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

Trying to Understand Catch 22 by Joseph Heller Essay Example

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  • Pages: 15 (4032 words)
  • Published: August 8, 2017
  • Type: Retelling
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Catch 22 is a satirical war novel that was written in the 1950’s. but was published in 1961. Joseph Heller, the American writer, was known for his novels to stand for a amusing vision of modern society with serious moral connexions. His major subject throughout his authorship is the struggle that occurs when persons interact with such powerful establishments. such as: corporations, the military, and the authorities. Catch 22 was written in the station modernism epoch of the literature timeline. In the 1950’s, the Korean War was get downing. World War II ended, and Castro became the dictator of Cuba. All of these events had an influence on Heller as he was composing this novel about the WWII bombardier. Yossarian. and his battle to remain sane with bombs spliting all around him.

Chapter 1: The Texan

  • Summary: Yossarian is concealing f
    ...

    rom the war in a infirmary ward with a “liver disease” when he meets Dunbar. the bigoted Texan. and the soldier in white.

  • The Texan: an objectionable patient that annoys all the patients in the ward and negotiations to the soldier in white all the clip.
  • “You chaps are crazy” ( Heller 11 )
  • Chapter 2: Clevinger

    • Summary: Yossarian is paranoid about the brainsick people in the cantonment: Havermeyer. McWatt. Orr. and Nately ; but. Clevinger insists Yossarian is the brainsick one and Doc Daneeka can non and will non let go of him because Cathcart raised the missions yet once more.
    • Clevinger: An clever Harvard alumnus who is the first to name Yossarian loony. He is picked on in plebe preparation by lieutenant Scheisskopf. who brings him up on contrived charges before the action board. He

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is presumed dead when his plane clangs.

  • “Who’s they? . . Who. specifically. make you believe is seeking to slay you? ” ( Heller 17 )
  • Chapter 3: Havermeyer

    • Summary: Yossarian is accompanied by a dead soldier in his collapsible shelter ( Mudd ) . Orr. and Hungry Joe who are driving him brainsick. but Doc Daneeka still refuses to name Yossarian as loony in order to direct him place ; stating him he needs be more like Havermeyer.
    • Havermeyer: The best bombardier in the whole squadron. He loves insignificant toffee. ne'er misses a mark. and ne'er takes evasive action. Doc Daneeka told Yossarian to go more like Havermeyer.

    Chapter 4: Doc Daneeka

    • Summary: Yossarian argues with Hungry Joe. seeking to explicate that he is the brainsick 1. when Doc Daneeka begins to chew over why he of all the physicians was forced to cover with these babbling clowns.
    • Doc Daneeka: A flight sawbones who resents his place and is acrimonious about the war taking away his pattern in the provinces. Doc Daneeka is the 1 who explains catch 22. He is afraid to wing. so has McWatt mark his name. McWatt’s plane crashed. and people believed he was dead.
    • “I’m non on the plane. ” ( Heller 339 )

    Chapter 5: Chief White Halfoat

    • Summary: Doc Daneeka was hankering for his pattern back place and explains to Yossarian that gimmick 22 prevents him from anchoring him when Chief White Halfoat enters the collapsible shelter to get down stating narratives of before the war ; showing his hatred for the white work forces that kicked him and his household from place to place because of the unearthing of oil.
  • Chief White Halfoat: A Native American head is the intelligence officer. He despises white work forces for kicking him off his place colonies and claims he will decease of pneumonia. and he jestingly says he will slice his pharynx.
  • Chapter 6: Hungry Joe

    • Summary: Hungry Joe had his manner with the cocottes in Rome. had flown the most missions in the in the whole squadron. and had atrocious incubuss ensuing with bone chilling shrieks. but Doc Daneeka. despite Yossarian’s despondent supplications. could non even declare Hungry Joe as brainsick thanks to catch 22.
    • Hungry Joe: Hungry Joe is the soldier with the most missions flown in the full squadron. but his orders to return place ne'er come. He has atrocious incubuss that cause him to shout in horror. nevertheless. he is really good with the prostitutes in Rome. He dies one dark in his slumber 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 muss officer that is involved in black market trades and Yossarian becomes his new friend that he confides in about these actions.
    • McWatt: McWatt is a cheerful pilot who frequently flies Yossarian’s planes. but he likes to jest around a batch. such as bombinating the beaches. One twenty-four hours sliced Kid Sampson in half. and flew into a mountain instantly afterwards.

    Chapter 8: Lieutenant Scheisskopf

    • Summary: Yossarian has an matter with Lieutenant Scheisskopf’s married woman. but he is excessively haunted with seeking to crush Clevinger in the hebdomadal parades and eventually wins two old ages in a row ; stoping Scheisskopf’s cherished parades.
    • Lieutenant Scheisskopf: Lieutenant Scheisskopf was the colonel

    that trained Yossarian’s squadron in America and is fascinated with the military parades. and subsequently on. he is promoted to general due to a misinterpretation of memos by General Peckem.

    Chapter 9: Major Major Major Major

    • Summary: Major is a adult male who was promoted to squadron commanding officer. but instead than assisting his repute. it made him fall back to being a hermit ; until Yossarian tackled him in the forests.
    • Major Majors: Major Major is really diffident. awkward. and submissive. He resembles Henry Fonda and was promoted to squadron commanding officer. which made the soldiers loathe him. doing him to go recluse and distancing himself from the others.

    Chapter 10: Wintergreen

    • Summary: Yossarian Tells ex-P. F. C. Wintergreen. a also-ran forced to delve penalty holes for traveling AWOL. about Clevenger’s disappearing. and Dr. Stubbs snorts at the fact everyone sees Yossarian as loony because he may be the last 1 in the cantonment that is sane.
    • Wintergreen: Ex- P. F. C. Wintergreen was a mail clerk at the Air Force Headquarters. but Wintergreen garbages to travel to work ; ensuing in his rank being stripped and delving punishment hole.

    Chapter 11: Captain Black

    • Summary: Major Major was chosen as the new squadron commanding officer over Captain Black. and Captain Black created the Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade to do all the work forces suffering until Major — de Coverley returns and puts an terminal to the campaign.
    • Captain Black: Captain Black is the squadron’s intelligence officer. but he longs to go the squadron commanding officer. He adores watching his work forces suffer and twits them merely to be a dork.

    Chapter 12: Bologna

    Summary: Yossarian moves the bomb line

    on the map over dark to avoid the mission to Bologna and consequences with General Peckem having a decoration. the work forces acquiring rummy. stealing a auto. and Clevenger returning back to the cantonment ; niggling at the work forces when the stolen auto somersaults.

    Chapter 13: Major — de Coverley

    • Summary: Major — de Coverley rents flats for all the enlisted work forces and officers to withdraw to when on leave and has a transparent oculus spot. but Yossarian’s squad that went to bomb the span in Bologna all missed their mark ; ensuing in a 2nd trip that has to be covered up.
    • Major — de Coverley: Everyone idolizes and frights Major — de Coverly. He besides rents flats for work forces on their remainder leaves.

    Chapter 14: Kid Sampson

    • Summary: Yossarian ordered Kid Sampson to turn the plane around in Bologna because of a “defective intercom. ” and when they return safely back to base. Yossarian sneaks off to the beach for a sleep when he realizes that the planes that were his comrades left one time more.
    • Kid Sampson: Kid Sampson was a pilot in Yossarian’s squadron. He was sliced in half on the beach as a consequence of McWatt’s foolhardy flight.

    Chapter 15: Piltchard and Wren

    • Summary: Following Captains Piltchard and Wren request that no 1 decides to go forth the mission for no ground. Yossarian begins to panic over Bologna because of the flak catcher and Tells McWatt to drop the bomb and leave every bit fast as he could when he noticed his fellow planes were losing. but when he returned place. he finds losing his companions. Begins to experience relieved.

    and leaves to Rome to happen Luciana.

  • Piltchard and Wren: Captain Piltchard and Captain Wren are the joint squadron operation officers. They love to wing missions.
  • Chapter 16: Luciana

    * Summary: Luciana was a prostitute in Rome that mooched off of Yossarian. a adult male jealous of the adult females magnet. Aarfy. and Coronel Cathcart raised the missions once more to 40. * Luciana: A beautiful immature miss that lives in Rome. She and Yossarian have an matter. and he impetuously asks her to get married him. Alternatively of stating yes. she gives him her reference. and Yossarian rakes it up and declinations it subsequently. * “You don’t want to kip with me? ” ( Heller 154 )

    Chapter 17: The Soldier in White

    • Summary: Yossarian returns to the infirmary one time once more to seek a safe oasis from the ferociousness of the war when he encounters the soldier in white. a incapacitated organic structure encased in white gauze. but Dunbar. maddened by malaria. creates a commotion about the sheathed soldier.
    • The Soldier in White: The soldier in white is a broken soldier who is encased in a full organic structure dramatis personae. The nurses must make everything for him. and Dunbar makes a immense disturbance over him.

    Chapter 18: The Soldier Who Saw Everything

    Summary: The hospital staff are irritated because there is nil incorrect with Yossarian because he is forging his liver status. but one twenty-four hours another soldier claims he is seeing doubles ; giving Yossarian the thought to copy his unwellness.

    Chapter 19: Coronel Cathcart

    • Summary: Colonel Cathcart will make anything to go general and wants to be celebrated ( mentioned in newspaper ) . so

    he calls in the chaplain to “pray” without conveying faith into the act to do him celebrated. The chaplain Tells Coronel Cathcart the missions are get downing to make a pathetic tallness.

  • Colonel Cathcart: Coronal Cathcart is the dominating colonel who yearns to be general. Colonel Cathcart is the chief adversary of the novel because he volunteers his work forces for unsafe missions and invariably raises the figure of missions needed to be dismissed.
  • “He’s the best damned bombardier we’ve got. ” ( Heller 29 )
  • Chapter 20: Bodily Whitcomb

    • Summary: Bodily Whitcomb talked to a CID adult male. who was look intoing the large “Washington Irving” dirt. and blames the chaplain of subscribing “Washington Irving” on some of the censored letters and paperss and stealing Coronel Cathcart’s plum tomato.
    • Bodily Whitcomb: Bodily Whitcomb it the chaplain’s helper. and he is subsequently promoted to sergeant. He blames the chaplain for being a barrier in his calling. and tells the CID work forces that the chaplain was the one sign language “Washington Irving” and who stole Colonel Cathcart’s plume tomato.
    • “I threw it away every bit shortly as I
      tore it unfastened and read it. ” ( Heller 275 )

    Chapter 21: General Dreedle

    • Summary: General Dreedle has no tolerance for Yossarian or his son-in-law ; nevertheless. he does hold his ain nurse that the work forces ever stare at ; annoying General Dreedle.
    • General Dreedle: General Dreedle is in charge of the flying incorporating Yossarian’s squadron. General Peckem is ever seeking to over throw General Dreedle ; raging him enormously.

    Chapter 22: Milo the Mayor

    Summary: Milo became the city manager of Palermo because he managed to pull strings the

    economic system of Palermo to set them on the map along with Malta. Oran. and Cairo ; and. Milo puts Yossarian to work haling bananas. another of his black market harvests.

    Chapter 23: Nately’s Old Man

    • Summary: The awful old adult male in Rome is the same adult male who threw the puncturing rose Major — de Coverley’s oculus. and he believes Italy will prevail over America and Nately argues about his political values. Nately realizes his prostitute is losing.
    • Old Man: This old adult male is a really disgustful old adult male in Rome. He is the adult male responsible for throwing the rose that abolished Major — de Coverley’s oculus. He does non side with the Americans at all. and believes the Italians will be exultant. This old adult male is an of import character because he is the 1 who argues with Nately about political beliefs.

    Chapter 24: Milo

    • Summary: Milo is so blinded by his privation for net income that he will make anything for a net income. such as selling his excess of Egyptian cotton to the U. S. like Yossarian had suggested.
    • Milo Minderbinder: Milo is the muss hall officer who creates a prodigious black market dirt to convey in huge sums of net incomes. He is so successful in covering with other states even. that he was elected to several public offices within the states he dealt with. Milo desires his net income so much that he even makes a trade with the Germans to bomb his ain unit for net income.
    • “In a democracy. the authorities is the people. ” ( Heller 259 )

    Chapter 25: The Chaplain

    • Summary: The

    chaplain is a monolithic pushover that will non stand up for himself and is “unimportant” to the new Sergeant Whitcomb.

  • Chaplain A. T. Tappman: Anabaptist curate who is diffident and pushed arpund by about all the functionaries and even Whitcomb. his helper. He changes from the beginning on the novel when he is ace diffident ne'er say anything to the terminal of the novel when he tells Coronel Cathcart the figure of missions are excessively high and the explosion of assurance he received from Yossarian go forthing to Sweden.
  • Chapter 26: Aarfy

    • Summary: Aarfy was on the plane with Yossarian and merely watched Yossarian bleed due to the shooting in his thigh instead than assisting. but McWatt rushed to assist the hemorrhage captain.
    • Aarfy: Captain Aardvark is Captain Yossarian’s sailing master. nevertheless. he has no sense of way. Aarfy is wholly unmindful to the calls of his flight crew for aid when Yossarian wounded his leg. He is an ex-fraternity male child who brags about non holding to pay for the sex given from the prostitutes in Rome.
    • “I don’t think we’re at the mark yet. Are we? ” ( Heller 30 )

    Chapter 27: Nurse Duckett

    • Summary: Yossarian and Dunbar harass Nurse Duckett and are fussed at. ensuing in them being forced to speak to the head-shrinker. Major Sanderson ; Yossarian doing up diseases as they talk.
    • Nurse Duckett: Nurse Duckett is a nurse at the infirmary Yossarian is remaining. She is the “love of Yossarian’s life” after they have an matter. but she rapidly tells Yossarian that she is traveling to get married a physician.

    Chapter 28: Dobbs

    • Summary: Dobbs created a large strategy to assassinate

    Coronel Cathcart due to the pathetic mission demands lifting. but he changes his head. Orr’s plane went down over the sea on the manner to Bologna. forging his decease. but his crew and he really swam safely to shore and get away to Sweden.

  • Dobbs: Dobbs was Yossarian’s copilot. He is the 1 who took control of the plane for Huple on the manner to Avignon.
  • Chapter 29: Peckem

    • Summary: General Peckem and Scheisskopf do non acquire along. but all the work forces. McWatt. Dunbar. Major Danby. and others. hold that bombing the little mountain town is really revengeful act to make. but Coronel Korn disagrees.
    • General Peckem: General Peckem is the particular operations general who is invariably seeking to calculate out how to over throw General Dreedle. He eventually over throws him. but Lieutenant Scheisskopf is promoted instead than Peckem.

    Chapter 30: Dunbar

    • Summary: Dunbar has become brainsick from remaining in the infirmary for so long ; falling on his face every forenoon. Yossarian did non mind McWatt as his pilot. but his foolish act of bombinating the beach sliced Kid Sampson in half. McWatt instantly flew his plane into a nearby mountain ; killing himself.
    • Dunbar: Dunbar is one of Yossarian’s good friends who ever manages to do a scene. He is taken by functionaries and cryptically “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 missive of commiseration to Mrs. Daneeka. Doc Daneeka fought this and sent letters to his married woman stating her he was all right. but

    she loved the money she was having for his decease more than him ; go forthing Doc Daneeka unloved and unseeable to the work forces in the squadron.

    Chapter 32: Yo- Yo’s Roomies

    Summary: All of Yossarian’s companions are either dead or losing. so they are being replaced with new people that are objectionable and intolerable.

    Chapter 33: Nately’s Whore

    • Summary: Yossarian and Nately eventually found Nately’s losing prostitute and convinced the American coronel she was with to give her dorsum. but when Nately brought her place and took attention of her. she told him she did non desire to halt hustling.
    • Nately’s Whore: Nately’s prostitute is a prostitute that lives in Rome with her small sister in the flats. but Nately has fallen frantically in love with her. She does non like the fact that he tries to command her life ; nevertheless. when she was heard about Nately’s decease from Yossarian. she became revengeful. trailing him about seeking to kill him.

    Chapter 34: Thanksgiving

    * Summary: The new work forces in the squadron act recklessly. hiting guns and knifing each other. but when they wake Yossarian. he goes brainsick. severely
    injured and hospitalized Nately. who was seeking to keep him back.

    Chapter 35: Milo the Militant

    Summary: Nately wants to wing more missions so he can be closer to his beloved prostitute ( Yossarian advises him non to volunteer ) . but Yossarian and Nately were both forced to travel on that last mission. There was so much flack catcher. land fire. that Havermeyer took evasive action. but it was excessively late; Nately was dead.

    Chapter 36: The Cellar

    Summary: The chaplain was accused of false offenses and took a writing trial to

    turn out he was guiltless. but they said the trial was incorrect and he faked his script ; go forthing the chaplain out of work.

    Chapter 37: General Scheisskopf

    Summary: Peckem believed he was traveling to make full in every bit 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 loosen up when he saw Nately’s prostitute and told her about his decease. The prostitute and her small sister tried killing him and even stalked Yossarian back to Pianosa.
    • Michela: “Kid Sister” was Nately’s whore’s twelve twelvemonth old sister. She invariably imitates her large sister. and follows her everywhere.

    Chapter 39: The Eternal City

    Summary: Yossarian returns to Rome with Milo when they realize the metropolis is in entire ruins. Yossarian proverb constabulary ferociousness and drunks all throughout the metropolis. when he saw the 12 twelvemonth old Michela’s hitch organic structure in the street. Yossarian went into the flat. where Aarfy has raped the immature miss and threw her through a window. to state him he will be arrested for slaying. but Yossarian was the 1 who was arrested. brought back to Coronel Korn. and is told “go place. ”

    Chapter 40: Catch 22

    Summary: General Scheisskopf and Peckem agreed to direct Yossarian place every bit long as he talked chivalrously of them or he would be tribunal marshaled and arrested. Nately’s whore wanted to throw all of her choler at Yossarian. so she took out her wrath by knifing him when he left the conference.

    Chapter 41: Snowden

    • Summary: Yossarian is in surgery. but afterwards he speaks with the chaplain to larn that Hungry Joe

    had died in his slumber and this begins to trip the memories of Snowden’s fatal decease and his effort to seek and repair his hurt leg. but he gets a lap full of his backbones.

  • Snowden: Snowden was a artilleryman on the Avignon mission. His decease hangouts Yossarian throughout the full novel because it was much worse than he thought it was ; sloping backbones everyplace. His decease killed Yossarian’s bravery and gave him a gustatory sensation of what war truly is.
  • Chapter 42: Yossarian

    • Summary: Major Danby explains the trade is coming along nicely. but Yossarian is traveling to run off because he had realized that Orr had faked his decease to get away the war. as Yossarian does by flying to Sweden with Orr.
    • Yossarian: Yossarian is the novel’s supporter 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 ain squadron. He is haunted by Snowden’s decease.

    The scenes play a major function in all the lunacy within this novel every bit good. The two chief scenes are Pianosa. an island off the seashore of Italy. and Rome. Italy in 1944. Joseph Heller could hold created any size island he wanted. but he chose to set all of this action on a bantam island. Pianosa is a fictional island that is really little because the size of the island contradicts the big sum of action traveling on in the novel. Located on the island of Pianosa is the squadron’s base cantonment. where a batch of the problem is started. Another major

    scene in this novel is the air. The planes were ever in the air for a mission. and the air is where all the bombs were.

    Besides. the soldiers would frequently take leave and travel to Rome and remain in flats with the prostitutes. Rome was normal looking until one twenty-four hours Yossarian and Milo go to Rome and it is all in ruins. This clip period was 1944. during World War II. The clip sequences between all these scenes are really confused. In the beginning of the fresh Yossarian is forging a liver disease when he begins to hold flashbacks to Snowden’s decease. and the fresh leaps before Snowden’s decease to after Snowden’s decease throughout the whole novel. The clip frame of the events traveling on are at the terminal of WWII and in the summer of 1944- the winter of 1944 and a flash back to 1942.

    The chief struggle that is tossed throughout the full book is Catch 22 itself. Within several of the chapters. a gimmick 22 will look. The chief gimmick is that of Catch 22. It seemed as though it was Yossarian against the military. Every clip Yossarian finds a loop hole. his commanding officers would merely state him to travel back to his missions. Yossarian merely could non win. When Yossarian was in the infirmary with his “liver disease” . he was forced to travel back out to the missions once more. He can non win. Many people can non stand Yossarian and want him dead. His other chief struggle is that it is everyone else against him. These two struggles intertwine because Yossarian is still contending for something.

    Without his

    life. the armed forces would non hold anything to command. so Yossarian’s struggles go together because without one. the other would non go on. The two flood tides in the fresh happen at the same time. The first occurs when Yossarian is offered a pick: he can either confront a tribunal Martial or be sent place and speak good about his commanding officers. The 2nd flood tide. nevertheless. occurs as Yossarian has his concluding flashback about Snowden’s decease in which all inside informations are revealed. Yossarian has had a unsmooth life in the military and perfectly hated it with everything he had. The worst experience he has had was the ghastly decease of his companion. Snowden.

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