy
and dull by preoccupying them with activities such as skeet-shooting.

The skeet-shooting range symbolizes the place where the men internally rot into the soldier in white,
empty shells. As the men learn to tolerate boredom and discomfort, they lose their sense of pleasure and
love for life. These characteristics make them apathetic and more willing to fly missions. Eventually, these
feelings reach such a point that officers such as General Dreedle and Colonel Cathcart have completely
lost their sexual appetites. But men such as Yossarian, who retain their feelings and realize the danger of
flying these missions, refuse to give up their lives for worthless causes.

As in the previous chapters, Chapter 5 continues to introduce the characters as well as open up new
motifs that will figure in the rest of the book. The use of foreshadowing and episodic narration is still
pervasive, but Chapter 5 includes several particularly important episodes that will drive the book and
resurface continuously. Perhaps the most critical plot development is Yossarian's seemingly tangential
but emotionally intense flashback of Snowden's death. Amazingly, this memory is triggered entirely by
Yossarian's entrance into the bomber. While this flashback is not clearly explained, it will reappear and
unfold again throughout the book in bits and pieces, particularly in the episodes involving death or
 22

destruction. The importance of the memory of Snowden's death cannot be understated. It symbolizes
Yossarian's fears of the casualties and the frailty of human life.

Doc Daneeka proposes the notion of a “Catch-22” as a means of justifying the never-ending process of
the men having to fly missions. While irrational behavior and peculiar rationalizations have been
pervasive, it has not been labeled until now, and, as will be seen later, such craziness is the prevailing
philosophy in the war.

Another character from the camp is also introduced in greater detail. Chief White Halfoat provides another
opportunity to expose a terrible facet of military life and American culture. While racism was hinted at in
the first chapter when the Texan was accused of murdering the soldier in white because he was black,
racial discrimination is more directly addressed here. Chief White Halfoat cleverly points out the irony that
Native Americans are in a sense the original Americans. Despite his exaggerations, the mood and
essential complaints of Chief White Halfoat are not unprecedented. The style in which racial
discrimination is described prevents the reader from being offended and lessens the blow with hyperbolic
humor. Yossarian claims quite correctly that most of Halfoat's anecdotes are inaccurate or simply made
up. Yet this story-telling is funny and even forgivable. Halfoat is not seeking to lecture but is drawing on
the ancient oral tradition of his ancestors. As Yossarian remarks, Halfoat is simply retelling what was told
him by his family and parents, and he simply does not know the truth.

Chapter 6 touches on a central theme: the war is a nightmare. This point will reappear at the end of the
book when Yossarian is running madly about the ruins of Rome, looking for the kid sister. Hungry Joe's
nightmares come to symbolize the men's fear of being killed. Just as Joe denies that he has had
nightmares when he wakes up, similarly the other men, except for Yossarian, deny that they are humans
and admit their fear of being killed in the fighting.

The inability to reject authority and to stand up for themselves is exemplified in both Doc Daneeka and
ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen, who create the fallacious Catch-22 argument. Much of Colonel Cathcart's success
in having the men fly so many missions comes from the military bureaucracy that lets all kinds of crazy
injustices slip through the cracks.

Two incidents that will be explained later are worth noting here. First, Halfoat has managed to make
Captain Flume's life into a living nightmare by threatening to kill him. Halfoat takes pleasure in this
metamorphosis of Captain Flume from a happy and nice man to a disturbed and agonizing one. This
episode presents a particularly nice parallel to Hungry Joe's ongoing nightmares. Second, the random
mention of Colonel Cathcart telling Major Major that he is the new squadron commander will have
important implications in future chapters, because this too will transform him from a happy, accepted man
into a paranoid outcast.

Although Chapter 7 is entitled "McWatt," it recalls the origins of what will eventually become M&M
Enterprises. The new mess officer, Milo, is inspired when he discovers that Yossarian's friends are selling
fruit on the black market. Like most good businessmen, he recognizes opportunity when he sees it. His
initial transaction with McWatt indicates the nature of what sort of business Milo will run. McWatt is utterly
unaware that any transaction has ever gone on. Instead, he is left clueless and bewildered. Likewise,
Yossarian is given a totally useless product from the exchange, a quarter of a bedsheet. This unequal,
manipulative trading will become the standard of Milo's business.

Milo is the star character in this chapter while McWatt represents the first of what will be a series of
people Milo dupes and leaves clueless. Milo has a quick mind and is ruthlessly practical. He soon
recognizes McWatt is the sort who can be dealt with unevenly, without the victim even realizing what is
going on. This attitude differs from that of Yossarian, who generously gives away all of his fruit. These two
different kinds of deals will reappear when Milo bombs his own outfit for “business” reasons, but
Yossarian reacts with honor.
 23

In sum, Yossarian should not be dismissed as a clueless jerk like McWatt. He is quite capable of
deception himself. He confides to Milo that he actually does not eat any of the liver because he wants to
remain “sick enough.” When Milo inquires about his condition, Yossarian answers Milo as enigmatically
as Milo does when McWatt enters with the torn bedsheet. However, there is a subtle but important
distinction between Yossarian's and Milo's deceptions. Yossarian's motive is to protect himself from
danger while Milo's is to capitalize on others. As the plot moves forward, Yossarian, for all his flaws, will
be developed as a man who respects human life and will, at any cost, protect it, whereas Milo will be
willing to pursue the money trail at any cost.

Chapters 8-14
Chapter 8: Lieutenant Scheisskopf

Clevinger, a brilliant Harvard graduate who has intelligence but not brains, cannot understand how Milo
can run his syndicate profitably. He sides with both left wingers and right wingers and thus is hated by
both sides. He talks too much about Aristotle and is a dope with women. He fails to note the dangers of
correcting Lieutenant Scheisskopf despite Yossarian’s warnings.

Lieutenant Scheisskopf is an R.O.T.C. graduate with poor eyesight. His wife and her friend Doris Duz
make themselves as available to the men as much as possible. Yossarian enjoys sleeping with
Scheisskopf's wife. Meanwhile, Scheisskopf is too obsessed with trying to win the weekly parade to pay
much attention to his wife's amorous advances. In his spare time, he also recruits cadets to give false
testimony against the brilliant Clevinger. Despite the huge amounts of testimony against him, Clevinger
still has not been charged with anything.

Strangely, Clevinger also takes the parades as seriously as Scheisskopf does, though the other troops
hate the parades. The men groan and collapse in the intense heat as a bloated colonel judges them.
Pennants are given as prizes, but Yossarian sees these cumbersome objects as useless. Despite his
efforts, Scheisskopf’s squadron is ranked last three weeks in a row. Scheisskopf then listens to
Clevinger's advice and allows the cadets to elect their own commanding officers, and the squadron wins
the yellow pennant. After he discovers that the men should not swing their arms more than three inches
from their bodies, they win the red pennant twice in a row. This historical event puts an end to the
parades.

Meanwhile, Clevinger is being grilled by the board for his nonexistent crimes, and Yossarian's name
comes up. The inquiry itself is quite pointless. The colonel continuously accuses Clevinger of various
crimes, only for Clevinger to deny that he committed them. When Clevinger asks about justice, the
colonel sneers and sentences him to walk fifty-seven punishment walks. The other officials presiding in
the trial are punished as well, and more severely than Clevinger.

Chapter 9: Major Major Major Major

Major Major had been born too early. His mother was very ill on her deathbed during his birth, and his
father lied to her, saying he named the boy Caleb. Essentially, Major Major had been born into mediocrity,
suffers in mediocrity, and then had mediocrity thrust upon him. He also has a strong resemblance to
Henry Fonda.

His father, on the other hand, is a liar who hides Major Major's real name until Major Major enrolls in
kindergarten. His mother dies as a consequence, and Major becomes a shy, awkward, submissive boy.
Major performs well in school but is viewed with suspicion as a Communist and homosexual. The FBI
sends five men and a Scotch terrier to spy on him and then place him in the army, where he is promoted
to Major.
 24

When he reports barefooted to Lieutenant Scheisskopf, he is sent to the hospital until his shoes and
uniform arrive. He goes to Pianosa, where he is treated equally and rapturously plays basketball with the
other men. Then, after Major Duluth's death,Colonel Cathcart makes him the squadron commander.
Immediately, everyone begins to adulate and defer to him. When Major Major asks why he is treated so
specially, Milo admits it is because people think he is Henry Fonda.

The bored Major is clueless about his new job and signs his name as Washington Irving on his
documents. When he gets bored, he switches the names and signs them “Irving Washington.” This puts
an end to the useless paper flow to his desk. Two C.I.D. men are sent to investigate, and Major sets each
one on the other's trail. The second C.I.D. man suspects that somehow the chaplain, A. T. Tappman, is
involved.

To avoid suspicion, Major switches his pseudonym to John Milton and wears dark glasses and a false
mustache. He orders Sergeant Towser not to let anyone to see him in his office and tells Milo that he will
eat all his meals in the trailer and not the mess hall. Despite these attempts to cut himself off, Yossarian
manages to gain access to him by bringing down Major in a flying tackle. Eventually, Major gives in and
Yossarian tells him that he will not fly any more missions. The befuddled Major does not know what to tell
Yossarian and apologizes but insists he must follow Colonel Cathcart's orders.

Chapter 10: Wintergreen

Without warning, Clevinger does not return from the weekly milk run and is presumed dead. Yossarian is
so astounded by this disappearance that he tells ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen, who responds with utter apathy.
Wintergreen is a loser who is forced to dig holes six feet wide every time he goes AWOL. Nevertheless,
he takes his punishment very seriously and does such a good job that he is recommended for the Good
Conduct Medal. One day while he is digging for water, he strikes oil. Chief White Halfoat is kicked off the
base and sent to Pianosa.

About ten days later, Appleby goes to see Major Major to report Yossarian’s refusal to take his Atabrine
tablet. Sergeant Towser informs him, however, that no one sees Major Major in his office when Major
Major is in his office. The humiliated Appleby departs, leaving a note about Yossarian.

When Colonel Cathcart raises the number of missions to fifty-five, Sergeant Towser becomes convinced
that all uniformed men are insane. He also begins to think what a waste it was to fly Mudd over, since he
died so soon afterwards and now is in Yossarian’s tent, completely worthless. Yossarian barely had
known Mudd, the unknown soldier, who had died only two hours after his arrival at the siege of Bologna.

In a closing scene with Dr. Stubbs, Doc Daneeka's replacement, Dr. Stubbs snickers that Yossarian is
crazy because he may be the only sane person left.

Chapter 11: Captain Black

Corporal Kolodny is shocked to find out about the missions to Bologna and passes the news to Captain
Black, a skimpy, lethargic man who enjoys sneering at his men's fate. He becomes ecstatic when he is
expected to succeed Major Duluth after the latter's death at Bologna, but Colonel Cathcart chooses Major
Major instead.

In revenge, Captain Black begins the Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade. Each time someone wants
intelligence information from him, he has to sign a loyalty oath. Gradually, Captain Black ups the
requirements so that the other officers cannot compete with him. If anyone complains, he points out that
those who are moral and loyal to their country will want to sign the Loyalty Oath and sign “The Star-
Spangled Banner.” He refuses to let Major Major sign the oath and then accuses him of being a
Communist.
 25

Milo will not participate in the Crusade. He refuses to stop giving food to Major Major just because he is
a reported Communist. Doc Daneeka also refuses to cooperate with Captain Black but gives in after the
threat that he will be sent to the Pacific.

Meanwhile, Colonels Cathcart and Korn argue about Captain Black's new patriotic binge and who is
responsible for Major Major's promotion. Black appeals for support from his idol, Major -- de Coverley.
When de Coverley arrives, though, he angrily pushes away the Glorious Loyalty Oath and demands
“eats.” At this point, Milo starts to give out food rather than the oaths. The Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade
comes to an end, much to Captain Black's concealed disappointment.

Chapter 12: Bologna

The men keep hoping that the rain will prevent the siege at Bologna, but it finally stops and the mission
must proceed. Gradually, they begin to resent the scarlet line on the map that demarcates the bomb line.
That night, Yossarian moves the line on the map over Bologna. Captain Black informs Colonels Cathcart
and Korn, and the mission is cancelled. Since no one has captured the city and deserves the
medal, General Peckemasks to have it for himself.

Meanwhile, Yossarian tells Wintergreen that Milo is infuriated because Wintergreen is competing in the
black market against him. Wintergreen replies to Yossarian that he should do his own job, which is to
bomb Bologna. Wintergreen and Clevinger then accuse Yossarian of moving the bomb line. Yossarian
argues that he is justified in saving his own life.

That night, the drunk men, led by Chief White Halfoat, steal Captain Black's car. They end up in the mud
and run into Clevinger, who harshly rebukes them. The drunkards all laugh back until someone points out
that the rain has stopped and they will have to fly the mission to Bologna. Amidst all the hubbub, Hungry
Joe has a nightmare and screams loudly in the car. He believes that Huple's cat is on his face, suffocating
him. Actually the cat is on his face, and Hungry Joe panics. Yossarian tries to officiate a fight between the
cat and Hungry Joe, but the cat chickens out and Hungry Joe is declared the winner.

Chapter 13: Major -- de Coverley

Since Yossarian has moved the line, Major -- de Coverley not believes that his troops have captured not
only Bologna but also Florence. He is enigmatic to both the Americans and Germans, and his eclectic
hobbies include pitching horseshoes and renting apartments for troops to use on their leaves. In fact, de
Coverley has rented numerous spacious apartments in Rome, which are owned by a beautiful countess
and her daughter-in-law. Yossarian dreams of sleeping with them, but they will only offer themselves
to Nately and Aarfy, who refuse to do so. There are plenty of other women around, and Yossarian is
particularly fond of the maid in the lime-colored panties who lies for all men.

De Coverley wears an eye patch due to an injury caused by a malicious old man during a parade in
Rome. Nevertheless to remain binocular, he insists the patch be transparent. His colossal stature also
earns the fear of all the men, and only Milo Minderbinder has the courage to address him, ingratiating
himself by offering him a hard-boiled egg from Malta. Taking hints from Milo, de Coverley promises to
give Milo plans to make weekly runs to Malta for eggs and to Sicily for butter. This initiates a fresh-egg
orgy, and gradually all the officers turn over their mess halls to Milo. His popularity spreads as he opens
up other supply lines to include other specialties from lamb chops to artichokes to strawberries.

Meanwhile, Colonel Cathcart is in trouble for failing to destroy the bridge at Ferrara for an entire week. He
blames Yossarian, who took evasive action on the first round, although the others missed the target on
the first round and it was Yossarian who hit the bridge on the second try. Yossarian suggests that
Cathcart cover up this humiliation by giving Yossarian a medal for going around twice and promoting him
to captain. Colonels Cathcart and Korn agree this is a good cover-up and promise to do so.
 26

Chapter 14: Kid Sampson

Gradually, Yossarian loses his courage to fly the mission even once. At Bologna, he pretends to have
intercom troubles and orders Admiral Kid Sampson to turn the plane back. The men all return jubilantly,
but when they land, all they see is Chief White Halfoat forging signatures to obtain more alcohol. Nately
and Kid Sampson wander off, and Yossarian returns to his tent.

Yossarian feels good and goes to the beach, where he enjoys the quiet and isolation. The peace of the
beach is completely opposite to the unnerving chaos inside the bomber. Yossarian strips and falls asleep.
Suddenly, though, the sound of planes from above arouses him from slumber.

In shock, Yossarian watches the formation of the planes and realizes that only his plane is missing. He
looks about anxiously but does not see any distress signals, assumes that the clouds have covered the
target, and decides that Bologna has not been bombed yet. Actually, Yossarian is wrong. Bologna has
been bombed and has been labeled a milk run.

Analysis
Chapter 8 introduces one of the most important figures in the book, Lieutenant Scheisskopf. As the book
progresses, he comes to represent the despicable, military type: the brainless commander who gives
orders to his men, is concerned with fanfare and bravado but not meaningful military action, and is the
stupid person who somehow manages to be promoted. His name in German literally means "shithead."

Scheisskopf's strange obsession with parades will reappear each time he is promoted. His fascination
with superficial grandeur points to a hollow mind. It is sadly funny that Scheisskopf is so busy trying to
plan his parades that he ignores the amorous advances of his wife on others. His apathy towards sexual
pleasure is also present in other officers such as Colonel Cathcart and General Dreedle. Such behavior is
an effect of war: an inability to have pleasure, a desensitization to life. When Scheisskopf accedes to his
wife's innuendoes, his whipping of her demonstrates a destructive, cruel streak in what should be a
pleasurable, relaxing activity.

The other major event in this chapter is the inquisition of Clevinger. Rather than having the trials based on
justice, Scheisskopf uses the Action Board inquiry for his personal vendetta against Clevinger. Due
process is violated: rather than Clevinger being charged with a crime and then having evidence presented
against him, Scheisskopf decides to create false testimony in an attempt to make up a crime so Clevinger
can be punished. This vindictive, unjust pattern will be used again in the inquisition of the chaplain.

The evolution of Major Major from what should have been a normal, mediocre child to a paranoid, insane
officer points to an underlying trend among all the soldiers. Basically Major Major finds himself trapped by
circumstances. His father tricks him into thinking that he is a normal child until it is too late. People think
that he looks like Henry Fonda, his one advantage. In soon finds himself appointed to a position he does
not even aspire to at all, one that forces him to ostracize himself and deal with paperwork. Worst of all, he
is victimized by the infuriated Captain Black.

The father of Major Major is another person who professes American values but, like the Texan and
Colonel Cathcart, is quite despicable. In this case, the father represents the rural farmer who upholds
traditional values. Underneath such trappings, though, he is just as deceptive and cruel as Colonels
Cathcart and Korn or General Peckem. The values he pretends to aspire to--small government, support
for small farmers, and hardcore religious beliefs--are in conflict with what he actually practices. This
hypocrisy will be emphasized at the end of the book, when Colonel Cathcart admits he has only flown
four missions but has coerced his men to fly eighty so he could be promoted to general.

Major Major's new position exemplifies the faults in the military bureaucracy. First his work is quite
unclear, and later General Peckem confides to Colonel Cathcart that “delegation of responsibility” means
that the work is just passed on to someone lower. Thus Major Major ends up with loads of meaningless
paperwork. This paperwork can only stop when the military bureaucracy accomplishes its purpose or
 27

Major Major rejects his identity. Thus, Major Major wears disguises and refuses to see anyone because
he no longer exists. At last, Colonel Cathcart has accomplished his purpose: to completely obliterate the
existence of a person and leave behind a malleable, unidentified soul.

Chapter 10 is one of the more amusing chapters. It provides further explanations, or contradictions, for
incidents previously discussed. The briefly mentioned dead man in Yossarian's tent is now given a name,
Mudd. But the refusal to recognize him as a person symbolizes the military institution's denial of the
meaning of human life of those who die. This deprivation of identity will be seen again in other characters,
including the soldier in white and Major Major. In fact, this action points to the underlying, erroneous belief
of the military bureaucracy that since their soldiers are no longer self-actualized human beings with lives
of their own, they are just another expendable resource like oil or food.

The role of ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen is explained more fully here. We see that he is a “snide little punk” who
enjoys going AWOL and who has misdirected pride in fulfilling his punishment. The action of digging
holes comes to symbolize Wintergreen's slow descent into the inferno and the sadistic pleasure he
receives out of stirring up even more trouble with the military correspondence each time he returns.
Wintergreen will come to play a subtle but critical role in the following events, as he prevents Colonel
Cathcart from becoming a general and thus causing indirectly the increase in the required number of
missions, as well as the displacement of General Peckem by the newly promoted General Scheisskopf.

Being personally vindictive can also take other forms besides Lieutenant Scheisskopf's method of
persecution in the courts. In this chapter, Captain Black takes advantage of the ongoing war to drive his
Glorious Loyalty Oath Campaign. He uses patriotism as an excuse to force his will upon the men.
Gradually, like Lieutenant Scheisskopf's infatuation with parades, Captain Black's obsession with the
Glorious Loyalty Oath consumes not only his own life but even that of others. He wrongfully imposes his
views upon the other men, and those who oppose him, such as Milo and Doc Daneeka, are quickly forced
into submission. Justice and innocence of the victim are completely ignored in Captain Black's mad
pursuit for revenge. His supervisors, Colonels Cathcart and Korn, refuse to take responsibility, so the
unfortunate Major Major is left to fend for himself once again. Major’s paranoia is now justified in the
perspective of Captain Black's terrible actions against him.

The end of the Oath Campaign is particularly ironic. Denying food coercively unless people sign the oath
makes no sense to Major -- de Coverley. Ironically, Captain Black brings upon his own plan’s destruction
when he invites de Coverley. Strangely, the Major is described as a god with a white hair and Jehovan
bearing, and figuratively, he does act as a god when he saves the entire squadron from the dangerous
clutches of Captain Black.

Chapter 12 exposes the weaknesses of the military bureaucracy: the poor communication within the
military, the severe lack of common sense, and worst of all, the greed to get medals and promotions. This
initial conversation among the officers points to their apathy. In fact, Colonel Cathcart is extremely
relieved because he only wants the honor of having accomplished the mission. Whether any effective
military action is taken does not matter as long as Colonel Cathcart earns the honor. Medals are not
determined by merit but by politics. Amazingly enough, no one inquires about what seems to be a very
unusual action. For some reason, the people in charge of the land operations are not in close
communication with their airpower.

More importantly, though, Yossarian for the first time takes direct action against the military to stop flying
missions. This step foreshadows his future open refusal to stop flying missions. Yossarian refuses to
conform to the institution’s patterns. Instead Yossarian sees everything from the viewpoint of an individual
whose main interest is to survive. Just as General Peckem sees General Dreedle as his enemy,
Yossarian sees anyone who tries to kill him as his enemy. In Yossarian’s conversation with Clevinger,
Clevinger plays Devil's advocate and takes on the institutional viewpoint that people give up their identity
and their duty to their own survival when they becomes soldiers.Colonel Cargill's and General Peckem's
evasive answers about why they themselves are not fighting, however--they are better administrators--
 28

ring a bit hollow. It seems reasonable, under these circumstances, for Yossarian to protect himself
because it seems reasonable to suspect that the officers are essentially trying to kill him to meet their own
goals.

Chapter 13 provides two major incidents for the plot. The first is Major -- de Coverley's peculiar habit of
renting apartments with lots of beautiful women for the enlisted men and the officers. Ironically, this
eccentricity will end up haunting Yossarian when Nately meets the whore who later tries to kill Yossarian
to avenge Nately's death. More importantly (for now), Colonels Cathcart and Korn also try to cover up
Yossarian's evasive action by promoting him to captain and giving him a medal. While these two incidents
do not seem to bear any relation to each other, this strange habit and Yossarian's accolades will be
intimately tied together at the end of the book when the officers threaten to use the whore incident to
deprive Yossarian of his awards.

A strange logic pervades the book here. Rather than sensibly punishing Yossarian for his evasive actions,
Colonels Cathcart and Korn decide to award him a medal. Thus, none of them will be caught--unless this
plan itself fails.

The apartments are a minor paradise for the men, a haven from the insanity and meaninglessness of the
war. This contrasts very heavily with the Eden, later described in Chapters 20 and 25, that the chaplain
enjoys. Whereas the chaplain elevates his wife to a Beatrice figure, Yossarian treasures very highly the
maid in the lime-colored panties who lies for all the men without any discrimination.

In Chapter 14, Yossarian continues to aggressively fight against flying more missions. This time he tears
apart the intercom. Admiral Kid Sampson, the innocent victim of this plot, is only too eager to comply and
turn back. The conversation between Yossarian and Kid Sampson is especially telling about Sampson.
Although everything is going quite well, Yossarian quickly dupes him into thinking that something is
wrong. Underneath his cheerful, happy-go-lucky veneer, Sampson is revealed to be just like Yossarian,
eager to go home for any petty reason. As will be shown later, the entire squadron secretly are all
Yossarians inside but lack the courage to openly express their self-protective cowardice.

The beach is yet another superficial paradise in the book, much like the hospital and the apartments.
There is a false sense of peace at the beach. Although it appears to be a haven, it turns out to be the
sight of a disturbing scene for Yossarian, the presence of the bomb squad. Yossarian incorrectly
assumes that death is awaiting him already. Actually, his timing is off since the mission is only a milk run.
Still, his terrible premonition about death will come when he least expects it, when McWatt accidentally
slices Kid Sampson in half with his airplane. In peacetime, a beach is a place of paradise, but not in
wartime.

***********************************

Chapters 15-21
Chapter 15: Piltchard and Wren

Captains Piltchard and Wren are two quiet, nice men who are in charge of the squadron operations.
Piltchard gently asks his men not to turn back for unimportant reasons like having a defective intercom.
To show that they do not resent Yossarian, they assign him to lead the first formation with McWatt and
order them to bomb the ammunition dumps in Bologna. As commanded, Yossarian goes directly for the
target like Havermeyerand suddenly discovers that he is surrounded by flak. As he cries inside, the
bombs are dropped. He screams at McWatt to have the plane climb up as quickly as possible. In the din
and chaos, Yossarian orders Aarfy out of the nose and suddenly realizes that the other planes in their
formation are gone. As Yossarian panics, Aarfy good-humoredly babbles that he cannot hear Yossarian
and does not even respond to Yossarian’s punching.
 29

Suddenly, Yossarian realizes that Orr is no longer there. He curses Aarfy furiously and returns to the
briefing room. After much anxious waiting, Orr arrives with one broken engine. He crash-lands, as usual,
and Yossarian breathes a sigh of relief. Immediately after this, though, he takes emergency leave and
heads off to Rome to find Luciana.

Chapter 16: Luciana

Yossarian finds Luciana alone. She convinces him to dance with her and to pay for her dinner, although
she claims she will not sleep with him. Yossarian protests but gives in. Eventually, she agrees to let him
sleep with her, but not this evening, since she must return home. Luciana abruptly leaves him behind, and
Yossarian is left with the yearning that she would have been the ideal woman to fulfill his sexual
fantasies. Her interest in Yossarian is minimal, but she is infatuated with Aarfy, excited about Hungry Joe,
and obsessed with fornication.

When Yossarian arrives at Luciana's place, he finds that she is gone and envies Aarfy. Aarfy is
worshipped by two beautiful aristocratic women, mother and daughter, who simply ignore Yossarian. It
turns out, though, that Aarfy is at his apartment rather than with Luciana. Apparently, Aarfy refused to
sleep with her because he considers her to be a “nice girl.” Instead, he persuaded her to be “good” and
not sleep around. Consequently, Yossarian loses his temper and Hungry Joe starts to beat up Aarfy.

Yossarian goes to sleep, and when he wakes up, Luciana appears. They kid around about marriage and
are passionately kissing when Hungry Joe tries to break in and take pictures of them. Yossarian, in a
panic, orders Luciana to dress and sneaks her out. On the way, they meet Nately, who is grieved
because he no longer has enough money to see his beloved whore.

The irony is that despite Nately's infatuation, his whore finds Nately uninteresting and is upset about his
constant jealousy. In fact, Captain Black sleeps with her whenever possible just to annoy Nately. Before
Luciana leaves, she gives Yossarian her name and address. After she leaves, Yossarian tears it up but
regrets it immediately. By this time, though, all of the pieces have been blown away by the wind. The next
day, he searches for her but to no avail. He begins to have flashbacks about Snowden. After sleeping
with an anonymous whore, he meets Hungry Joe, who announces that Colonel Cathcart has raised the
number of missions to forty--and Yossarian has only thirty-two.

Chapter 17: The Soldier in White

Yossarian runs to the hospital, determined never to fly another mission. He can safely hide in the hospital
because of his liver condition but is well enough not to catch pneumonia or malaria. He likes the hospital
much better than the bomb fields. The people are much healthier here than on the battlefield, and the
death rate is much lower. Death behaves here, and the people die peacefully rather than being arbitrarily
blown up. The only problems are the management, which is troublesome, and the company, which is not
always the best quality.

One day, a soldier encased in gauze arrives. He has a thermometer as an adornment. Thinking back,
Yossarian begins to wonder whether Nurse Cramer, rather than the Texan, is guilty of the soldier's death.
Although the Texan chats with him very cheerfully, the soldier remains as quiet as ever.

Nurses Duckett and Cramer diligently clean him and his jars very often. Yossarian is infuriated at Nurse
Cramer for her sympathy to the soldier. They argue vehemently about how anyone could know who is in
there, and Dunbar even suggests it is empty. The nurses send off the soldiers and switch the soldier's
jars.

The fighter captain, Dunbar, the warrant officer with malaria, and Yossarian each bemoan their ill fates.
Yossarian claims he is the worst off because everyone is trying to kill him. He even goes so far as to list in
his mind all the people and diseases that might kill him. Hungry Joe is even more obsessed than
Yossarian; he makes an alphabetical list of them and constantly consults Doc Daneeka. In turn, Daneeka
asks Yossarian for help.
 30

Yossarian knows so much about fatal disease that he begins to wonder whether he can recognize the
symptoms of his own fatal illness and if the doctors in the hospital can save him. Daneeka refuses to
sympathize with Yossarian and to give orders for Yossarian to be grounded. At first, he denies that he
even has the power to do this, but when Yossarian says that Major Major confessed this in a ditch to him,
Daneeka points out the futility of performing his action--Catch-22.

Daneeka then resumes his pathetic posturing and tells Yossarian to at least finish five missions first
before asking for help. As Yossarian leaves, he tells the sick Daneeka that he has Ewing's tumor and
continues to worry when he will fly his final, fatal mission.

Chapter 18: The Soldier Who Saw Everything Twice

Yossarian tries to avoid the war by claiming he has abdominal problems. An arrogant English intern
informs him that this condition can be easily cured; on the other hand, if Yossarian has a liver condition,
he can fool the doctors for weeks, since the liver is a great mystery. Despite Yossarian’s claim that he has
liver pain, the other doctors say he is well and must return to the front.

Fortunately, Yossarian is saved when a soldier creates havoc by declaring he sees everything twice. At
last, after much squabbling, the doctors diagnose him with meningitis, although they admit they really do
not know what is wrong with him. At the hospital, Yossarian has the most rational, pleasant Thanksgiving
dinner he has ever had. (Later, Yossarian remembers this Thanksgiving, when the following year he
spends it with the eccentric Lieutenant Scheisskopf's wife. They bicker about the pain in life and about
why God created pain. Yossarian becomes short-tempered and begins to blaspheme against God, and
the wife beats him in anger.)

After the fourteen-day quarantine, just as Yossarian is being sent home, he also begins to yell that he too
sees everything twice. The same pandemonium ensues, and Yossarian cleverly begins to copy the other
man until the latter dies. At that point, Yossarian says he can see everything once, whether it be one
finger or ten. The doctors are relieved that Yossarian is better, although they have not really done
anything.

The relatives of the dead man, Giuseppe, have arrived to see their dying child. He orders Yossarian to
pretend to be Giuseppe to pacify the grieving family. When Yossarian protests against being an impostor,
the doctor threatens to expose Yossarian for pretending to have a liver condition. The relatives come in,
impoverished and anguished. They are surprised to discover that their son is named Yossarian but depart
with hope that he will end up well in heaven.

Chapter 19: Colonel Cathcart

Colonel Cathcart is a paradoxical man whose goal in life is to become a general. He measures his
progress relative to others and consequently has mixed feelings about being a colonel at age 36. He does
not trust anyone but sees Colonel Korn as his closest ally. Nevertheless, he bemoans the fact that
someone as intelligent as himself should have to depend on a state university graduate for assistance.

Eventually, Colonel Cathcart becomes so desperate to be a general that he decides to utilize religious
practices to fulfill his goal. He invites the chaplain to his offices and hands him a copy of The Saturday
Evening Post showing an American squadron praying before each mission. The chaplain is relieved that
Colonel Cathcart is not going to yell at him again.

The colonel asks the chaplain if he thinks, as shown in the photo, whether praying before each mission
will help the squadron and himself. The chaplain says they might, and the Colonel imagines that he too
might appear in The Post. He offers the chaplain a red plum tomato but is turned down. The Colonel
returns to the subject of prayers and says they will start praying this afternoon. But he warns the chaplain
against any really hardcore preaching--or passages involving religion. Finally, Cathcart asks for a prayer
for a tighter bomb pattern to please General Peckem.
 31

An argument arises when the chaplain asks for the atheists to be excused and to include the enlisted
men with the officers. Colonel Cathcart becomes infuriated and begins to think that the chaplain is plotting
against him and about the treachery of enlisted men. At last, when the chaplain points out the exclusion
of the enlisted men might result in a looser bomb formation, the colonel gives up. Before he leaves, the
chaplain mentions to Cathcart the wrongful increase of the number of missions to sixty--and Yossarian's
bad health condition.

Chapter 20: Corporal Whitcomb

Doc Daneeka becomes extremely upset and runs outside rather than for cover. As he tends the men,
Yossarian comes out with the dead bodies of Snowden and the young tail gunner. Snowden is dying.
Daneeka finds Yossarian naked, wraps him up, and gives him shots and pills to put him to sleep. When
Yossarian wakes up, he refuses to wear his uniform and walks around naked. Finally Yossarian climbs a
tree, and Milo follows him. At the top, Milo offers Yossarian chocolate-covered Egyptian cotton. Yossarian
says it is disgusting, but Milo decides he will feed it to the other men anyway.

The two sit up in the tree and talk. Yossarian tells him they are burying Snowden, who was killed at
Avignon, and that Milo is responsible for the tail gunner's death. Milo argues that it is not his fault that the
opportunity to corner the Egyptian cotton market came up and bemoans his poor investment. Meanwhile,
they watch Snowden's burial. Milo tries again to make Milo eat the cotton. Yossarian becomes upset and
suggests that Milo bribe the government to buy the cotton. Milo hesitates at first but convinces himself it is
for the good of America. He leaves and asks the still naked Yossarian to put on his uniform.

Chapter 21: General Dreedle

Colonel Cathcart becomes upset at just seeing the name Yossarian. He begins to think it reminds him of
communists and fascists, how un-American it is. His mind digresses about the illicit trade of plum
tomatoes and his home in the hills. Eventually, though, it returns to Yossarian and makes a list of all the
incidents in which the name “Yossarian” appears. Cathcart's main ambition is to be promoted to general,
and he wonders whether he has made the required number of missions high enough to attract attention.
His chances of promotion are extremely slim, because Wintergreen destroys any correspondence of his
that would give Cathcart a chance to be promoted.

General Dreedle, the wing commander, is a mean, torturous man. He hates his son-in-law, Colonel
Moodus, because he hates marriages. General Dreedle specifically hires a beautiful nurse just to torment
Colonel Moodus, who has not had sex since the war began. He takes pride in his unpretentious style and
believes that all young men should listen to his superiors. He also hates General Peckem. When he
awards Yossarian the Distinguished Flying Cross, he demands to know why Yossarian is naked. Colonel
Cathcart becomes upset, but General Dreedle declares that he approves of it simply because General
Peckem wants everyone to wear their uniforms--so they look good when they are killed. As he leaves with
his nurse, the soldiers catch sight of her. Yossarian and Dunbar began to ooh, and Nately rebukes them.
Finally, General Dreedle tells them to shut up, but Major Danby is too busy synchronizing the watches.
Infuriated, General Dreedle orders Major Danby to be shot, but Colonel Moodus meekly tells him he does
not have this power. Colonel Korn then orders the men to synchronize the watches; he feels in the
limelight. Much to his shock, though, Colonel Cathcart tells him that General Dreedle thinks he is an idiot.

Analysis
As elsewhere in the book, these chapters feature numerous digressions and fragments of plot, taken
apart and put back together. The digression of the plot in mood and content is particularly noticeable in
 32

Chapter 15. It begins with the mellow, cheerful speech made by Piltchard and Wren, then reaches an
abrupt, horrifying climax with Yossarian and his crew in the cockpit. Then, without warning, the drama
completely collapses when the men return safely and silly Orr safely putts back into the field.

The pair featured in the this chapter, Piltchard and Wren, represent do-gooders who obediently and
blissfully follow the institution's orders. They never question the commands of the institution, and their
constant association with each other throughout the book indicates their lack of individuality, as compared
with the very independent-thinking Yossarian. Aarfy figures prominently as the dope who fails to
recognize the danger his life is in, and he is just as oblivious as Piltchard and Wren. His lack of sensitivity
is demonstrated when Yossarian punches him and he does not respond.

Chapter 15 starts with the satirical tone typically used throughout the book. But the extensive scene of
Yossarian flying in combat dramatically alters its viewpoint from the macroscopic view to the microscopic
one of what exactly is going on in Yossarian's mind. For once the reader fully appreciates that Yossarian's
arguments with Clevinger--that everyone is trying to kill him--are in earnest and not just Yossarian’s way
of getting out of the war.

In Chapter 16, Yossarian engages in a search for pleasure, which is figured in Luciana. She is a curious
person who lives on the periphery of temptation and fulfillment. She talks dirty with various men but not
with Yossarian, whom she persuades to dance with her and buy her dinner. At last, when Yossarian
thinks that the game is up and has won her over, she unexpectedly departs. The evening continues to be
filled with twists. Once again, what appear to be mere eccentricities turn out to affect the plot in crucial
ways. First, Aarfy refuses to sleep with “nice girls” and will not pay for sex. His consequent dissuasion of
Luciana from sleeping around creates much suspense, for the reader wonders whether she will return to
Yossarian or not. When she does, another strange habit--this time Hungry Joe's insane desire to
photograph naked women having sex--interferes with what should be a normal evening of lovemaking.
This strange parade of seemingly unimportant details becoming turning points in the plot will grow even
more important as a theme as the book progresses.

The strange logic of Catch-22 pervades Yossarian's and Luciana's frivolous idea about getting married--a
mix of infatuation and absurd rationalization. Luciana insists that Yossarian is crazy to want to marry her,
and he laughs back that she is crazy not to marry him. Later, his mad, futile search parallels his
claustrophobia in the plane and fear of death when flying his missions. Just as Yossarian punches Aarfy
in the plane out of confusion and frustration, Yossarian likewise madly throws himself onto the maid in
lime-colored panties. This desperation for pleasure, no matter who the woman may be, points to
Yossarian's need for enjoyment and sensation in these times of cruelty and destruction.

Just as Luciana stands for the unattainable woman who leaves Yossarian behind, almost as if she were
just a dream, the maid provides a source of pleasure for the entire squadron, for she will sleep with
anyone. Ironically, though, just as she is the symbol of sensuality, she is also tied to death. Yossarian
notices Snowden's bag just outside the door; Snowden had also seen her before his death. Later, in a
reverse situation, Aarfy rapes and kills the maid, just because he does not want to pay for sex. This future
incident contrasts sharply with Aarfy's pressure on Luciana not to sleep around—he sees two kinds of
women, the nice ones and the whores.

The hospital could be a haven away from the dangers and senselessness of the war, yet this appearance
of rationality turns out to be only a façade. The nurses waste their time diligently attending to the soldier in
white, who turns out to be empty. Daneeka’s mission is not to save lives but to save himself from being
sent to the Pacific. The lack of emotional support for the men and the feeling that they are being protected
from death create a delusional obsession with disease and illness in Yossarian and Hungry Joe. What
starts off as a natural concern for one's life and health turns out into a crazed mission to protect oneself
from death. The war has suddenly made them realize how fragile life is and how close people always are
to the brink of death. The inability to accept that sickness and death from disease is a natural process of
life results in people’s insane behavior. Doctors are not immune from such fears either, for Daneeka is
 33

very susceptible to Yossarian's sarcastic suggestion that he has Ewing's tumor. Ironically, these men
are quite physically healthy but have made themselves mentally sick through their paranoid fears.

The question of justice comes up repeatedly in Chapter 17. As the men in the hospital talk about illness,
they come to realize that disease and death randomly choose their victims, without any regard for moral
justice. The same lack of fair treatment arises when Yossarian approaches Doc Daneeka and demands
to be grounded. Daneeka unjustly prefers to save himself rather than fulfill the traditional role of a doctor
devoted to the lives of wounded men.

The soldier in white is a curious character in the plot. Having been briefly alluded to in Chapter One, he is
explained somewhat more clearly in this chapter. It is still unclear what exactly his role is. For the first
time, the idea that no one is inside the shell--the case is just a deception--comes up and makes sense.
Yossarian's suggestion that it could be Mudd, the dead man inside his tent, points to a terrible possibility.
Perhaps this man all bandaged up is simply a rendition of a mummy. Another hypothesis is that the
soldier in white is the fate of whichever soldier is so unfortunate to get caught in the middle of all the fire.
As the artillery captain appropriately points out, this figure is simply a “middleman” and should just be
eliminated. Essentially, the soldier in white comes to represent the former civilian who is tossed into the
war and, in the process, is deprived of his spirit and identity and transformed into a hollow, dead soldier.

In Chapter 18, the medical institution becomes the primary target of the satire. The doctors are unable to
diagnose the strange disease of Giuseppe. Despite this, they decide to declare a diagnosis anyway. This
ignorance and absurd panic that result from this unknown disease only prove that the doctors' role is
superficial and useless. The doctors' inability to give any worthwhile treatment is actually quite fortunate
because most of the men are feigning illness and do not need assistance anyway.

Moreover, the doctors' medical ignorance and unjustified arrogance assist Yossarian as he devises plans
to remain in the hospital. The English doctor is the one who tells Yossarian that a liver condition is
incurable. Similarly, when Yossarian decides to copy the man who feigns a strange illness, the doctors
are so afraid of having him die and being exposed that they keep him in the ward. But when one of the
doctors threatens to expose Yossarian's liver condition as fake, he decides to take part in the doctor's
scheme.

The scene with Giuseppe's family only proves the lack of scruples and consideration of the doctors.
Rather than breaking the truth to them, he takes pleasure in deceiving the family and receiving credit. The
grief of the family is somewhat lightened with the humorous confusion of their son's own name. Instead of
realizing that they have been deceived, the family members simply make sincere but inapplicable
comments. It is especially ironic to be confused with a religious Italian because Yossarian is an Assyrian
who does not believe in God.

The Saturday Evening Post incident mocks the use of religion during war. Colonel Cathcart points out that
preaching is fairly useless in these times of mass destruction, and what are necessary are economical,
practical prayers. In times of war, religion does not provide ideals but instead, for the ever-opportunistic
Colonel Cathcart, a chance to gain publicity and fame. Much to his shock, he discovers from those who
are devout, such as the chaplain, that religion is not a means which can be bent to his convenience. But
the chaplain also seems to be swayed by ambition rather than spirituality alone.

While Colonel Cathcart's offering of a plum tomato to the chaplain seems fairly unimportant at this
moment, this episode will play a crucial role when Colonel Cathcart later accuses the chaplain of stealing
a plum tomato. This petty occurrence will be twisted into a melodramatic theft when the officers want to
victimize the chaplain. Likewise, the other slight comment that the chaplain makes about atheism not
being against the law will also be turned against him.

Colonel Cathcart forms a paradoxical image of an officer who has no values or independent judgment
and can only evaluate himself based on others. He has a very limited view of life, priding himself on
foolish, petty things. Like Yossarian, he suffers from paranoia, but instead of being afraid of being killed,
 34

he fears people endangering his position and his attempts to be promoted. He lacks any kindness or
compassion as he mercilessly increases the number of required missions in a mad effort to become a
general. Later, the colonel's distortion of the minor episodes of the plum tomato and atheism will reveal
that he is also a destructive, cruel man who is trying to avenge the chaplain's indirect refusal to assist his
mission to gain more power.

Finally, Colonel Cathcart and the chaplain serve as foils to each other. The chaplain is the one who
expresses tolerance for everyone despite his religious beliefs or military background. The Colonel's
conception of religion is based on the military bureaucracy. He sees the enlisted men as almost separate
species who need to be kept separate from the officers. This exclusivity and lack of respect is
diametrically opposite to the egalitarian and accommodating attitude of the chaplain.

Chapter 20 introduces material which will figure in the later trial of the chaplain. Seemingly unimportant
episodes, such as the plum tomato episode, the Washington Irving signature on the letters, and Major
Major's correspondence, will become critical when the chaplain is grilled by Colonels Cathcart and Korn.
The other important element here is the character of Corporal Whitcomb, another foil to the chaplain.
Corporal Whitcomb, like the officers, seeks to win the good graces of his superiors by falsifying evidence
against his hated superior, the chaplain. Whereas the chaplain quietly pities Corporal Whitcomb, Corporal
Whitcomb openly usurps the chaplain's power and seeks to earn the gratitude of his superiors to receive
promotions.

The description of the chaplain's home uncannily resembles Eden with its flowers, beauty, and serenity.
Like Eve and the Serpent, the chaplain fails to recognize the dangers of the diabolical Corporal
Whitcomb, or at least is ineffective in fighting him off. Whitcomb tells the chaplain of all the wrongful
charges against the latter but then denies having any hand in it and even claims that he is the chaplain's
best friend. Such hypocritical behavior confuses the chaplain. Gradually, Whitcomb plants doubts in the
innocent chaplain about God and his religion. Eventually the chaplain will discover a new kind of sin and
will enjoy it without realizing the evil cause of the whole process.

Chapter 21 focuses upon two major themes: the occasional overzealousness of the pro-American spirit,
and the eccentricity and cruelty of the military bureaucracy. Colonel Cathcart's initial, angry reaction at
seeing Yossarian's name reflects the prevalent mood among other officers. Cathcart lets himself think
that because Yossarian has a foreign-sounding name, he could be a traitor. Like Captain Black, Colonel
Cathcart has no justification for such a belief. This prejudice, along with his paranoia and his pro-
Americanism, drives injustices such as the anti-communist witch hunts after World War II. The agenda of
political vindication, such as that of Colonel Cathcart, can trump the truth. His paranoia also differs greatly
from that of Yossarian's or even Major Major's. Cathcart's fears are not based on any actual events. While
Yossarian may be taking an extreme view of the war when he declares that everyone is trying to kill him,
one can understand how the human instinct to survive has overwhelmed him.

Cathcart, though, suffers from an egotistical need to become a general. He cannot trust anyone above
him because those who are more successful than he is are depriving him of his status. Anyone who is
equal to him is his competitor, and anyone below him is trying to subvert him. His inability to trust anyone
results in a strange mania in which he seeks to attract attention by increasing the number of missions to
an absurd amount. Cathcart is not the only one suffering from such an egotistical mania. Colonel Korn's
moment of self-importance, when performing the insignificant activity of synchronizing the watches,
parallels Cathcart arrogant notion that he should increase the number of missions to a thousand.

Finally, the title character, General Dreedle, represents the boorishness and cruel, autocratic nature of
much of the military in the novel. He ignores Yossarian's utterly absurd behavior in receiving his medal
naked, yet Dreedle arbitrarily orders Major Danby to be put to death immediately while he is performing
the routine of synchronizing the watches. The timid Colonel Moodus is one of the few people who have
the audacity to speak up. Much to his shock, General Dreedle realizes that he is not the dictator he
 35

imagined himself to be. Dreedle, like the dictators the Allies are fighting, feels the all-too-human desire
to gain and use power arbitrarily over others.

*****************************

Chapters 22-28

Chapter 22: Milo the Mayor

Yossarian lost his nerve on a mission once because everyone on his plane, including Snowden, Huple,
and Dobbs, did as well. Yossarian remembers crying “Oh God!” as the plane fell. Dobbs cried for help,
and when Yossarian went to the bay, he saw Snowden dying. One day, Dobbs approaches Yossarian
and asks him for his support to murderColonel Cathcart. Yossarian agrees in principle, but as Dobbs
decides to initiate a bloodbath, Yossarian changes his mind.

Dobbs's flying ability is just as bad asOrr's. Milo once sends Yossarian on a mission with Orr to distract
Orr from observing where he picks up the eggs. Yossarian feels that such business is stupid and fails to
understand how Milo buys eggs from Malta at seven cents and sells them at a profit for five cents. Milo
responds with a complex argument about how everyone owns the syndicate and how he profits as the
middleman. He finally orders Yossarian to go with Orr to meet two women waiting at the airport.
Yossarian curses the mission but goes anyway.

When Orr and Yossarian arrive at the hotel, there are no rooms available. Moreover, people are crowding
the streets to see Milo because he is their mayor. Apparently, he has manipulated the market so Palermo
is now the world's third-largest Scotch exporter. In turn, the grateful masses now worship him and have
voted for him to rule their city.

Milo talks briefly to his assistant deputy, although Yossarian is severely exhausted and only wants to
sleep. Orr starts putting horse chestnuts in his cheeks and tells Yossarian the story of the whore who beat
him. The men begin to travel to various places where Milo holds positions of power, including Malta and
Oran, but cannot find any vacant rooms. Finally, they arrive at a hotel in Cairo where Milo purchases an
entire crop of Egyptian cotton. Milo then forces Yossarian to eat some green red bananas and orders him
to load the entire crop of bananas before it spoils. On the way, Milo engages in various other transactions
on behalf of his syndicate and consequently gives away the bananas.

Chapter 23: Nately's Old Man

Nately comes back with his whore and two of her girlfriends. He tries to pass off the other two to Aarfy
and Yossarian. Aarfy offers to throw them out, but Hungry Joe comes in, and they all go away to one of
the apartments where there are lots of beautiful women. Unfortunately, Nately meets an old man who
declares that America will be defeated and Italy will triumph. Nately is even more shocked when he
discovers that this old man shot Major -- de Coverley in the eye. Oddly, though, this old man reminds him
of his dad, although they are nothing alike. Suddenly, while they are arguing, Nately realizes that
Yossarian and Dunbar have disappeared. He looks around forlornly for the woman he loves.
Unfortunately, she has disappeared.
 36

Nately is from an old-money family and has been raised in a happy, sheltered environment. He has
never known the evils or hatred of the world. His father is an ebullient sage who decided to send his son
to the Air Corps to avoid the casualty-heavy parts of the war. Instead, Nately finds himself with intolerable
companions and in love with a whore.

Nately tries to sleep with the whore, but this time she is too bored. By the time he gets into bed with her,
her younger sister follows them and tries to imitate her. Nately feels embarrassed as the kid sister follows
her older sister, taking off her clothes and not being frightened by her sister's constant jealousy.
Eventually, the whore grows bored and wanders off with two of her friends. Nately tags behind with the
sister until he returns to the place where Yossarian, Dunbar, and Hungry Joe are sitting around with the
nasty old man.

Chapter 24: Milo

Milo busily peddles his business to various officers in the squadron. He tempts them with the offer of
delicious food from lamb chops to tangerines, with only a small down payment and a promise of a pilot
and plane to pick up the materials. His M&M Enterprises quickly flourishes. Countries from both sides
rush to do business with this syndicate. Milo's slogan is, “Everybody has a share in the syndicate.” Milo
also begins to make unscrupulous deals in which he is contracted by both sides to fight the other. He is
paid commissions by each to maintain the operation.

Since Milo's planes have freedom of passage, Milo lets his planes sneak attack without alerting the
German antiaircraft gunners until the planes are in range. Consequently,Mudd is killed, and Yossarian
blames Milo. Milo argues that as a businessman, he has the right to profit from the mission, and since
M&M belongs to everyone, he has an obligation to defend the interests of both sides.

Meanwhile, other troubles have arisen. Milo's purchase of Egyptian cotton is causing M&M to go bankrupt
because there is no market for it. Milo decides to resolve the issue by having his planes bomb his own
outfit and destroy the cotton. This creates a fury among all women, children, and decent people, but Milo
calms them down by pointing out that he can reimburse the government for the damage, and furthermore,
since the government belongs to the people in a democracy, they should just eliminate the middleman
and give the money straight to the people.

The men watch Snowden's burial. Afterwards, Milo tries to persuade Yossarian to put his clothes on. After
being rebuffed, Milo continues to bemoan the losses due to the cotton. Yossarian tells him to bribe the
government into buying it. After initially hesitating, Milo gradually warms to the idea.

Chapter 25: The Chaplain

The chaplain begins to wonder whether there is a God and becomes afraid of people with loud voices. He
feels that he is awkward and ugly, although he is actually quite handsome. He also thinks about whether
he has had a memory lapse and could be Washington Irving. Questions about death and the creation
gnaw at him.

The chaplain ponders his conversation with Yossarian about his first memory and deja vu, recalling that
he had no friends before he met Yossarian and Dunbar. He feels unappreciated as a human being by the
others in his squadron except Sergeant Whitcomb, who abuses the chaplain's feelings. The only source
of happiness in his life is his wife and children. The chaplain adores his wife and yearns to be with her.

He lacks any spine to stand up for himself. After being humiliated by Colonels Cathcart and Korn and
Corporal Whitcomb, the chaplain goes to see Major Major. There, Sergeant Towser asks to see Major
Major in his office. After a while, he realizes that he is the victim of a practical joke. He returns only to
discover from the cruel Sergeant Whitcomb that Major Major came and left the chaplain a message.
 37

Whitcomb says that he has torn up the message and says it is related to Yossarian's appeal to Major
Major about Colonel Cathcart's increase of the number of missions.

The frustrated chaplain goes outside where he finds a mysterious stranger begging the chaplain not to kill
him. It turns out to be Captain Flume, who is terrified that Chief White Halfoat will slice his throat. Captain
Flume tells the chaplain that he has been living in the forest, suffering from starvation and cold.

The chaplain returns and finds that Corporal Whitcomb has been promoted to Sergeant by Colonel
Cathcart. He says that Cathcart wants to speak to the chaplain about forbidding Whitcomb from sending
out the letters of condolence. In fact, Cathcart believes that this brilliant idea will get him into The
Saturday Evening Post. The Colonel even begins to criticize the chaplain for his stupidity, inability to
delegate any of his powers, lack of initiative, failure to listen but instead finding fault, and being dour. As
the chaplain leaves, Colonel Cathcart suddenly becomes inspired to volunteer his squadron for Avignon
again since will be casualties and he could get into the Post.

When the chaplain goes to the officers' club on Colonel Cathcart's recommendation,General
Dreedle criticizes him.

Chapter 26: Aarfy

Actually, Yossarian is to blame for causing Nately to fall in love with the whore. After the mission to
Bologna is cancelled, Nately goes to the apartments rented by de Coverley, where he meets and falls in
love with the whore. Aarfy makes fun of him, and Yossarian pities him. Nevertheless, Nately declares that
he will marry her, whatever his parents may say.

Aarfy is the amiable lead navigator who tends to get lost. Aarfy also tries to ingratiate himself to Nately's
father, who is very wealthy, by befriending Nately. Despite his materialistic eye, he is stupidly oblivious to
the dangers of war. When Yossarian is wounded in the thigh, Aarfy keeps asking what is going on.

Eventually, McWatt assists Yossarian and gives him morphine injections to reduce the pain. When
Yossarian wakes up in the ward, he does not see Dunbar but instead Second Lieutenant Anthony T.
Fortiori. Dunbar arrives and chases out the intruder. He invites Yossarian to sleep in Warrant Officer
Lumley's bed, but Yossarian becomes sick. When he attempts to leave, Nurse Cramer orders him to go
back at once. She says his body belongs to the government. Yossarian protests, but Nurse Duckett drags
him back by the ear.

Chapter 27: Nurse Duckett

Nurse Duckett is a New England, levelheaded, independent girl whom Yossarian finds attractive. One
day, he puts his hand underneath her dress and she screams. Then, Dunbar comes from behind and
grabs her bosom. She flees, and in the chase, Dunbar falls over and is knocked unconscious. When he
wakes up, Colonel Ferredge is hollering at him and Yossarian. Dunbar tries to excuse Yossarian by
saying he has dreams about fish. The disgusted colonel leaves and sends the staff psychiatrist, Major
Sanderson. They discuss the details of Yossarian's fish dream, in which hand he holds the fish, his
feelings toward the fish, and sex dreams. Finally, Yossarian explains that these dreams originated with
Dunbar, and Major Sanderson snarls at him and leaves.

Yossarian asks others to generate dreams for Major Sanderson. The chaplain describes one about his
wife dying and his children being murdered. When Yossarian tells this to Major Sanderson, he becomes
extremely disgusted at Yossarian. Moreover, Major Sanderson continues to insist that Yossarian is
Fortiori with a stone in his salivary gland.

Meanwhile, Dobbs insists that Colonel Cathcart must be killed immediately. He describes the plan in
detail and quite loudly, despite Yossarian's begging that he speak more quietly. Dobbs confides into
Yossarian that the chaplain said Cathcart had volunteered them for the Avignon mission again. Yossarian
says he will wait and see what he can do, although nothing can be done.
 38

Sanderson returns and decides that Yossarian has various mental illnesses, including a multiple
personality, an aversion to dying, misery, persecution, greed, and maniac depression--and is basically
crazy. He agrees to send Yossarian home, but instead sends the actual Fortiori home. The infuriated
Yossarian goes to Doc Daneeka and explains the situation. Doc Daneeka admits that he does not care
and says that if the crazy people do not fly the missions, who will?

Chapter 28: Dobbs

Yossarian tells Dobbs that he wants to kill Colonel Cathcart, but Dobbs now refuses because he has
enough missions to go home. Yossarian points out the futility of the situation, but Dobbs still refuses.
Meanwhile, Orr's plane has gone down, but the life jackets do not work because Milo removed the carbon
dioxide cylinders to make strawberry and pineapple shakes. Sergeant Knight recounts when Orr
discovered all the goods that were available in the life raft. Finally, Orr takes out a blue oar as small as a
Dixie spoon and begins to row away.

When Orr returns, he is again working on the faucet and promises that Yossarian will have a nice warm
stove. Yossarian asks Orr why he keeps on flying if he crashes each time. Instead, Orr replies that it
might come in handy and later on asks Yossarian to join him. They also talk about the whore hitting Orr
on the head, but Orr still refuses to explain what was really going on.

Yossarian feels sorry for the small, ugly Orr. He wonders how Orr will fend for himself. Yossarian's mind
wanders back to the upcoming Bologna mission while Orr patiently fixes the faucet. Suddenly Orr asks
Yossarian if his leg still hurts. Orr offers to tell him why the whore was hitting him but ends up teasing
Yossarian by asking him whether he has slept with Nately's whore and his whore. Shortly afterwards, Orr
crashes his plane on the next mission. However, much to everyone’s shock and Yossarian's fears, Orr
does not ever return.

Analysis
Chapter 22 begins with another flashback by Yossarian of Snowden's death and includes a description of
Milo and his ever-expanding syndicate. At the end of this chapter, Milo purchases the Egyptian cotton.
The connection among the various plot elements remains unclear. When Milo creates havoc by bombing
his own side to be rid of the unprofitable crop of Egyptian cotton, Yossarian reacts to the death of the
innocent people as he does to Snowden's death, with fear and indignation. This is how, in Yossarian’s
mind, the events are linked. Milo denies any responsibility and claims that it is good for the syndicate.
Colonel Cathcart will reason to himself that someone will die in the mission, so it might as well be his
men, for he still cares only for earning enough glory to become a general.

Another peculiar paradox of this chapter is that despite his great political power, Milo seems to be unable
to obtain a room. The reader has to wonder whether this is a subterfuge by Milo to coerce Yossarian and
Orr to fly everywhere for his business interactions. What is amazing, though, is that just through his
business transactions, Milo has converted economic power into political power. The seemingly
unprofitable transactions for the syndicate turn out to be personally profitable for Milo as he slowly gains
control of a city and, by controlling trade, starts to control the world. Ironically, while both sides in the war
are engaged in pointless military engagements and inner squabbling for medals, Milo is effectively taking
over the world without anyone noticing.

The setting for the strange incidents that take place in Chapter 23 are the apartments, which are labeled
a “paradise.” The description of this place will heavily contrast with that in Chapter 39 when Yossarian
returns and finds the apartments and city destroyed. Another parallel situation of beauty and horror arises
in comparing Nately's old man and Nately's father. This opposition hints at the abrupt switch Nately will
undergo after he wins over the whore. He transforms from a nice, affable person like his dad to a
dominating, nasty man who tries to control the whore.
 39

The conversation itself provides much food for thought. The old man questions all of the beliefs that
Nately has been taught to believe from his youth. He points out the wasted expenditure of wars and
argues that losing wars is actually more profitable in the long run. He also questions the point of having
ideals and practically switches sides each time to stay alive. The old man correctly sees de Coverley for
what he is, a useless, stupid beggar. These practical notions and his refusal to conform to institutional
thinking bear a remarkable similarity to Yossarian's strange arguments, such as the claim that everyone
who is trying to kill him is the enemy. In fact, the arguments between Yossarian and Clevinger nicely
parallel those of Nately and the old man. In each case, the outcast is dismissed by most people as crazy,
and his beliefs as absurd, whereas the man who dresses well speaks the thoughts of the institution.
Nevertheless, while the declarations of the former seem subversive and radical, they turn out to be true in
the strange world where Catch-22 operates.

Nately's character and background are explained quite well at the end of the chapter. While he has the
veneer of sophistication, his isolated, elitist childhood caused him to experience no hardships and to be
unable to recognize evil. At first, Nately and Clevinger have similar behavior patterns, but their
backgrounds and reasoning lead to different fates. Both have remarkable faith in their superiors and
believe every word they say. Nately is very upset when he discovers it is the old man who injures Major --
de Coverley and defends him passionately against the old man's criticism. Likewise, despite Yossarian's
contradictions, Clevinger wholeheartedly believes Lieutenant Scheisskopf when the latter says he does
not mind being corrected. However, while Clevinger may lack common sense and suffer from intellectual
isolation, he is naïve and gullible like Nately. Nately, without much intellectual development, cannot think
for himself.

The rapid growth of Milo’s fame and his syndicate are further documented in Chapter 24. As Milo
expands and slowly takes over the world, clearly his success depends upon the greed of the officers, who
are more interested in eating delicious food than winning the war. This abuse of power, along with other
previous examples, highlights ways that the officers are selfish and are using the name of the country and
patriotism to coerce their subordinates into furthering their own interests. If nothing else, Milo's success
on both sides proves that greed is universal and that free trade knows no boundaries. The wiping out of
the slogans written on the airplanes—“Courage” and “Truth”--to be replaced by the label “M&M
Enterprises,” proves that money, not ideals, runs the war. Milo’s planes have save passage. If there is a
profit to be made, then the transaction is justified. For Milo, every military operation is a financial
endeavor in which someone can profit, and it might as well be he.

The Egyptian cotton fiasco and Milo's subsequent self-bombing mission underscore how most people are
willing to overlook atrocities conducted on even themselves, if the price is high enough. Yossarian,
though, recognizes Milo's false justification for the bombing and continues to protest the death of Mudd.
Appropriately, the two men witness the burial of Snowden, who died because Colonel Cathcart had
volunteered his men for the dangerous missions just to win accolades for himself.

The seemingly disparate episodes in Chapter 22 of Yossarian's flashback and then his insane trek with
Milo are now even better tied together. Milo in many ways resembles Colonel Cathcart, especially in their
attitudes' towards men's lives. Lives are expendable when it comes to achieving whatever goals they
wish. This point of view will be underscored when, at the end of the book, Milo and the Colonel unite
together to run the syndicate.

Unlike many of the other chapters, much of Chapter 25 actually does center around the character named
in the title. Its mood and content are also much more introspective than the more descriptive and arbitrary
narration generally used throughout the book. The pace of the plot slows down considerably, relatively
speaking, since much of it is concerned with troubling issues such as the existence and omnipotence of
God, the worth of a man's life, and the power of memory. The last two themes, in particular, are the
driving forces behind Yossarian's refusal to fly more missions and his nightmares of Snowden's death.
The conversation between the chaplain and Yossarian is particularly interesting. It touches on the
confusion of the timeline created by the war. The chaplain has lost a sense of when certain events
 40

occurred. This confusion is reflected in large measure in the disjunction of the retelling of the incidents
throughout the entire book. It also is telling that the slower, more contemplative pace of this chapter is so
rare, as one might expect for such characters during wartime.

The chaplain represents the loss of conformity to traditional social values in light of the war. He longs for
his wife and does not sleep with the various prostitutes to satiate his physical desire. That much is fine,
but he feels displaced in this insane, cruel world of war and cherishes his Eden away from this mess.
Unfortunately, Corporal Whitcomb seeks to subvert the authority of the kind, good chaplain. Rather than
serving the holy chaplain, Corporal Whitcomb goes to the diabolical Colonel Cathcart. In return for his
betrayal, Cathcart gives him a promotion to Sergeant.

Captain Flume’s experience suggests the downfall of a man who has committed a sin. Like Adam and
Eve, who suffer after being banished from Paradise, Captain Flume is in fear of life, cold and starving.
While he lives in the woods, he is suffering from malnutrition and is freezing. But has he really sinned?
The problem seems to be Chief White Halfoat, who has threatened him. Flume cannot wait for winter in
the hope that Halfoat will die of pneumonia and he can return to camp.

As for the chaplain, he wonders about the existence of God and whether he is even a good chaplain. He
questions why the Bible is a special book unlike other literature, such as British or American books from
the nineteenth century. The choices of books he considers are particularly interesting because they focus
upon characters, such asEthan Frome, who are trapped in life-threatening or personally agonizing
situations because of ill luck or social and historical circumstances.

Chapter 26 is another digression. Aarfy is paradoxical. He has enough sense to pursue a rich girl and
mocks Nately for his stupidity for falling in love with the whore; he can plan for the long term with hopes to
profit from his friendship with Nately. Yet, Aarfy seems to lack common sense and ability to recognize the
obvious. He constantly gets lost, in the air during a battle and on the streets of Rome. It is fair to wonder
whether he is a dullard after he cannot recognize when Yossarian has been shot in the groin, though he
could be feigning stupidity just to see Yossarian in pain.

The bed switching in the hospital is especially amusing. First, there is complete disregard for individuality
and military rank. Dunbar pulls rank just to get a desirable bed. Despite his spite for military rank,
Yossarian uses rank to scare off an inferior warrant officer. When Yossarian tries to resume his former
identity, he is denied this right by Nurse Cramer. This loss of self-identity is underscored when she tells
Yossarian that he does not own his body--it is the property of the U.S. government. This denial of basic
human rights nicely summarizes the basis for the coercive power of the military bureaucracy and is
especially hypocritical, because the basis of World War II was to restore basic human rights of the
oppressed. Military life is not supposed to be like the civilian life the military men are fighting for, but the
contrast is there, all the same.

When Major Sanderson, the psychiatrist, comes to investigate him, Yossarian engages in another
subterfuge to try to get out of flying missions. He succeeds in convincing the doctor that he is crazy.
Ironically, while Dunbar creates the havoc that attracts so much attention to Yossarian in the first place,
Dunbar's earlier bed switching creates so much confusion that A. Fortiori (a strange play on the
philosophical term a fortiori or roughly “in light of the evidence”) is dismissed rather than Yossarian in a
case of mistaken identity.

Major Sanderson, the war psychiatrist, provides even more rationale to satirize the medical institution.
Like the other doctors, he is incompetent in his field and lacks common sense to figure out the obvious,
such as that Yossarian is not A. Fortiori or that Dunbar is the man next to Yossarian and not a persona of
Yossarian. As a psychiatrist, Major Sanderson is also more amusing than the other doctors. He interprets
all of Yossarian's actions as signs of various mental illnesses. Simple, meaningless actions such as
Yossarian rejecting a cigar are blown up into being symptoms of insanity and are analyzed in immense
detail. As a follower of Freud, Major Sanderson tries to diagnose in terms of sexual repression. His
ignorance, though, results in absurdly false diagnoses, such as Yossarian being impotent, which
 41

underscores the incompetence and untrustworthiness of the medical institution. Gradually, Yossarian
begins to realize Major Sanderson's incompetence and decides to play a game with him so Yossarian can
be grounded. The deception succeeds, but Yossarian's game fails, ironically, because of the mistaken
identity, and he foiled again by the Catch-22.

This chapter is particularly interesting in that it parallels the initial encounter between Yossarian and Orr.
The two men are again talking about the same odd subjects: the whore and Orr's constant crashes
whenever he flies. Curiously, Orr is also engaged in the seemingly fruitless activity of repairing the stove
with its ever invisible parts. However, a crucial event has occurred since the initial conversation in the
book: Orr has picked up on the very absurd notion of rowing to Switzerland in a boat, using an oar that is
as small as a Dixie spoon. Of course, this idea makes no sense whatsoever and appears to be a joke.
But Orr's subsequent disappearance forces the reader to seriously consider if what is impossible has
indeed happened and Orr has escaped in such an odd fashion.

The most important scene, though, is when Orr magically discovers all the wonderful goods that are
available in the lifeboat. While the other men merely dismiss Orr as a loon, Orr retains his composure. He
may be acting or even be mad, but there is a method to his madness. Strangely, Orr cleverly uses the
logic of Catch-22 to his advantage. Just as Colonel Cathcart indefinitely raises the number of missions
each time but leaves an improbable hope for his men that they still might leave, Orr decides that against
the odds, he also can hope that he too will escape under insane conditions.

Dobbs, the title character, plays a very minor role in this chapter. His main function is as the narrator of
the episode in which Orr discovers the food supplies in the lifeboat. Dobbs's attitude towards Orr is that of
the normal person. He derides Orr as being a loon and merely laughs at the entire situation as being
absurd. These comments reflect what would be “normal” under general conditions, but Orr is the one who
triumphs in the end, successfully escaping from the clutches of Colonel Cathcart. This crazy result shows
the crazy illogic of the war.

***********************

Chapters 29-35
Chapter 29: Peckem

Orr does not return the next day, and Sergeant Whitcomb prepares to send a letter to his kin indicating
that Orr has died. Meanwhile, Colonel Scheisskopf's announcement about not having a parade this
Sunday creates a fury, for there are no parades on Sunday. General Peckem is delighted now to have
two full colonels. Peckem is a handsome man of 53 who suffers from verbosity and overuse of
bureaucratic language.

Scheisskopf and Peckem do not get along. Scheisskopf does not respond to his jokes and fails to grasp
Peckem's concept of delegation of responsibility. Instead, Scheisskopf is still obsessed about parades
and whether his wife can see him. Peckem cuts out the sentimental business and proceeds to explain to
Scheisskopf the war against General Dreedle. Scheisskopf is still upset about the parades, and Peckem
compromises, agreeing to let Scheisskopf postpone the nonexistent parades. Colonel Cargill is upset, but
General Peckem delegates to him the power to put off the U.S.O. shows. General Peckem then sets both
of them against each other for his own amusement.

Peckem then begins to discuss with Scheisskopf the issue of bomb patterns and Dreedle's pointless
mission in bombing a mountain town so small that it cannot be seen on the map. In the briefing
room, McWatt discovers that the people have not been warned and will be killed. Dunbar points out that
any roadblock they make will be cleared within two hours. Havermeyer exposes Major Danby by saying
the men do want to bomb the village. Yossarian accuses Colonel Korn of cruelty, but Colonel Korn only
sneers back that war is cruel and orders the mission to proceed.
 42

Colonel Korn kicks Major Danby out when Danby argues that a looser bomb pattern would be more
effective. When Cathcart arrives, he takes over the meeting and imitates Dreedle in an attempt to
ingratiate himself to General Peckem. Only too late does he remember that both generals hate each
other. Colonel Cathcart panics for a second as he thinks of Scheisskopf's rivalry, but at the last minute he
exhorts his men to dedicate their mission to General Peckem.

Chapter 30: Dunbar

The fall in the hospital has scrambled Dunbar's brains. He drops the bombs far away from the target and
wastes away into a snarling nasty creature. The chaplain worries about Dunbar and Yossarian, especially
since the latter has rejected his roommates and lives alone. Yossarian is glad to have McWatt as his new
pilot but still becomes frustrated at him, especially when McWatt flies only inches from the ground. Once
McWatt is singing so buoyantly that he cannot hear Yossarian over the intercom. Yossarian enters into a
deadly rage and looks around for any weapon with which he can kill McWatt. He stands behind McWatt's
seat and threatens to choke him to death if McWatt does not move the plane up. McWatt immediately
obeys Yossarian and takes the episode with humor. After Yossarian has calmed down, McWatt tells
Yossarian that he is really losing it. Yossarian admits that he is but that there is nothing he can do about
it.

The men go to the beach quite often. The men generally are nude but wear trunks out of regard for
Nurses Duckett and Cramer. Nurse Duckett enjoys flirting with Hungry Joe and lying on the sand as the
men play cards and lounge. Nurse Cramer sits ten yards away, in silence and disapproval of her friend's
fling with Yossarian. Still, she comes because Nurse Duckett is her best friend. Yossarian grows fond of
Nurse Duckett's body and takes her out to the beach at night to make love to her. Nurse Duckett also
becomes fond of Yossarian and tries to shape him as a person.

One day when Yossarian is staring over the skyline and wondering where Clevinger and Orr are, McWatt
suddenly skims over the surface of the water and slices Kid Sampson in half with his propeller. Chaos
ensues at the grotesque sight. Yossarian yells futilely at McWatt to come down. His cries are useless as
McWatt flies higher and higher and then flies into a mountain. In response to these deaths, Colonel
Cathcart increases the number of missions to sixty-five.

Chapter 31: Mrs. Daneeka

When Colonel Cathcart finds out that Doc Daneeka is dead, he increases the number of missions to
seventy. Sergeant Towser is the first one to realize Doc Daneeka is dead. He tells Gus and Wes, and
when they take Doc Daneeka’s temperature, it is half a degree lower that the usual 96.8 degrees--when
Doc Daneeka, who is actually still alive, complains about being cold, they point out that he has been dead
all this time, but never realized it until now. Doc Daneeka screams with anger when they say they will tell
his wife that he is dead. At first, Mrs. Daneeka is very upset when she finds out. She then receives
conflicting letters from her husband and from the War Department regarding the life of her husband. But
as Mrs. Daneeka begins to receive widow pensions and other monetary benefits, she appreciates her
new measure of wealth.

Meanwhile, Doc Daneeka is considered dead by the squadron, and he has to depend on Milo and
Sergeant Towser for food. He is ostracized by everyone and almost starves to death. He writes a final
intense appeal to his wife, but she moves away with the children when she receives the generic official
notification from the army of his death.

Chapter 32: Yo-Yo's Roomies

No one has the courage to bury the sliced Kid Sampson. Yossarian thinks of Kid Sampson's rotting body,
which reminds him of Snowden's death and continues to lead him to ponder about death. The cold
weather is alleviated by Orr's finally warm stove, and everything is perfect except for Yossarian’s
memories of Orr and the new roommates who have replaced Kid Sampson and McWatt.
 43

The new guys are intolerable. They are empty-headed, noisy, overconfident, and self-centered.
Yossarian argues to Sergeant Towser that he is already living with the deadMudd. The exasperated
Towser refuses to listen, and the new roommates move in. They drink too much, pester him, admire both
of the Colonels, and call Yossarian “Yo-Yo.” Even worse, their visiting friends are equally as terrible and
come in droves. Yossarian is especially angry because he can no longer sleep with Nurse Duckett in the
tent, and the weather is too bad to sleep outside.

Yossarian tries to get Chief White Halfoatto come to scare off his roommates with his disgusting habits,
but Halfoat is dying of pneumonia. Meanwhile, Doc Daneeka has been forbidden to practice, and Halfoat
laughs at him for dying of greed. Daneeka blames Cathcart and Korn. Yossarian once again asks Halfoat
to help him kick out his roommates. The chief suggests that he get Captain Black to help him instead.
Upon remembering the bullying Captain Black, Yossarian rushes back in pity for his roommates, only to
discover that they have set Orr's birch logs on fire and have thrown out the dead man. This frightens
Yossarian, and he rushes off with Hungry Joe to Rome.

Chapter 33: Nately's Whore

Yossarian misses Nurse Duckett and begins to look for Luciana. Instead, he finds Aarfy, who did not go
with the others to rescue Nately's whore. She is being held captive by some military men who want her to
say uncle, but she does not understand what the word "uncle" means or why she has to say it, so the
men are infuriated and think they are being mocked.

Suddenly, Dunbar, Dobbs, and Hungry Joe break in. They accuse the naked American colonel of being a
German spy, threaten to take him to the station house, and throw away his room key. The other captors,
Ned and Lou, are amused that all of their uniforms have also been thrown out. At last, they agree to let
the girl go. Meanwhile, the whore has fallen asleep; Nately takes her home to take care of her.

Problems quickly arise because the whore refuses to put on her clothes and give up hustling. She
obstinately mocks Nately, and her little sister imitates her. When Nately leaves, she misses him and
becomes extremely upset at Yossarian for hitting Nately in the nose.

Chapter 34: Thanksgiving

At Thanksgiving dinner, the men act recklessly, shooting themselves and knifing others. Yossarian goes
to bed early to avoid the trouble, but he wakes up when he realizes that someone is shooting at him with
a machine gun. In fear, he falls to the floor and becomes determined to kill whoever has played such a
terrible joke on him. As he runs outside with his loaded 0.45, Nately tries to stop him. However, Yossarian
breaks free and badly injures Nately in the process.

Dunbar has also come out infuriated. He recognizes one of the men as Sergeant Knight. By this time,
Yossarian has calmed down and searches for Nately. He finds Nately in the hospital the next morning, his
nose bandaged and his two eyes blackened. He also discovers that Nurse Duckett is no longer interested
in him because she wants to marry a doctor now.

Suddenly, a terrible commotion sets in when the men realize that the soldier in white is back. Dunbar
screams aloud that the case is empty--that he was stolen. At first, the nurses dismiss this as nonsense,
but Hungry Joe agrees. Suddenly, doctors break in with guns and guards. Nurse Duckett anxiously grabs
Yossarian, crying to him that Dunbar is going to be “disappeared.” Yossarian demands to know what she
means, but she replies that she does not know. Yossarian goes off to find Dunbar, but he is already gone.

Chapter 35: Milo the Militant

Yossarian prays for Nately to fly no more missions, but Nately insists he must if he wishes to stay and see
his whore. Yossarian goes to ask Milo for help. Milo has earned the respect and admiration for his
enterprise; he even coerces the officers to pay exorbitant prices for his food. One day, though, he
approaches Colonel Cathcart and requests that he fly more missions to meet the required number of
 44

missions. Colonel Cathcart admits that even he has flown only four missions. Nevertheless, Milo insists
upon flying the missions.

Cathcart offers to take the syndicate, but upon hearing Milo's complex directions, tells Milo he is
indispensable. He then offers to get someone else to fly his missions for him. Milo enthusiastically
volunteers Nately, and Colonel Cathcart also decides to send Yossarian back to combat. Milo tries to
defend Yossarian, saying that he is greatly in debt to Yossarian. But Cathcart says that everyone must be
treated fairly. Milo gives in.

Cathcart decides to increase the number of missions to eighty. Without any warning, he announces this
and then immediately packs off his squadron to prevent them from running off. They are sent to bomb a
disabled Italian cruiser. Unfortunately, for once the intelligence reports against the mission are quite
accurate, and the flak is quite bad. Even Havermeyer freaks out and takes wild evasive action. It is too
late, and Nately is killed.

Analysis

Chapter 29 dwells not only on the ineffectiveness of the military bureaucracy but also on the abuse of
power by its officers, who seek only to glorify themselves at the expense of others' lives. Two figures
appropriately represent these problems in the military bureaucracy: General Peckem and Colonel Korn.
Peckem's verbosity suggests the bombastic language of a general who is in the military for the wrong
reasons. As the general himself admits, he really has no skills and is utterly incompetent. Rather, he
attempts to cover up his lack of skills by “delegating responsibilities,” handing the work off and hoping that
someone else can do it. His conversation with Lieutenant Scheisskopf demonstrates the enormous
contrast between the two characters. Peckem tries to show off his brilliance through absurd,
incomprehensible statements and superficially ingenious literary allusions. Scheisskopf, for his part, is
unbelievably practical and concerned only with parades. His defiant attitude and unhealthy obsession is
the opposite of Colonel Cathcart's subservient adulation. Ironically, the promotion to general will not be
determined by any merit or pleasing General Peckem. Instead, it will depend upon some seemingly
unimportant paperwork.

Colonel Korn's speech at the end of the chapter shows an attitude remarkably similar to Colonel
Cathcart's continuous increase of the mission quota. Just as Korn feels that the enemy brought their
misery upon themselves and thus the troops should not feel guilty about bombing them, Cathcart feels
that the troops have brought their misery upon themselves and must fly whatever number of missions he
requires. The planned mission to bomb a small, almost invisible Italian mountain village highlights the
seeming emptiness of some military operations. Moreover, the officers have no consideration for the lives
of the innocent civilians or military strategy. Dunbar's and McWatt's practical advice is completely ignored,
and Cathcart is more interested in getting a tight bomb formation to look good rather than achieving any
real meaningful military action. Such a short-sighted, self-centered viewpoint only underscores the waste
of human life for those who are fighting and the officers' desire to be promoted at just about any cost.

As the incidents in the book slowly begin to come together, Chapter 30 more directly addresses an
underlying issue that has been feeding the tension throughout the entire book: how an “automated” war
brings out the primitive side and murderous rage of human beings. The description of the machine gun
here is particularly apropos. It comes to represent the perfect killer--it has no emotions, regrets or qualms
about death, and it kills simply when pointed in the proper direction. Such cold-blooded ruthlessness
naturally incites Yossarian's memory of Snowden's death.

The introduction of this machine beautifully correlates with the incident of Kid Sampson's gruesome
death. The well-tested soldiers are horrified at what death means. As members of the Air Corps, the men
often do not witness death firsthand. But the gruesome slicing apart of Kid Sampson reminds them of the
blood and guts that are shed when victims die.
 45

In this chapter, the reader also witnesses the physical decay of Dunbar, which reflects his mental
decay from playing constantly on the skeet-shooting range. His behavior has now degenerated from
human to that of a primitive being. His loss from the human race results in his complete disregard for his
superior. The primitive behavior of Dunbar at the beginning of the chapter parallels Yossarian's
murderous behavior in the airplane. Yossarian’s sudden rage indicates his internal decay; he has moved
from being a civilized comrade who lovingly cared for the dying Snowden to being the senseless madman
who tries to kill Dunbar. When McWatt and Yossarian converse immediately afterwards, McWatt's
pathetic demise exemplifies the dangers of becoming a person who has lost all his powers of judgment
for various situations and independent thinking to such a point that he now acts without discretion and
even insanely.

The only brief light note in this otherwise bleak and horrid chapter is Yossarian's intimacy with Nurse
Duckett. His constant need to enjoy and touch her body represents his desire for any physical relief from
the physical and mental torment he suffers from the war and his memories of Snowden's death. Even in
these brighter times, Yossarian is plagued with thoughts of death as he looks for the body of Orr or
Clevinger in the water. Ironically, the body in the water turns out to be the sliced corpse of Kid Sampson.

In Chapter 31, after much ado, Doc Daneeka symbolically dies. This episode touches upon three
important concepts. First, the military bureaucracy only believes in its own paperwork and completely
disregards any contradictory evidence. Second, Doc Daneeka has been emotionally dead for the entire
book anyway, as reflected in his inhumane responses to Yossarian's pleas for help and his own
obsession with his nonexistent illness. As the men point out, quite bitterly but correctly, he has been dead
the entire time, but they never realized it until now. Third, as Daneeka's wife discovers, for those who
remain alive, corpses are far more profitable than living bodies. When she realizes that her husband's
death earns her an unbelievable pot of wealth, she decides to ignore her husband's existence and leave.
Such a cruel, materialistic attitude is only just reward for Doc Daneeka, who likewise ignored Yossarian's
pleas for help.

This chapter craftily hints upon the horrible question: who is really a human being? Yossarian's
roommates are introduced as oblivious, innocuous people. Like Aarfy, they fail to recognize what is wrong
with the war and see it as nothing but a game. This empty-headedness differs greatly from the madness
of Orr, Yossarian's former roommate. While Orr engaged in eccentric activities, his stupidity had a point.
The new roommates, though, lack the peculiar insanity that will allow them to recognize the dangerous
logic of Catch-22. Maybe they are too new to be up to speed yet. Just like average soldiers, these men
are easily indoctrinated into believing the military's precepts. As the roomies are dead because they lack
“brains,” Doc Daneeka is also dead because he lacks a heart and kindness for his fellows. Finally, Chief
White Halfoat, who is constantly intoxicating himself throughout the chapter, represents the victim who is
unable to deal with the horror of the war and simply is physically killing himself by drinking himself to
death. Yossarian comes to represent the human in this book because he is alive in these three crucial
aspects: he has the brains to recognize how the war is endangering his identity; he has the heart to care
for his other humans, such as Snowden, and thus is not just a selfish worm but a warm-hearted person;
and finally, he has the sense to physically preserve himself, such as when he takes evasive action and
realizes the dangers of the poisoned mess food. These characteristics will give Yossarian the courage to
make the crucial decision in the final chapter of the book.

Chapter 33 focuses on the problems of men suffering from romantic passions and the roles of women
when men are in such a state. Yossarian is confused and absurd. He longs for Nurse Duckett but tries to
pursue Luciana and the maid in the lime-colored panties. Likewise the officers who hold Nately's whore
captive are suffering from distorted, confused emotions. They do not want sexual pleasure but simply to
have a woman at beck and call. They see the whore as simply another target in their lives, much like their
military targets. The entire strange episode in which the officers are infuriated by the whore's apathy
symbolizes the soldiers' need for control of something in their chaotic world. Unfortunately, the easiest,
most satisfying object to purchase is often a woman.
 46

The episode in which Nately's whore falls asleep and then wakes up a transformed woman, now in love
with Nately, has almost a fairy tale quality. This dream only lasts briefly. Nately tries to force the whore to
become someone she is not, and her adamant retention of the old man's friendship demonstrates her
independent thinking. Nately has clearly turned into love's fool as he dreams of an ideal world
independent of social rank and situation. He envisions all the other officers falling in love with the whores
and everyone living quite happily together ever after.

Ironically, Nately is stuck in a war in which the military hierarchy is everything. The only attempt to reject
the military hierarchy is when Yossarian and his friends throw out the officers' uniforms. For once, they
find themselves without rank or respect--or clothes. Yossarian's threat to turn them in as German spies
demonstrates that there is very little difference between men, and it is the uniform with the fanfare
surrounding it that tends to blow small differences out of proportion.

Comparing the characters of Nately and the whore is critical here. After Nately has won this seemingly
unattainable object, he begins to try to control her because “he is the man” in the relationship. The boy
who seemed to be sweet, pleasant, and even docile turns out to be just as controlling and dictatorial as
Colonel Cathcart or General Peckem. Oddly, for a woman of the streets who supposedly is experienced,
the whore appears to be very naive in some ways, having no conception of how a normal woman should
act. Walking about naked in front of other men is perfectly acceptable to her, and she cannot understand
why Nately objects to what seems normal to her.

This entire chapter is filled with horrifying irony and probes more deeply at disturbing questions only
touched on previously. Whereas Thanksgiving should be a time to celebrate prosperity and good fortune,
the military celebration turns out to be not only debauched but on the verge of anarchy. Instead of
respecting life and being grateful for what they have, the men instead change this celebration into a world
of madness in which people's pleasure is to destroy each other. What should be a time of safety from all
the dangers of war instead becomes even more dangerous than the battle zone itself, as Yossarian is
almost killed in his sleep.

Two character issues, Yossarian's murderous rage and the chaplain's inner personal struggles, are
expanded upon here as well. Nately, the idealist who tries to intervene for Yossarian's sake, is severely
injured by the very man he is trying to help. The madness that McWatt had witnessed earlier is not just an
arbitrary episode but part of a behavior pattern that indicates that Yossarian is indeed going mad.

Perhaps the most important character is the resurfaced soldier in white. This time, everyone realizes the
danger that he presents. While the shape is different from the first time the result is the same: this man is
an omen of the dark and terrible fate of those who remain in the war, an empty man who feeds upon his
own waste. Unfortunately, the man who realizes this and has the audacity to say so publicly, Dunbar, is
punished by being “disappeared.” This inexplicable, strange punishment reflects the lack of rationalization
behind the war, another casualty of the illogic of Catch-22.

Chapter 35 is filled with various ironic incidents, and at times, the reader begins to wonder whether the
characters have changed. First, there is an unexpected twist in Milo's behavior, for he wishes to sell off
his very profitable M&M Enterprises in order to fly more missions. Milo's behavior appears genuine, but
this new attitude is short-lived after Colonel Cathcart offers him a deal which will allow both men to profit.
This deal foreshadows a similar agreement made between Yossarian and the other officers in chapter 40.

The La Spieza mission indicates that the men are coming to their senses, as foreshadowed by Dunbar's
behavior and Kid Sampson's death. Even Havermeyer sees that this war is no longer worth fighting and
thus resorts to terrible evasive action. Terribly, Nately has finally lost his bet with Death and, after
surviving so many missions and so much danger, is killed. To worsen the matter further, Nately flew the
extra missions because he wanted to stay with the whore with whom he was so madly in love.

*****************************
 47

Chapters 36-42
Chapter 36: The Cellar

Chaplain Tappman is upset about the death of twelve men. He prays that Nately is still alive and wonders
whether he will ever see his wife. He goes to the tent of Sergeant Whitcomb and sobs when he realizes
that Nately is dead. Suddenly, Sergeant Whitcomb and Captain Black order the chaplain to come with
them and answer some questions.

They begin to run a harsh inquisition against him and accuse him of unknown crimes. The chaplain is
ordered to perform a handwriting test. He is accused of faking his handwriting, since it does not match the
signature that Yossarian had written in a fake letter (“Dear Mary ... I long for you tragically, A.T. Tappman,
Chaplain, U.S. Army”). The chaplain protests against such stupidity, but the colonel shoves him back
down and tells him to shut up. The chaplain admits to being an Anabaptist but laughs when he is asked if
he is Washington Irving. He explains the plum tomato episode, butColonel Cathcart denies his
explanation and accuses Tappman of stealing it.

The inquiring major presents various documents containing statements made against him, mostly by
Cathcart. They declare that he does not believe atheism is against the law, and they discuss his position
on insincere condolence letters. Despite his declarations of innocence, they say he is guilty and order him
to leave while they decide on his punishment.

The chaplain flees and meets Colonel Korn. He protests against the mission which killed men who
already had finished their required seventy missions. Korn snickers. The chaplain says he will speak
to General Dreedle. Korn laughs and says that Dreedle is gone and General Peckem, who likes Cathcart,
is in charge. He bids the chaplain an acerbic adios.

Chapter 37: General Scheisskopf

Peckem's triumph over Dreedle is short-lived, though, when he discovers that Colonel Scheisskopf has
been promoted to Lieutenant General. Moreover, since all combat operations are now under Special
Services, Lieutenant General Scheisskopf is now their new commanding officer. Peckem panics and calls
up Wintergreen. To his dismay, Peckem discovers from Wintergreen that his own memorandums led to a
vacancy that Scheisskopf filled. Scheisskopf orders Colonel Cargill to tell everyone to march.

Chapter 38: Kid Sister

In protest, Yossarian marches backwards and refuses to fly any more missions. Korn decides to send
Yossarian to Rome for a few days to try to soothe him. When Yossarian tells Nately's whore about
Nately's death, she tries to kill Yossarian with a potato peeler. she cries loudly and starts to beat him up.
Yossarian overcomes her, and for a few minutes, she seems to be passionately attracted to him.

But this is only a trick to try to kill him, and she tries to kill him with a bread knife. To worsen matters, her
kid sister begins to copy the whore, and both of them run after him with bread knives. She continues to
chase him with a steak knife from the men's room to the airport.
 48

Even when he is back in Pianosa, she has followed him there. This time, Yossarian takes her into a
plane and drops her off behind enemy lines. On the way back, Yossarian runs into a pilot who asks him
whether he is serious about not flying any more missions. Yossarian replies that he is. Appleby
and Havermeyer show up in the night from behind the bushes and talk to him. Nobody, though,
addresses him in the daytime except for Captain Black. Yossarian hears that all the whores are gone.
When Nately hears that the kid sister of Nately's whore has also been driven away, he runs off to go find
her.

Chapter 39: The Eternal City

Yossarian persuades Milo to take him back to Rome. On the way, he thinks about the
whore, Clevinger, Orr, and others. He thinks about why Nately's whore wants to kill him. Meanwhile, Milo
criticizes Yossarian for “rocking the boat,” and Yossarian acquiesces. When they arrive in Rome, the
place is in ruins, and only an old woman remains. She tells Yossarian that everyone has been driven
away because of Catch-22. Yossarian asks where the little girl is, and the old woman replies that she is
also gone. The woman begs for help from Yossarian, and he hands her some money.

Yossarian begs Milo to help him find the twelve-year-old. At first, Milo misunderstands him, but he then
realizes whom Yossarian is looking for. He takes Yossarian to see Luigi, but the officer tells Milo that his
troops are too busy breaking up the illicit tobacco trade. Yossarian tries to stop Milo, but it is too late, and
Milo is excited about taking over the profitable trade.

Yossarian leaves Milo and wanders about the city. He thinks about the impoverished women and
children. As he goes through the city, he witnesses police brutality and various drunks meandering about.
Finally, Yossarian sees Michela, the countess's maid, thrown out the window--dead. He runs inside and
finds Aarfy, who tells him without any compunction that he raped and killed her. In shock, Yossarian asks
why, and Aarfy replies that he never pays for sex and does not need to. Yossarian cries that he will be
arrested for murder, but Aarfy feels that he is immune from arrest. The police arrive, and after they arrest
Yossarian for not having a pass, they apologize to Aarfy for the intrusion. The police take Yossarian to
Colonels Cathcart and Korn, who tell Yossarian that they are finally sending him home.

Chapter 40: Catch-22

Of course, letting Yossarian go home means that there is a Catch-22. Colonel Korn correctly points out
that they cannot let him go home on the ground that he has already flown the appropriate number of
missions. Otherwise, so many replacements would be needed that an inquiry would result. Yossarian
argues that this is their fault, but they retort that it is his fault, because now the men realize that they do
not have to fly more missions. They point out that they gave Yossarian a promotion and a medal.
Yossarian does not care.

Both colonels say they are prepared to make a deal. Right now, they are unwilling to lose the favor of
Generals Scheisskopf and Peckem. They ask Yossarian to fight on their personal behalf. Yossarian asks
why they represent the country, but they say that he is either for them or against his country. Yossarian
retorts that he does not buy this argument, and Colonel Korn admits that he does not either.

After many insults are passed back and forth, they offer Yossarian the deal. While they cannot let the
other men go home, they offer to bribe him to return home without saying a word. They even say that he
will be lionized and admired in the press. If he does not give in, though, they will court-martial him. Either
way, both men are adamant that Yossarian stop his behavior, because Colonel Cathcart wants to be a
general and Colonel Korn wants to be a colonel. Yossarian swiftly and jubilantly agrees. The two colonels
quickly get chummy with him and call him “Yo-Yo.” As he leaves, he meets a private in green fatigues.
Suddenly, the private turns into Nately's whore, and she knocks him unconscious.
 49

Chapter 41: Snowden

The doctors argue about whether or not to perform surgery on Yossarian. Meanwhile, he refuses to
cooperate. He makes obnoxious answers to annoy the doctors. They argue about whether they should
operate on his liver. Finally, the doctors just totally knock him out while Colonel Korn stands nearby.
Yossarian fluctuates in and out of a subconscious state. He hears them they say they have caught his
pal. Yossarian thinks he sees the chaplain, but Aarfy appears.

When he opens his eyes, the chaplain tells Yossarian that he is doing well and tells Yossarian he has
been busy praying. The chaplain tells Yossarian that he is very proud of him for saving Colonel Cathcart's
and Korn's lives from the Nazi assassin. Yossarian snickers and tells the chaplain the truth about her and
the deal. Yossarian confides to the chaplain that he is actually not going to accept the deal and was just
pretending. The chaplain asks him what he will do. Yossarian admits that he does not know.

The chaplain says to Yossarian that he has been under surveillance and is under interrogation. Yossarian
asks what happened to his last remaining pal, Hungry Joe. The chaplain says that he died in his sleep
during a dream. In the middle of the night, the stranger comes back and says that he has Yossarian’s pal.
Yossarian tries to grasp his throat but cannot.

Suddenly, Yossarian remembers his pal Snowden. He remembers that when he was trying to treat
Snowden, all the syringes of morphine were taken by Milo. Snowden kept complaining that he was cold.
Yossarian tried to comfort him, but to no avail, and began to cut through his leg just below the groin. For a
brief moment, Yossarian thought there was hope, but Snowden slipped away, becoming only colder and
colder. As Yossarian stared at Snowden, he thought of how all the organs were God's plenty. Yossarian
covered Snowden with a parachute to try to keep him warm.

Chapter 42: Yossarian

Major Danby tells Yossarian that the deal is working out. Yossarian replies that he is going to renege on
the deal. He points out that Yossarian will be court-martialed. Yossarian tells Major Danby that the official
report says that he was stabbed by a Nazi assassin--so he can't be court-martialed. Major Danby replies
that another official report says he was stabbed because of black market operations, and the officials can
choose whichever report they find most appropriate. Yossarian quickly discovers that the military
bureaucracy is ready to plot and lie against him just to continue the war effort. Essentially, Major Danby
says that an innocent man should be imprisoned for the good of the country.

Yossarian decides to run away. Major Danby points out the difficulties and how foolish it would be. He
admits that he only listens to Colonels Cathcart and Korn because they are his superiors, although they
disgust him. He urges Yossarian to think of his country just as he does. Yossarian says he is in more
danger than the country is. Danby says that the chaplain is upset because he is afraid he might have
wrongly influenced Yossarian. Danby then admits that he hates making decisions and likes being a
vegetable.

Yossarian still refuses to succumb to the deal, especially after so many of his friends have died. Suddenly
he realizes why Orr acted so inanely--he had been planning to flee to Sweden without anyone suspecting
it. Immediately Yossarian begins to ask for crab apples and for someone to hit him on the head. Major
Danby begs the chaplain to help him, but the chaplain supports Yossarian. Yossarian then declares he
will run away. Major Danby gives Yossarian his blessing. Yossarian jumps--just in time to avoid the knife
of Nately's whore.

Analysis
The inquisition of the chaplain is another example of the repressive cruelty of the military bureaucracy.
Seemingly innocuous events such as the chaplain's receiving a plum tomato, or meaningless statements
 50

such as atheism not being against the law, are maliciously misinterpreted as evidence against him.
Here the dangerous logic of wartime prevails over simple reason. A foolish statement about atheists
being in foxholes is taken out of context to trap the chaplain about a deeper and more profound issue of
whether heaven exists. There is also a resemblance between this trial and that of Clevinger's. The
suspect is assumed to be guilty and is threatened with severe punishments. Even worse, the chaplain is
not given a chance to provide any evidence to prove his innocence. Here, two basic tenets of American
justice are denied: the assumption of innocence until proven guilty, and the right to respond to allegations
with evidence. The irony of this situation is particularly poignant because a crucial point of World War II
was to fight for such human rights worldwide. Military justice has propagated the evils it has tried to end.

The immoral logic exposes the cruelty of Colonel Korn and touches upon a disturbing question. Assuming
that some must die in a war, does it matter who? To the military bureaucracy, which in this novel only
sees human lives as expendable resources, and for whom consumption is necessary to achieve their
missions, it does not matter. Likewise, to big business, it does not matter so long as the maximum profit is
achieved. But from an individual standpoint, such as that of Yossarian, it does matter who dies. The
trouble is that the military has a point: if everyone put themselves and their friends ahead of the collective
mission, their side would lose. This crucial point summarizes the impasse of the book and the conflict
between Yossarian's claim to his rights as an individual versus society's imposition of the war upon its
civilians for the supposedly higher cause.

Although Chapter 37 is quite brief, one critical event does occur: Scheisskopf is promoted to general.
After much squabbling, General Peckem succeeds to General Dreedle's position. Ironically, though, his
superior is now even worse than Dreedle, Scheisskopf. This incident exposes two flaws with the military
bureaucracy in the novel. First, it is not merit-based, as would be expected, but based on unimportant
paperwork. Second, after much sophisticated maneuvering by General Peckem to displace General
Dreedle, Lieutenant Scheisskopf triumphs without even the least effort. The new general is not up for any
bureaucratic interests (such as delegating responsibilities or squabbling) but cares about the parades.

Chapter 38 is dominated by Nately's whore, who madly chases Yossarian to kill him. Yossarian is torn
between two desires. He does not want to be killed, but he feels a sexual urge that prevents him from
leaving her when he can safely flee. This desire is so strong that the whore even offers to sleep with the
other man if they kill let her kill Yossarian. At last, Yossarian's paranoia that everyone is trying to kill him
appears justified again.

For the rest of the chapter, Yossarian searches for his new identity. Yossarian and most or all of the men
possess a curious split personality. In the daytime, they appear to conform to their superiors, but at the
nighttime, they become very different creatures. Everyone is secretly a Yossarian inside but lacks the
courage to express it. Underneath the facades of absurd behavior and bravado, the only critical difference
between Yossarian and the men is that Yossarian has the courage to express his resistance to his
superiors.

The side of himself that Yossarian recovers is to aid others in need, although his life is at risk. His
determination and humane concern to help the kid sister provide a more complete picture of Yossarian.
He had seemed self-centered in previous apathetic statements to the effect that he did not care if others
died as long as he lived, but his humanity shows itself once again.

The world in Chapter 39 is a fallen paradise. The beautiful city in which the officers enjoyed themselves--
the apartments with lots of beautiful women--it all has become a hell overrun by the military police. The
streets are deserted except for random insane people. The war has taken away most of the men, and
many of the women have turned to prostitution and are now being driven away.

For a brief moment, Milo's recovery seems possible. He has given up the materialistic goal of his
syndicate and is sacrificing himself for Yossarian's greater cause to save an innocent girl. Unfortunately,
reality catches up with Milo too quickly. Unwittingly, the policeman Luigi provides Milo with another illegal
 51

idea for his business. Milo is unable to change himself and his ways. As for many businessmen,
pragmatism and money, rather than ideals and human needs, touch closer to his heart.

Also in this chapter, a new, disturbing dimension of Aarfy is seen in his rape and murder of an innocent,
poor Italian servant girl. This event exposes his apathy and cruelty. Aarfy suffers from twisted, sickening
desires, in this case the pride of having the pleasure of a woman without having to pay for it, which he is
willing to make happen without regard for human life. While he has not been as cold-hearted as Colonel
Cathcart or Colonel Korn, the war has desensitized him so much against the importance of human life
that to him, a whore’s life is an object of convenience to be disposed of or used at his whim.

The suspense used throughout the book is especially evident in Chapter 40. In this chapter, Cathcart and
Korn appear to have a detailed strategy. At first, they try to bully Yossarian into flying more missions.
When this fails, they try to persuade him to fight, asking him to be a good patriot and to fight on their
behalf. Yossarian is too smart to fall for this, and he even has Colonel Korn admit that he does not buy his
own argument. Finally, Cathcart and Korn offer to send him home under the agreement that he likes
them. Much to the reader's surprise, Yossarian agrees. At the end of the chapter, though, two twists
occur. First, Yossarian breaks out laughing. Second, before the laugh can be explained in greater detail,
Nately's whore knifes him.

The sudden personality transformations of Cathcart and Korn also bring up the question of their honesty.
At the beginning of the chapter, they accuse Yossarian of preventing them from fulfilling their ambitions
and wish he were dead. By the end of the chapter, they call him “Yo-Yo.” It is fair to genuinely wonder
whether or not they will fulfill their end of the deal or if this is another cruel trap that they have set up. As it
will turn out, these colonels will use this deal against Yossarian to trap him in a corner: either yield to their
interpretation of Yossarian's departure or face a court-martial. These abrupt reversals foreshadow the
sudden decisions that must be made by Yossarian in the final chapter.

The scene with Yossarian and the doctors presents a powerful contrast to Yossarian's attempts to save
Snowden. The doctors treat Yossarian with contempt and hatred and even wish him dead. One of them
even sees Yossarian as a toy to play with and wants to cut him up for fun. In contrast, Yossarian treats
Snowden with compassion and empathy. He tries to comfort Snowden, who constantly complains that he
is cold, and covers him up. Yossarian finds himself in the terrible situation of having to amputate
Snowden's leg. Later, when the mysterious figure comes to him and says, “We have your pal,” the
meaning is symbolic. Yossarian has in an important sense become Snowden. While his life is not as
endangered as Snowden's was, his identity is at stake with an urgency like Snowden's physical life was.

In fact, Snowden comes to represent soldiers whose physical identities have been destroyed. As
Yossarian watches Snowden's guts spill out, Snowden becomes the soldier in white, whose internal
organs have been dumped out and whose outer body has been cut apart and defiled so that nothing
remains of him.

Finally, the conversation between Yossarian and the chaplain touches upon a critical moral issue: at what
cost should a person give of himself for justice? In other words, where is the line between serving
practicality and serving ideals? Yossarian can save his life by agreeing to the deal. But in doing so, the
argument that the continual increase of missions is unjust will be defeated. This issue becomes the major
question in the final chapter.

The last chapter of Catch-22 succinctly explains what has been driving the often irrational, if not cruel,
behavior of everyone from the officers to the doctors and the enlisted men. Innocent men can be
punished, if that is necessary to keep the war effort going. Major Danby finally elucidates these
developments to Yossarian, who has pretty much understood the politics and choices involved. The
difference between Major Danby and Yossarian is that the former is willing to compromise on the surface
without sacrificing his ideals, but Yossarian is not so willing. At this critical juncture, Yossarian must
decide whether or not he wishes to follow Danby's method of compromise and conceal his true self or
whether he wishes to openly express himself and take the consequences.
 52

In the process of their conversation, Major Danby admits that he would just like to be a vegetable. In a
sense, Major Danby serves as yet another foil to Yossarian: the civilian who seeks stability and peace
and does not wish to do anything significant. Danby is not interested in expressing himself but knows
what he must do--run away. When Yossarian realizes that he has no other choice and decides to actively
face the consequence of becoming a deserter, he is rejecting the choice to be a vegetable and thus re-
establishes his identity as a human individual. Although he may indeed be caught and punished by the
military bureaucracy, the individual has triumphed against the institution because he is no longer afraid of
the punishment that the institution uses as a deterrent against those who resist.

*********************************

Plot Structure in Catch-22

The plot structure of Catch-22 is unusual in several respects, requiring careful attention from the reader.
The timeline is quite disorienting, and much of it entails reminiscences of the various characters. Figures
that are alluded to by other characters are often not more fully developed and explored until the chapter
that focuses on them. Hence, much of the description and anecdotes seem quite incidental. Although the
pieces contribute to a more complete picture of the character, the reader who wants a full understanding
of each character’s story must sift through the material. Furthermore, to find the main plot, more sifting for
relevance is necessary. Despite this confusion, Heller maintains the reader's interest by using a great
deal of foreshadowing and memory. Seemingly arbitrary episodes and flashbacks, such as Yossarian's
traumatic recollections of Snowden's death, are common devices throughout. The importance of the
flashback of Snowden's death cannot be understated; for Yossarian the experience is a touchstone.

The content of the plot touches on several crucial themes that form the groundwork for the maddening
atmosphere of Pianosa. First, Yossarian constantly reiterates his right to life and using whatever means
he can to save himself from being killed. Survival, not winning the war, is what matters to him. Meanwhile,
he questions the morals of the country that has made him serve and fly too many missions. Captain
Black's episode with the Glorious Loyalty Crusade points out how patriotism can be abused for
someone's personal ambition or agenda. Religion is also repeatedly questioned; the chaplain himself is
thrown out of the officers' headquarters and happily lives in his own world. Even the chaplain has his
doubts about God and morality, and once when he lies, he feels wonderful about it. The institutions that
run and support the war, the military establishment, the government, business, and the medical institution
are also severely satirized. These larger contexts help us fit the details together.

Perhaps the most targeted institution is the military establishment. Throughout the book, it is criticized for
its bureaucracy, its inner squabbling, the absurd tactics to move up the ranks, and its absurd obsessions.
Generals Peckem and Dreedle continuously squabble Colonel Cathcart constantly increases the number
of missions in an attempt to be promoted to general. Business, represented by Milo, becomes a parasite
that profits from the war. This financial obsession is so bad that even Milo is willing to destroy his own
squadron simply to ensure a profit. Finally, throughout the novel, the doctors in the medical institution are
presented as ignorant and presumptuous, treating their patients without compassion, and sometimes
even with inhumanity. This is a particularly sad reversal on the traditional mission of doctors to heal,
preserve life, and do no harm. The representative character in this regard is Doc Daneeka. He never
listens to anyone's troubles and refuses to ground any of the men. These plot contours, too, help us fit the
pieces of the plot together.

Last, and perhaps most important, the viewpoint and logic of the “Catch-22” exposes the dangers of the
war. Daneeka points out that the men are trapped because those who are mad will fly the missions and if
they deny madness, they will be forced to fly them because they are capable of doing so. Orr turns this
logic against the military bureaucracy when he begins to hope for the improbable: that he can row to
 53

Switzerland in a boat, using an oar the size of a Dixie-cup spoon. After all, which is more likely: that he
will get to Switzerland before the war ends, or that Colonel Cathcart will allow the men to take leave and
return home? The Catch-22 is a way of looking at the world reflected again and again in the plot of the
novel. In rationalizing absurd ends, common sense tends to be jettisoned. Minor incidents such as the
falsified theft of a plum tomato become the crucial points of evidence against the chaplain. Calamities
such as the death of Nately are blown off as unimportant because they do not serve as useful evidence in
achieving the military's ends. This lack of perspective and this disproportion only underscore the horrifying
lessons of the war: that rationalization rather than reason tends to dictate actions. This point should be
kept in mind as the reader assembles the plot of the novel. **************************

American Anti-War Sentiment

American anti-war sentiment was relatively quiet during World War II. Though isolationists argued against
the war early on, they became more hawkish once American soil was attacked. American communist
groups initially were vocally pacifistic, but they changed their mind after Germany invaded the Soviet
Union. American culture was divided if not strongly against America's involvement in Vietnam, but
sentiment was remarkably homogenous in support for American involvement in World War II.

Heller did not write Catch-22 during World War II, however. It was first published in 1961, more than
fifteen years after the conflict had ended. The milieu in which Heller was writing could be more accurately
described as the Cold War. The conflict with the Axis forces was finite, and the goal of stopping Fascist
countries from actually conquering the globe had succeeded. The Cold War was much more indefinite. It
was more complicated to fight an enemy who was not on a battlefield, and it was more difficult to
understand what "winning" entailed. There was a threat of perpetual conflict, viral distrust of the “enemy,”
and apocalyptic destruction hanging in the air. This is when Joseph Heller wrote Catch-22, and the novel
reflects the fears and neuroses of this time period more than those during World War II, the time period of
the novel.

Catch-22 just predated the rampant anti-war sentiment in the 1960s and 1970s surrounding the Vietnam
War. M*A*S*H* (1968) bore many similarities to the novel, mostly in how it portrayed the inanity and
surreality of war. There was a popular film of the same year called The Green Berets starring John
Wayne. This film was pro-war and showed a widespread desire to trust the government and the military.
Even so, by 1968, something had changed. It was much easier to understand why World War II was a
just war than why Vietnam was. Film and fiction began to take stances on the reasons for war and the
integrity or corruption of government.

Heller was more focused on the inner workings of war and the personal interactions during wartime, not
the broader picture. When characters like Clevinger defend the importance of fighting, Yossarian does not
decry the fight against Hitler or question the importance of defending American soil. Instead, he says he
wishes someone else would do it. Heller focuses on the self-absorption of characters and their twisted
relationships instead of making broad statements about ideologies for or against war. Heller's view of war
is not that it is crazy because world leaders are corrupt or because America is self-interested or
duplicitous. He thinks war is crazy for the individual, no matter what the reasons. Regardless of good
intentions, war is simply unbearable for people to cope with. Heller's pacifism is thus individualized rather
than ideological. *****************************

Suggested Essay Questions

1. Discuss two examples of a "Catch-22" in the novel.

Possible Answer:

The most obvious example is the military code outlined in the novel. This code states that if a man
expresses his desire not to go on more missions, he demonstrates his sanity by his fear of danger,
 54

and thus he is considered fit to fly. But the military cannot ground a soldier for mental health
reasons if he does not ask to be grounded. Yossarian desperately wants to go home or at least stay
out of harm's way, and he constantly struggles with this military code.

When Yossarian is courting Luciana, he thinks he falls in love with her. He express his desire to
marry her, but she replies that she will not marry him. He asks why not, and she replies that he is
crazy. When he asks why she thinks he is crazy, she responds that he must be crazy if he wants to
marry her. Just as he cannot avoid flying dangerous combat missions, he cannot convince Luciana
to marry him.

2. Yossarian is sometimes described by critics as being an antihero. Does he have any

heroic traits?

Possible Answer:

Yossarian demonstrates real empathy for others, most notably with his feelings about Snowden. He
eventually develops a more callous exterior, but he cannot cope with the suffering of characters--like
Snowden's death. Also, he consistently and fervently rebels against a situation he sees as unjust.
Though he usually explains this rebellion in selfish terms, he is fighting a repressive and sadistic
system that affects everyone in the military, which makes him a symbol or icon of rebellion for the
rest of the men. He inspires them in an unusual way by his example.

3. Is Yossarian truly in love with Luciana? What does she represent to him?

Possible Answer:

After such a brief time with Luciana, Yossarian feels very strongly about her. He probably has not
had time to properly "fall in love," but it is possible. What is more likely is that she represents to him
an escape from the madness of the war. The moment that makes him most enamored of her is when
she tells him that the scar she will not reveal is from an American bombing. She not only confirms the
cruelty of war to him by being an innocent victim of it, but she also represents the possibility of
healing from past hurts. Her willingness to spend time with him shows her willingness to forgive.
Luciana gives Yossarian hope, and she is a haven for him.

4. Is Catch 22 a parody, or is it generally realistic?

Possible Answer:

The novel is ridiculous in many ways. The misunderstandings and difficulties of communication are
exaggerated sometimes so that the dialogue can sound like an Abbott and Costello routine. The
decision-making of the military is inane and whimsical, and everyone is comically self-absorbed and
uninterested in the larger picture of war. Though the novel is a parody in so many ways, Heller blurs
the line between what is farce and what is an accurate description of life during war, which is absurd
and chaotic. Often, this is true of farce; parody is used to underline life's truths and realities.

5. Is the novel a comedy or a tragedy?

Possible Answer:

Similar to how Heller uses parody to highlight reality, he uses dark comedy to reveal the cruel truths
of wartime behavior. The novel is a comedy, but it hints that the reality of war is a tragedy. One
marker of a comedy is a happy ending, and in the end of this novel, Yossarian finally escapes. This
is a victory at the end of his long troubles, even though it is quite small compared to the physical and
psychological ravaging he has experienced from the war. This small sweet note at the close of the
novel comes in the context of a larger tragedy.

6. World War II is generally portrayed as a just war fought for the right reasons by brave and
reasonable men. The majority of Heller's characters, however, are portrayed as selfish,
 55

depraved lunatics. Does the novel condemn the nobility of the soldiers? Are the problems
pointed out by Heller just the funny, petty complaints of officers, or are there deeper troubles
here?

Possible Answer:

First of all, any war is very complicated, and any clear assertion of good or evil is probably an
oversimplification. There certainly are aspects of nobility and bravery in this war. The overall context
remains: these people are fighting with a purpose. Heller shows noble intentions in characters such
as Clevinger, who argues that it is his and every soldier's duty to fight for his country in a time of
need. Clevinger's voice, however, is seen as dangerous by his own superiors, and his is an
uncomfortable presence among his peers. He eventually dies an unceremonious death, having
achieved nothing more noble than most of the other men, and having failed to inspire anyone. Heller
shows that even noble intentions cannot prevail in the atmosphere of confusion and callous
misdirection. The beliefs and reasons for war can be noble and good for some, deranged and cruel
for others. The actions of war are intrinsically ludicrous, so war should be reserved only for extreme
circumstances when the alternatives are worse. Nobility, in the world ofCatch-22, all too often seems
futile.

7. Who is the villain in Catch-22?

Possible Answer:

There is a general absence of pure malice in the novel; all "evil" in the novel is a consequence of
pride, misdirection, miscommunication, or even good intentions. The enemy is not really seen. Death
usually occurs due to a mistake, or it is totally random. The men are needlessly sent on dangerous
missions due to their superiors' pride and negligence. Bureaucracy's effect on society is another
reason why it is difficult to identify one single character as the villain of the novel. In large groups
such as corporations or government, bureaucracy thoroughly diffuses blame. Bureaucracy itself may
be the villain of the novel, for it gives cover for the dark side of human nature and makes it difficult to
hold an individual accountable for bad actions.

8. Why is the novel not written chronologically? What effect is this supposed to have on the
reader?

Possible Answer:

The scattered assortment of vignettes underscores the confusion and nonsensical nature of the
men's experiences during the war. Character arcs become truncated, even running backwards in
some places. This parallels how the actual character development of the soldiers stationed on
Pianosa is at times truncated (by events such as death) or backwards (like Hungry Joe, whose
moods are the opposite of what his situation dictates). It also underscores how the situation as a
whole is not progressing or evolving; it is a stagnant, complicated mess, all of a piece. Thus, the
novel's structure evokes for the reader a similar feeling of confusion and fragmentation to reflect the
experience of a military officer.

9. Are the characters in the novel moral, for the most part?

Possible Answer:

Since morality, from a social point of view, is a system that dictates one's actions in a society, one
should distinguish military morals in wartime from those of civilians in peacetime. Common moral
themes, such as refraining from killing, are disregarded during war. But conventional morality does
not seem to apply much at all, or so most of the men seem to think. Some of them act violently,
flippantly, angrily, misogynistically, or even cruelly. This is a response to their surroundings, but it is
not necessary or right for them to act in these ways simply because they can get away with it. Such
 56

activity is often more a cry of frustration and non-comprehension than an affirmation of immorality.
It is sad, then, to observe that human nature cannot easily stand the pressures of war and remain as
moral as the same people tend to be in peacetime.

10. Why did Heller choose the Air Force as the branch of the military in which the men serve?

Possible Answer:

Pilots are miles away from the targets they bomb and the anti-aircraft guns that fire at them. Even
when they encounter the enemy in hostile planes, they do not see faces or hear yells. For a pilot, the
enemy is either miles away or is encased in a metal machine. The connection that most of the men
feel to a mission or to the war is very remote compared with infantry. They do not feel a strong sense
of purpose as easily, and they thus tend to feel aloof from the rallying cause that should unite them.
Also, the juxtaposition of violence and the calm, almost civilized world inside a plane parallels the
constant doubleness of the men's experiences in dealing with the oddities of their compatriots and of
their superior officers.

***********************