Yossarian, a World War II bombardier, is stationed on the island of Pianosa. He is a loner who seeks to protect his own life by fleeing to the hospital, since "Catch-22 prevents him from being grounded for illness or obtaining a leave. He enjoys living in the ward, his every need is met, and he avoids combat. In turn, he simply needs to feign pain in his liver and censor the letters of enlisted men. Yossarian takes on the pseudonym “Washington Irving” out of boredom and pretends to be Chaplain Tappman. The government sends two C.I.D. men to investigate this odd activity. There are other men who also seek the haven of the hospital by faking 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 eats peanut brittle, shoots innocent field mice, and never takes evasive action on a mission, which earns the ire of his men. The squadron's doctor, Doc Daneeka, is a hypochondriac who belittles everyone else's illnesses instead of treating them. Chief White Halfoat constantly gets drunk and brags about his displacement by “Americans” who use his family as a charm to find oil. Yossarian's brainless pilot, McWatt, irritates Yossarian by flying his airplane a few inches above his tent. Hungry Joe denies having night terrors, despite screaming the night before, and he gets into fistfights with the cat that belongs to his roommate. Chaplain Tappman, along with his assistant, has been ejected from the Officers' Headquarters and spends his time peacefully in the woods on the edge of camp. After a cancelled mission to Bologna, Nately, one of Yossarian's colleagues, gets involved with a prostitute he meets in an apartment. Aarfy and the other soldiers mock him, and she rejects Nately because he is boring. Nately, however, keeps pursuing her. Captain Black sleeps with her several times to torment Nately. When Yossarian attacks Nately in a fury, the whore blames him and tries to attack him. Shortly afterwards, Yossarian breaks the news of Nately's death to her. She obsessively follows him from Rome back to his camp and tries to kill him. Finally, Yossarian disposes of her by throwing her out of a plane. When he hears that her younger sister has been wrongfully driven away from Rome, he tries to find her.
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. It proves to be effective. 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 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.
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 eats peanut brittle, shoots innocent field mice, and never takes evasive action on a mission, which earns the ire of his men. The squadron's doctor, Doc Daneeka, is a hypochondriac who belittles everyone else's illnesses instead of treating them. Chief White Halfoat constantly gets drunk and brags about his displacement by “Americans” who use his family as a charm to find oil. Yossarian's brainless pilot, McWatt, irritates Yossarian by flying his airplane a few inches above his tent. Hungry Joe denies having night terrors, despite screaming the night before, and he gets into fistfights with the cat that belongs to his roommate. Chaplain Tappman, along with his assistant, has been ejected from the Officers' Headquarters and spends his time peacefully in the woods on the edge of camp. After a cancelled mission to Bologna, Nately, one of Yossarian's colleagues, gets involved with a prostitute he meets in an apartment. Aarfy and the other soldiers mock him, and she rejects Nately because he is boring. Nately, however, keeps pursuing her. Captain Black sleeps with her several times to torment Nately. When Yossarian attacks Nately in a fury, the whore blames him and tries to attack him. Shortly afterwards, Yossarian breaks the news of Nately's death to her. She obsessively follows him from Rome back to his camp and tries to kill him. Finally, Yossarian disposes of her by throwing her out of a plane. When he hears that her younger sister has been wrongfully driven away from Rome, he tries to find her.
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. It proves to be effective. 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 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.
Catch-22: A term coined by the author. Popularized during the Vietnam War. It is typically used as a name for a situation where you seem to have a fair choice, but you really don't.
Deceit: Many of the remaining soldiers only survive because of dishonesty and deception. Not the most virtuous means, but necessary.
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Absurdity: The charm of the novel is it's odd nature and its exaggerated character portrayals.
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“Catch-22 did not exist, he was positive of that, but it made no difference. What did matter was that everyone thought it existed, and that was much worse, for there was no object or text to ridicule or refute, to accuse, criticize, attack, amend, hate, revile, spit at, rip to shreds, trample upon, or burn up”(409).
Significance: Captain Black tells him that Nately’s whore and her younger sister have been flushed out of their apartment by the Military Police, and Yossarian is suddenly worried about them. Even though they both tried to kill him twice before Yossarian threw the whore out of a plane.
Interpretation: How can the soldiers fight a principle that does not exist? In a sense, it’s like parents saying “You can have whatever job you want, so long as we approve it.” They are trapped, seeming “caught” by this titular
Argument: Catch-22 is a tragedy that uses comedy to speak to its audience. This is a more effective way to convey its message.
Comedy is Tragedy Reversed
A zip tie can bind a pair of scissors by the handles. The zip tie is capable of constricting the scissors, and there is nothing the shears can do to break free. Catch-22 was popularized in the heat of the Vietnam war, seemingly predicting what was happening. There was a voice that emerged from the generation who lost respect from authority. To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee went as far as to state that Catch-22 was the “only war novel I’ve ever read that makes any sense.” There is no comedy in war, but the novel seems to use it as a torch to shed light on tragedy.
The tragic story is coated with satire, quite ridiculous in many ways. Aspects of individual soldiers and military life are shown as whimsical and inane, almost like The Three Stooges’ “Uncivil Warriors”. Almost every character is an inane caricature of someone who is too self-absorbed to be interested in the larger picture of the war. Many of them would prove to be adversaries to Yossarian, some of them even being his friends. Doc Daneeka has minuscule problems compared to the enlisted men, despite helping the Doc with his flying hours by falsely marking them in, he is never repaid. One might even speculate that Heller chose to write Yossarian in the Air Force, not just because of his own experience as a bombardier, but also because an enemy can not just come from the sky but also in the same metal aircraft while there are plenty of other antagonists who make Yossarian’s life difficult, there is none more omnipotent and threatening than Death.
Even in a satirical novel, Death is a fear that looms over every soldier’s head. It slowly picks off all of his closest friends, but it only sinks in when he sees Snowden’s innards spilling out. “He gazed down despondently at the grim secret Snowden had spilled all over the messy floor. It was easy to read the message in his entrails. Man was matter, that was Snowden’s big secret. Drop him out a window and he’ll fall. Set fire to him and he’ll burn. Bury him and he’ll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden’s secret“ (440.) This is Yossarian’s final wake up call.
Yossarian had only one goal in mind the entire war; to make it home alive. Catch-22 would not allow a reasonable means of accomplishing this goal, so Yossarian had to take matters into his own hands. He left for Sweden, only to find that Orr, who he believed had died on impact in a hillside, was still alive. Orr had faked his own death because he realized that there was no other way to escape. Deceit is a common way of life for these soldiers, even information from the higher-ups are falsified and twisted to keep appearances and to boost morale. There are few who adhere to a moral code, though some are still corrupt in their values.
Milo has a code that will be the undoing of not only his comrades but also himself. As shown by Milo, everyone, regardless of nationality, race, and gender will respond to money. Greed drives people to unspeakable acts, in Milo’s case, He will take flying contracts from the enemy, even at the cost of his fellow soldier’s lives. “‘Oh, I know what you're going to say. Sure we're at war with them. But the Germans are also members in good standing of the syndicate, and it's my job to protect their rights as shareholders […]. Don't you understand that I have to respect the sanctity of my contract with Germany?’" (256).
In summary, Catch-22 is a tragic comedy, while the events in that novel are grim and cynical, Yossarian does not die. He escapes despite his traumatic journey. The novel shows that tragedy is a series of unfortunate events happening to another person, while comedy is a series of unfortunate events happening to another person. Both seem to be indistinguishable, but Catch-22 proved to shine a light on the common problems of war in a way that will resonate with people of newer generations who observe their corrupt government and leadership.
Comedy is Tragedy Reversed
A zip tie can bind a pair of scissors by the handles. The zip tie is capable of constricting the scissors, and there is nothing the shears can do to break free. Catch-22 was popularized in the heat of the Vietnam war, seemingly predicting what was happening. There was a voice that emerged from the generation who lost respect from authority. To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee went as far as to state that Catch-22 was the “only war novel I’ve ever read that makes any sense.” There is no comedy in war, but the novel seems to use it as a torch to shed light on tragedy.
The tragic story is coated with satire, quite ridiculous in many ways. Aspects of individual soldiers and military life are shown as whimsical and inane, almost like The Three Stooges’ “Uncivil Warriors”. Almost every character is an inane caricature of someone who is too self-absorbed to be interested in the larger picture of the war. Many of them would prove to be adversaries to Yossarian, some of them even being his friends. Doc Daneeka has minuscule problems compared to the enlisted men, despite helping the Doc with his flying hours by falsely marking them in, he is never repaid. One might even speculate that Heller chose to write Yossarian in the Air Force, not just because of his own experience as a bombardier, but also because an enemy can not just come from the sky but also in the same metal aircraft while there are plenty of other antagonists who make Yossarian’s life difficult, there is none more omnipotent and threatening than Death.
Even in a satirical novel, Death is a fear that looms over every soldier’s head. It slowly picks off all of his closest friends, but it only sinks in when he sees Snowden’s innards spilling out. “He gazed down despondently at the grim secret Snowden had spilled all over the messy floor. It was easy to read the message in his entrails. Man was matter, that was Snowden’s big secret. Drop him out a window and he’ll fall. Set fire to him and he’ll burn. Bury him and he’ll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden’s secret“ (440.) This is Yossarian’s final wake up call.
Yossarian had only one goal in mind the entire war; to make it home alive. Catch-22 would not allow a reasonable means of accomplishing this goal, so Yossarian had to take matters into his own hands. He left for Sweden, only to find that Orr, who he believed had died on impact in a hillside, was still alive. Orr had faked his own death because he realized that there was no other way to escape. Deceit is a common way of life for these soldiers, even information from the higher-ups are falsified and twisted to keep appearances and to boost morale. There are few who adhere to a moral code, though some are still corrupt in their values.
Milo has a code that will be the undoing of not only his comrades but also himself. As shown by Milo, everyone, regardless of nationality, race, and gender will respond to money. Greed drives people to unspeakable acts, in Milo’s case, He will take flying contracts from the enemy, even at the cost of his fellow soldier’s lives. “‘Oh, I know what you're going to say. Sure we're at war with them. But the Germans are also members in good standing of the syndicate, and it's my job to protect their rights as shareholders […]. Don't you understand that I have to respect the sanctity of my contract with Germany?’" (256).
In summary, Catch-22 is a tragic comedy, while the events in that novel are grim and cynical, Yossarian does not die. He escapes despite his traumatic journey. The novel shows that tragedy is a series of unfortunate events happening to another person, while comedy is a series of unfortunate events happening to another person. Both seem to be indistinguishable, but Catch-22 proved to shine a light on the common problems of war in a way that will resonate with people of newer generations who observe their corrupt government and leadership.