Trying to Understand Catch 22 by Joseph Heller Essay Example for Free

Trying to Understand Catch 22 by Joseph Heller Essay Catch 22 is a satirical war novel that was written in the 1950’s, but was published in 1961. Joseph Heller, the American author, was known for his novels to represent a comic vision of modern society with serious moral connections. His major theme throughout his writing is the conflict that occurs when individuals interact with such powerful institutions, such as: corporations, the military, and the government. Catch 22 was written in the post modernism era of the literature timeline. In the 1950’s, the Korean War was beginning, World War II ended, and Castro became the dictator of Cuba. All of these events had an influence on Heller as he was writing this novel about the WWII bombardier, Yossarian, and his struggle to stay sane with bombs bursting all around him. Chapter 1: The Texan * Summary: Yossarian is hiding from the war in a hospital ward with a â€Å"liver disease† when he meets Dunbar, the bigoted Texan, and the soldier in white. * The Texan: an obnoxious patient that annoys all the patients in the ward and talks to the soldier in white all the time. * â€Å"You fellas are crazy† (Heller 11) Chapter 2: Clevinger * Summary: Yossarian is paranoid about the crazy people in the camp: Havermeyer, McWatt, Orr, and Nately; but, Clevinger insists Yossarian is the crazy one and Doc Daneeka cannot and will not release him because Cathcart raised the missions yet again. * Clevinger: An ingenious Harvard graduate who is the first to call Yossarian crazy. He is picked on in cadet training by lieutenant Scheisskopf, who brings him up on contrived charges before the action board. He is presumed dead when his plane crashes. * â€Å"Who’s they?.. Who, specifically, do you think is trying to murder you?† (Heller 17) Chapter 3: Havermeyer * Summary: Yossarian is accompanied by a dead soldier in his tent (Mudd), Orr, and Hungry Joe who are driving him crazy, but Doc Daneeka still refuses to diagnose Yossarian as crazy in order to send him home; telling him he needs be more like Havermeyer. * Havermeyer: The best bombardier in the whole squadron. He loves peanut brittle, never misses a target, and never takes evasive action. Doc Daneeka told Yossarian to become more like Havermeyer. * â€Å" Chapter 4: Doc Daneeka * Summary: Yossarian argues with Hungry Joe, trying to explain that he is the crazy one, when Doc Daneeka begins to ponder why he of all the doctors was forced to deal with these babbling buffoons. * Doc Daneeka: A flight surgeon who resents his position and is bitter about the war taking away his practice in the states. Doc Daneeka is the one who explains catch 22. He is afraid to fly, so has McWatt sign his name. McWatt’s plane crashed, and people believed he was dead. * â€Å"I’m not on the plane.† (Heller 339) Chapter 5: Chief White Halfoat * Summary: Doc Daneeka was yearning for his practice back home and explains to Yossarian that catch 22 prevents him from grounding him when Chief White Halfoat enters the tent to begin telling stories of before the war; expressing his hate for the white men that kicked him and his family from home to home because of the unearthing of oil. * Chief White Halfoat: A Native American chief is the intelligence officer. He despises white men for kicking him off his home settlements and claims he will die of pneumonia, and he jokingly says he will slit his throat. Chapter 6: Hungry Joe * Summary: Hungry Joe had his way with the prostitutes in Rome, had flown the most missions in the in the whole squadron, and had horrible nightmares resulting with bone chilling screams, but Doc Daneeka, despite Yossarian’s despondent pleas, could not even declare Hungry Joe as crazy thanks to catch 22. * Hungry Joe: Hungry Joe is the soldier with the most missions flown in the entire squadron, but his orders to return home never come. He has horrible nightmares that cause him to scream in horror, however, he is very good with the whores in Rome. He dies one night in his sleep because Huple’s cat suffocated him. Chapter 7: McWatt * Summary: McWatt is Yossarian’s pilot whose bed sheet was stolen by Milo Minderbender, the new mess officer that is involved in black market deals and Yossarian becomes his new friend that he confides in about these actions. * McWatt: McWatt is a cheerful pilot who often flies Yossarian’s planes, but he likes to joke around a lot, such as buzzing the beaches. One day sliced Kid Sampson in half, and flew into a mountain immediately afterwards. Chapter 8: Lieutenant Scheisskopf * Summary: Yossarian has an affair with Lieutenant Scheisskopf’s wife, but he is too obsessed with trying to beat Clevinger in the weekly parades and finally wins two years in a row; ending Scheisskopf’s precious parades. * Lieutenant Scheisskopf: Lieutenant Scheisskopf was the colonel that trained Yossarian’s squadron in America and is fascinated with the military parades, and later on, he is promoted to general due to a misunderstanding of memos by General Peckem. Chapter 9: Major Major Major Major * Summary: Major is a man who was promoted to squadron commander, but rather than helping his reputation, it made him resort to being a recluse; until Yossarian tackled him in the woods. * Major Major: Major Major is very shy, awkward, and submissive. He resembles Henry Fonda and was promoted to squadron commander, which made the soldiers loathe him, causing him to become reclusive and distancing himself from the others. Chapter 10: Wintergreen * Summary: Yossarian tells ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen, a loser forced to dig punishment holes for going AWOL, about Clevenger’s disappearance, and Dr. Stubbs snickers at the fact everyone sees Yossarian as crazy because he may be the last one in the camp that is sane. * Wintergreen: Ex- P.F.C. Wintergreen was a mail clerk at the Air Force Headquarters, but Wintergreen refuses to go to work; resulting in his rank being stripped and digging punishment hole. Chapter 11: Captain Black * Summary: Major Major was chosen as the new squadron commander over Captain Black, and Captain Black created the Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade to make all the men miserable until Major de Coverley returns and puts an end to the crusade. * Captain Black: Captain Black is the squadron’s intelligence officer, but he longs to become the squadron commander. He adores watching his men suffer and taunts them just to be a jerk. Chapter 12: Bologna * Summary: Yossarian moves the bomb line on the map over night to avoid the mission to Bologna and results with General Peckem receiving a medal, the men getting drunk, stealing a car, and Clevenger returning back to the camp; fussing at the men when the stolen car flips. Chapter 13: Major de Coverley * Summary: Major de Coverley rents apartments for all the enlisted men and officers to retreat to when on leave and has a transparent eye patch, but Yossarian’s team that went to bomb the bridge in Bologna all missed their target; resulting in a second trip that has to be covered up. * Major de Coverley: Everyone idolizes and fears Major de Coverly. He also rents apartments for men on their rest leaves. Chapter 14: Kid Sampson * Summary: Yossarian ordered Kid Sampson to turn the plane around in Bologna because of a â€Å"defective intercom,† and when they return safely back to base, Yossarian sneaks away to the beach for a nap when he realizes that the planes that were his companions left once more. * Kid Sampson: Kid Sampson was a pilot in Yossarian’s squadron. He was sliced in half on the beach as a result of McWatt’s reckless flying. Chapter 15: Piltchard and Wren * Summary: Following Captains Piltchard and Wren request that no one decides to leave the mission for no reason, Yossarian begins to panic over Bologna because of the flack and tells McWatt to drop the bomb and leave as fast as he could when he noticed his fellow planes were missing, but when he returned home, he finds missing his comrades, begins to feel relieved, and leaves to Rome to find Luciana. * Piltchard and Wren: Captain Piltchard and Captain Wren are the joint squadron operation officers. They love to fly missions. Chapter 16: Luciana * Summary: Luciana was a whore in Rome that mooched off of Yossarian, a man jealous of the women magnet, Aarfy, and Coronel Cathcart raised the missions again to 40. * Luciana: A beautiful young girl that lives in Rome. She and Yossarian have an affair, and he impulsively asks her to marry him. Instead of saying yes, she gives him her address, and Yossarian rips it up and regrets it later. * â€Å"You don’t want to sleep with me?† (Heller 154) Chapter 17: The Soldier in White * Summary: Yossarian returns to the hospital once again to seek a safe haven from the brutality of the war when he encounters the soldier in white, a helpless body encased in white gauze, but Dunbar, maddened by malaria, creates a ruckus about the sheathed soldier. * The Soldier in White: The soldier in white is a broken soldier who is encased in a full body cast. The nurses must do everything for him, and Dunbar makes a huge commotion over him. Chapter 18: The Soldier Who Saw Everything * Summary: The hospital staff are irritated because there is nothing wrong with Yossarian because he is faking his liver condition, but one day another soldier claims he is seeing doubles; giving Yossarian the idea to copy his illness. Chapter 19: Coronel Cathcart * Summary: Colonel Cathcart will do anything to become general and wants to be famous (mentioned in newspaper), so he calls in the chaplain to â€Å"pray† without bringing religion into the act to make him famous. The chaplain tells Coronel Cathcart the missions are beginning to reach a ridiculous height. * Colonel Cathcart: Coronal Cathcart is the commanding colonel who yearns to be general. Colonel Cathcart is the main antagonist of the novel because he volunteers his men for dangerous missions and constantly raises the number of missions needed to be dismissed. * â€Å"He’s the best damned bombardier we’ve got.† (Heller 29) Chapter 20: Corporal Whitcomb * Summary: Corporal Whitcomb talked to a CID man, who was investigating the big â€Å"Washington Irving† scandal, and blames the chaplain of signing â€Å"Washington Irving† on some of the censored letters and documents and stealing Coronel Cathcart’s plum tomato. * Corporal Whitcomb: Corporal Whitcomb it the chaplain’s assistant, and he is later promoted to sergeant. He blames the chaplain for being a roadblock in his career, and tells the CID men that the chaplain was the one signing â€Å"Washington Irving† and who stole Colonel Cathcart’s plume tomato. * â€Å"I threw it away as soon as I tore it open and read it.† (Heller 275) Chapter 21: General Dreedle * Summary: General Dreedle has no tolerance for Yossarian or his son-in-law; however, he does have his own nurse that the men always stare at; irritating General Dreedle. * General Dreedle: General Dreedle is in charge of the wing containing Yossarian’s squadron. General Peckem is always trying to over throw General Dreedle; annoying him tremendously. Chapter 22: Milo the Mayor * Summary: Milo became the mayor of Palermo because he managed to manipulate the economy of Palermo to put them on the map along with Malta, Oran, and Cairo; and, Milo puts Yossarian to work hauling bananas, another of his black market crops. Chapter 23: Nately’s Old Man * Summary: The nasty old man in Rome is the same man who threw the puncturing rose Major de Coverley’s eye, and he believes Italy will triumph over America and Nately argues about his political values. Nately realizes his whore is missing. * Old Man: This old man is a very disgusting old man in Rome. He is the man responsible for throwing the rose that abolished Major de Coverley’s eye. He does not side with the Americans at all, and believes the Italians will be triumphant. This old man is an important character because he is the one who argues with Nately about political beliefs. Chapter 24: Milo * Summary: Milo is so blinded by his want for profit that he will do anything for a profit, such as selling his surplus of Egyptian cotton to the U. S. like Yossarian had suggested. * Milo Minderbinder: Milo is the mess hall officer who creates a colossal black market scandal to bring in vast amounts of profits. He is so successful in dealing with other countries even, that he was elected to several public offices within the countries he dealt with. Milo desires his profit so much that he even makes a deal with the Germans to bomb his own unit for profit. * â€Å"In a democracy, the government is the people.† (Heller 259) Chapter 25: The Chaplain * Summary: The chaplain is a massive pushover that will not stand up for himself and is â€Å"unimportant† to the new Sergeant Whitcomb. * Chaplain A. T. Tappman: Anabaptist minister who is shy and pushed arpund by almost all the officials and even Whitcomb, his assistant. He changes from the beginning on the novel when he is super shy never say anything to the end of the novel when he tells Coronel Cathcart the number of missions are too high and the burst of confidence he received from Yossarian leaving to Sweden. Chapter 26: Aarfy * Summary: Aarfy was on the plane with Yossarian and simply watched Yossarian bleed due to the shot in his thigh rather than helping, but McWatt rushed to help the bleeding captain. * Aarfy: Captain Aardvark is Captain Yossarian’s navigator, however, he has no sense of direction. Aarfy is completely oblivious to the calls of his flight crew for help when Yossarian wounded his leg. He is an ex-fraternity boy who brags about not having to pay for the sex given from the whores in Rome. * â€Å"I don’t think we’re at the target yet. Are we?† (Heller 30) Chapter 27: Nurse Duckett * Summary: Yossarian and Dunbar harass Nurse Duckett and are fussed at, resulting in them being forced to talk to the psychiatrist, Major Sanderson; Yossarian making up diseases as they talk. * Nurse Duckett: Nurse Duckett is a nurse at the hospital Yossarian is staying. She is the â€Å"love of Yossarian’s life† after they have an affair, but she quickly tells Yossarian that she is going to marry a doctor. Chapter 28: Dobbs * Summary: Dobbs created a big scheme to assassinate Coronel Cathcart due to the ridiculous mission requirements rising, but he changes his mind. Orr’s plane went down over the sea on the way to Bologna, faking his death, but his crew and he actually swam safely to shore and escaped to Sweden. * Dobbs: Dobbs was Yossarian’s co-pilot. He is the one who took control of the plane for Huple on the way to Avignon. Chapter 29: Peckem * Summary: General Peckem and Scheisskopf do not get along, but all the men, McWatt, Dunbar, Major Danby, and others, agree that bombing the small mountain town is very vindictive act to do, but Coronel Korn disagrees. * General Peckem: General Peckem is the special operations general who is constantly trying to figure out how to over throw General Dreedle. He finally over throws him, but Lieutenant Scheisskopf is promoted rather than Peckem. Chapter 30: Dunbar * Summary: Dunbar has become crazy from staying in the hospital for so long; falling on his face every morning. Yossarian did not mind McWatt as his pilot, but his foolish act of buzzing the beach sliced Kid Sampson in half. McWatt immediately flew his plane into a nearby mountain; killing himself. * Dunbar: Dunbar is one of Yossarian’s good friends who always manages to cause a scene. He is taken by officials and mysteriously â€Å"disappeared.† Chapter 31: Mrs. Daneeka * Summary: Doc Daneeka was pronounced dead when the plane he was supposed to be on crashed, but despite the fact the squadron knew he was still alive, they sent a letter of condolence to Mrs. Daneeka. Doc Daneeka fought this and sent letters to his wife telling her he was fine, but she loved the money she was receiving for his death more than him; leaving Doc Daneeka unloved and invisible to the men in the squadron. Chapter 32: Yo- Yo’s Roomies * Summary: All of Yossarian’s comrades are either dead or missing, so they are being replaced with new people that are obnoxious and unbearable. Chapter 33: Nately’s Whore * Summary: Yossarian and Nately finally found Nately’s missing whore and convinced the American coronel she was with to give her back, but when Nately brought her home and took care of her, she told him she did not want to stop hustling. * Nately’s Whore: Nately’s whore is a whore that lives in Rome with her little sister in the apartments, but Nately has fallen madly in love with her. She does not like the fact that he tries to control her life; however, when she was heard about Nately’s death from Yossarian, she became vindictive, chasing him around trying to kill him. Chapter 34: Thanksgiving * Summary: The new men in the squadron act recklessly, shooting guns and stabbing each other, but when they wake Yossarian, he goes crazy, badly injured and hospitalized Nately, who was trying to hold him back. Chapter 35: Milo the Militant * Summary: Nately wants to fly more missions so he can be closer to his beloved whore (Yossarian advises him not to volunteer), but Yossarian and Nately were both forced to go on that last mission. There was so much flak, ground fire, that Havermeyer took evasive action, but it was too late; Nately was dead. Chapter 36: The Cellar * Summary: The chaplain was accused of false crimes and took a writing test to prove he was innocent, but they said the test was wrong and he faked his handwriting; leaving the chaplain out of work. Chapter 37: General Scheisskopf * Summary: Peckem believed he was going to fill in as general for Dreedle, but it was discovered that General Scheisskopf was now the heading officer. Chapter 38: Kid Sister * Summary: Yossarian was sent to Rome to relax when he saw Nately’s whore and told her about his death. The whore and her little sister tried killing him and even stalked Yossarian back to Pianosa. * Michela: â€Å"Kid Sister† was Nately’s whore’s twelve year old sister. She constantly imitates her big sister, and follows her everywhere. Chapter 39: The Eternal City * Summary: Yossarian returns to Rome with Milo when they realize the city is in total ruins. Yossarian saw police brutality and drunks all throughout the city, when he saw the 12 year old Michela’s limp body in the street. Yossarian went into the apartment, where Aarfy has raped the young girl and threw her through a window, to tell him he will be arrested for murder, but Yossarian was the one who was arrested, brought back to Coronel Korn, and is told â€Å"go home.† Chapter 40: Catch 22 * Summary: General Scheisskopf and Peckem agreed to send Yossarian home as long as he talked gallantly of them or he would be court marshaled and arrested. Nately’s whore wanted to throw all of her anger at Yossarian, so she took out her wrath by stabbing him when he left the conference. Chapter 41: Snowden * Summary: Yossarian is in surgery, but afterwards he speaks with the chaplain to learn that Hungry Joe had died in his sleep and this begins to trigger the memories of Snowden’s fatal death and his attempt to try and mend his wounded leg, but he gets a lap full of his guts. * Snowden: Snowden was a gunner on the Avignon mission. His death haunts Yossarian throughout the entire novel because it was much worse than he thought it was; spilling guts everywhere. His death killed Yossarian’s courage and gave him a taste of what war really is. Chapter 42: Yossarian * Summary: Major Danby explains the deal is coming along nicely, but Yossarian is going to run away because he had realized that Orr had faked his death to escape the war, as Yossarian does by fleeing to Sweden with Orr. * Yossarian: Yossarian is the novel’s protagonist and hero. He is a captain in the Air Force and a lead bombardier in his squadron, but he hates the war. He believes that everyone is out to kill him, including his own squadron. He is haunted by Snowden’s death. The settings play a major role in all the madness within this novel as well. The two main settings are Pianosa, an island off the coast of Italy, and Rome, Italy in 1944. Joseph Heller could have created any size island he wanted, but he chose to put all of this action on a tiny island. Pianosa is a fictional island that is very small because the size of the island contradicts the large amount of action going on in the novel. Located on the island of Pianosa is the squadron’s base camp, where a lot of the trouble is started. Another major setting in this novel is the air. The planes were always in the air for a mission, and the air is where all the bombs were. Also, the soldiers would often take leave and go to Rome and stay in apartments with the whores. Rome was normal looking until one day Yossarian and Milo go to Rome and it is all in ruins. This time period was 1944, during World War II. The time sequences between all these settings are very disjointed. In the beginning of the novel Yossarian is faking a liver disease when he begins to have flashbacks to Snowden’s death, and the novel jumps before Snowden’s death to after Snowden’s death throughout the whole novel. The time frame of the events going on are at the end of WWII and in the summer of 1944- the winter of 1944 and a flash back to 1942. The main conflict that is tossed throughout the entire book is Catch 22 itself. Within several of the chapters, a catch 22 will appear. The main catch is that of Catch 22. It seemed as though it was Yossarian against the military. Every time Yossarian finds a loop hole, his commanding officers would just tell him to go back to his missions. Yossarian just could not win. When Yossarian was in the hospital with his â€Å"liver disease†, he was forced to go back out to the missions again. He cannot win. Many people cannot stand Yossarian and want him dead. His other main conflict is that it is everyone else against him. These two conflicts intertwine because Yossarian is still fighting for something. Without his life, the military would not have anything to control, so Yossarian’s conflicts go together because without one, the other would not happened. The two climaxes in the novel happen simultaneously. The first occurs when Yossarian is offered a choice: he can either face a court martial or be sent home and talk good about his commanding officers. The second climax, however, occurs as Yossarian has his final flashback about Snowden’s death in which all details are revealed. Yossarian has had a rough life in the military and absolutely hated it with everything he had. The worst experience he has had was the gruesome death of his comrade, Snowden.