Catch-22

By Joseph Heller

 

During the second half of World War II, a soldier named Yossarian is stationed with his Air Force squadron on the island of Pianosa. Yossarian and his friends endure a horrible, absurd existence caused by the government and violence: they are not considered human in the eyes of their officers. The squadron is thrown thoughtlessly into brutal combat situations and bombing runs in which it is more important for the squadron members to capture good aerial photographs of explosions than to destroy their targets. Their colonels continually raise the number of missions that they are required to fly before being sent home, so that no one is ever sent home. Still, no one but Yossarian seems to realize that there is a war going on; everyone thinks he is crazy when he insists that millions of people are trying to kill him.

"Yossarian: Let me see if I've got this straight: in order to be grounded, I've got to be crazy and I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I'm not crazy any more and I have to keep flying." Page 96

"Let's operate," said the other doctor. "Let's cut him open and get to the inside of things once and for all. He keeps complaining about his liver. His liver looks pretty small on the X-ray."

"That's his pancreas, you dope. This is his liver."

"No it isn't. That's his heart." Page 135

"What about the kid sister?"

"Flushed away," laughed Captain Black. "Flushed away with the rest of the broads. Right out into the street." "But she's only a kid!" Yossarian objected passionately. "She doesn't know anybody else in the whole city. What's going to happen to her?"

"What the hell do I care?" responded Captain Black with an indifferent shrug, and then gawked suddenly at Yossarian with surprise and with a crafty gleam of prying elation. "Say, what's the matter? If I knew this was going to make you so unhappy, I would have come right over and told you, just to make you eat your liver. Hey, where are you going? Come on back! Come one back here and eat your liver!" Page 153