Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

Written while Heller worked producing ad copy for a New York City marketing firm, Catch-22 draws heavily on Heller's Air Force experience and presents a war story that is at once hilarious, grotesque, bitterly cynical, and utterly stirring. The novel generated a great deal of controversy upon its publication; critics tended either to adore it or despise it, and those who hated it did so for the same reason as the critics who loved it. Over time, Catch-22 has become one of the defining novels of the twentieth century. It presents an utterly unsentimental vision of war, stripping all romantic pretenses away from combat, replacing visions of glory and honor with a kind of nightmarish comedy of violence, bureaucracy, and paradoxical madness.

Unlike other anti-romantic war novels, such as Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Catch-22 relies heavily on humor to convey the insanity of war, presenting the horrible meaninglessness of armed conflict through a kind of desperate absurdity, rather than through graphic depictions of suffering and violence. Catch-22 also distinguishes itself from other anti-romantic war novels by its core values: Yossarian's story is ultimately not one of despair but one of hope; the positive urge to live and to free can redeem the individual from the dehumanizing machinery of war. The novel is told as a disconnected series of loosely related, tangential stories in no particular chronological order; the final narrative that emerges from this structural tangle upholds the value of the individual in the face of the impersonal, collective military mass; at every stage, it mocks insincerity and hypocrisy even when they appear to be triumphant.

Summary

Yossarian is unique because he takes the whole war personally--rather than being swayed by national ideals or abstract principles, Yossarian is furious that his life is constantly in danger, and not as a result of his own misdeeds. He has a deep desire to live and is determined to be immortal or die trying. As the novel progresses through its loosely connected series of recurring stories and anecdotes, Yossarian is continually troubled by his memory of Snowden, who died in his arms on the mission when Yossarian lost his nerve for war. He is placed in ridiculous, absurd, desperate, and tragic circumstances--he sees friends die and disappear, his squadron bombed by its own mess officer, and colonels and generals who bravely volunteer their men for the most perilous battle. He is haunted by the paradoxical law called Catch-22, the cruel mechanism behind the military. In the end, Yossarian decides to save his own life by deserting the army; he turns his back on the dehumanizing cold machinery of the military, rejects the rule of Catch-22, and strives for a future in which he is in control of his own life.

Yossarian - The protagonist and hero of the novel. Yossarian is a captain in the Air Force and a lead bombardier in his squadron, but he hates the war. His powerful desire to live has led him to the conclusion that millions of people are trying to kill him, and he has decided either to live forever or, ironically, die trying.

Milo Minderbinder- The fantastically powerful mess officer, Milo controls an international black market syndicate and is revered in obscure corners all over the world. He ruthlessly chases after profit and bombs his own men as part of a contract with Germany. Milo insists that everyone in the squadron will benefit from being part of the syndicate and that "everyone has a share."

Colonel Cathcart - The ambitious, unintelligent colonel in charge of Yossarian's squadron. Colonel Cathcart wants to be a general, and he tries to impress his superiors by bravely volunteering his men for dangerous combat duty whenever he gets the chance. He continually raises the number of combat missions required of the men before they can be sent home. Colonel Cathcart tries to scheme his way ahead; he thinks of successful actions as "feathers in his cap" and unsuccessful ones as "black eyes."

The Chaplain - The timid, thoughtful chaplain who becomes Yossarian's friend. He is haunted by a sensation of deja vu and begins to lose his faith in God as the novel progresses.

Hungry Joe - An unhinged member of Yossarian's squadron. Hungry Joe is obsessed with naked women, and he has horrible nightmares on nights when he isn't scheduled to fly a combat mission the next morning.

Nately - A good-natured 19-year-old boy in Yossarian's squadron. Nately comes from a wealthy home, falls in love with a whore, and generally tries to keep Yossarian from getting into trouble.

Nately's whore - The beautiful whore Nately falls in love with in Rome. After a good night's sleep, she falls in love with Nately, as well. When Yossarian tells her about Nately's death, she begins a persistent campaign to ambush Yossarian and stab him to death.

Clevinger - An idealistic member of Yossarian's squadron who argues with Yossarian about concepts such as country, loyalty, and duty, in which Clevinger firmly believes. Clevinger's plane disappears inside a cloud during the Parma bomb run, and he is never heard from again.

Doc Daneeka - The medical officer. Doc Daneeka feels very sorry for himself because the war interrupted his lucrative private practice in the States, and he refuses to listen to other people's problems. Doc Daneeka is the first person to explain Catch-22 to Yossarian.

Dobbs - A co-pilot, Dobbs seizes the controls from Huple during the mission to Avignon, the same mission on which Snowden dies. Dobbs later develops a plan to murder Colonel Cathcart and eventually awaits only Yossarian's go-ahead to put it in action.

McWatt - A cheerful, polite pilot who often pilots Yossarian's planes. McWatt likes to joke around with Yossarian and sometimes buzzes the squadron. One day, he accidentally flies in too low and slices Kid Sampson in half with his propeller; he then commits suicide by flying his plane into a mountain.

Major Major Major Major - The supremely mediocre squadron commander. Born Major Major Major, he is promoted to major on his first day in the army by a mischievous computer. Major Major is painfully awkward and will only see people in his office when he isn't there.

Aarfy - Yossarian's navigator. Aarfy infuriates Yossarian by pretending he cannot hear Yossarian's orders during bomb runs. Toward the end of the novel, Aarfy stuns Yossarian when he rapes and murders the maid of the officers' apartments in Rome.

Orr - Yossarian's often maddening roommate. Orr almost always crashes his plane or is shot down on combat missions, but he always seems to survive.

Appleby - A handsome, athletic member of the squadron and a superhuman Ping-Pong player. Orr enigmatically says that Appleby has flies in his eyes.

Captain Black - The squadron's bitter intelligence officer. He wants nothing more than to be squadron commander. Captain Black exults in the men's discomfort and does everything he can increase it; when Nately falls in love with a whore in Rome, Captain Black begins to buy her services regularly just to taunt him.

Colonel Korn - Colonel Cathcart's wily, cynical sidekick.

Major ----- de Coverley - The fierce, intense executive officer for the squadron. Major ----- de Coverley is revered and feared by the men--they are even afraid to ask his first name-- though all he does is play horseshoes and rent apartments for the officers in cities taken by American forces. When Yossarian moves the bomb line on a map to make it appear that Bologna has been captured, Major ----- de Covereley disappears in Bologna trying to rent an officers' apartment.

Major Danby - The timid operations officer. Before the war, he was a college professor; now, he does his best for his country. In the end, he helps Yossarian escape.

General Dreedle - The grumpy old general in charge of the wing in which Yossarian's squadron is placed. General Dreedle is the victim of a private war waged against him by the ambitious General Peckem.

Nurse Duckett - A nurse in the Pianosa hospital who becomes Yossarian's lover.

Dunbar - Yossarian's friend, the only other person who seems to understand that there is a war going on. Dunbar has decided to live as long as possible by making time pass as slowly as possible, so he treasures boredom and discomfort. He mysteriously "disappeared" as part of a conspiracy toward the end of the novel.

Chief White Halfoat - An alcoholic Indian from Oklahoma who has decided to die of pneumonia.

Havermeyer - A fearless lead bombardier. Havermeyer never takes evasive action, and he enjoys shooting field mice at night.

Huple - A 15-year-old pilot; the pilot on the mission to Avignon on which Snowden is killed. Huple is Hungry Joe's roommate, and his cat likes to sleep on Hungry Joe's face.

Washington Irving - A famous American author whose name Yossarian signs to letters during one of his many stays in the hospital. Eventually, military intelligence believes Washington Irving to be the name of a covert insubordinate, and two C.I.D. (Criminal Investigation Division) men are dispatched to ferret him out of the squadron.

Luciana - A beautiful girl Yossarian meets, sleeps with, and falls in love with during a brief period in Rome.

Mudd - Generally referred to as "the dead man in Yossarian's tent," Mudd was a squadron member who was killed in action before he could be processed as an official member of the squadron. As a result, he is listed as never having arrived, and no one has the authority to move his belongings out of Yossarian's tent.

Lieutenant Scheisskopf - Later Colonel Scheisskopf and eventually General Scheisskopf. He helps train Yossarian's squadron in America and shows an unsettling passion for elaborate military parades. ("Scheisskopf" is German for "shithead.")

The Soldier in White - A body completely covered with bandages in Yossarian and Dunbar's ward in the Pianosa hospital.

Snowden - The young gunner whose death over Avignon shattered Yossarian's courage and opened his eyes to the madness of the war. Snowden died in Yossarian's arms with his entrails splattered all over Yossarian's uniform, a trauma that is gradually revealed throughout the novel.

Corporal Whitcomb - Later Sergeant Whitcomb, the chaplain's atheist assistant. Corporal Whitcomb hates the chaplain for holding back his career and makes the chaplain a suspect in the Washington Irving scandal.

Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen - The mail clerk at the Twenty-Seventh Air Force Headquarters, Wintergreen is able to intercept and forge documents and, thus, wields enormous power in the Air Force. He continually goes AWOL (Absent Without Leave) and is continually punished with loss of rank.

General Peckem - The ambitious special operations general who plots incessantly to take over General Dreedle's position.

Kid Sampson - A pilot in the squadron. Kid Sampson is sliced in half by McWatt's propeller when McWatt jokingly buzzes the beach with his plane.

Lieutenant Colonel Korn - Colonel Cathcart's wily, condescending sidekick.

Colonel Moodus - General Dreedle's son-in-law. General Dreedle despises Colonel Moodus and enjoys watching Chief White Halfoat bust him in the nose.

Flume - Chief White Halfoat's old roommate who is so afraid of having his throat slit while he sleeps that he has taken to living in the forest.