Catch 22 Summary

Catch 22 Summary

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Setting

Catch 22 is set in Pianosa, a small island off the coast of Italy.

Main characters

John "Yo-Yo” Yossarian- he is the novel’s protagonist. Yossarian is a captain in the US Army Air Force who becomes tired of flying dangerous missions.

Chaplain Tappman- he is the group’s chaplain. Tappman is a shy man who loves his wife and family, loves God, and wonders what exactly he is to do in the military.

Doc Daneeka- he is the group’s medic. Daneeka is not allowed to ground soldiers on account of insanity, according to orders issued by Cathcart.

Chief White Halfoat and Flume- he is A Native American soldier and assistant to Captain Black.

Aarfy- he is a former fraternity man in college.

Milo Minderbinder- is the group’s mess officer. Milo ends up starting a business that delivers black-market goods throughout the Mediterranean.

Colonel Cathcart- he is Yossarian’s chief antagonist

Colonel Korn- he is Cathcart’s assistant. Korn makes most of the strategic decisions that Cathcart then claims are his own.

Generals Dreedle and Peckem- are commanders of distinct units of the Italian campaign in the US Army Air Force.

Plot Summary

Yossarian is in the hospital with a fake liver ailment, is visited by a chaplain named Tappman. The chaplain feels uncomfortable talking to most officers, but Yossarian is kind to him and invites him to return in the future. Yossarian asks Doc Daneeka, the group’s medic if he can be grounded from flying on account of insanity. Yossarian is sane enough to ask to be grounded; he is sane enough to fly. Only those crazy enough to want to fly are crazy enough to be grounded.

Cathcart, the Colonel in charge of the group, keeps raising the number of missions required for soldiers to be sent home. Yossarian believes this is unjust, but Cathcart and his assistant Korn do not care. Korn merely wants a promotion to Cathcart’s job, and Cathcart wants to be made general, replacing Dreedle and Peckem, the two warring commanders in charge of the Italian campaign. Dreedle is mostly concerned with his mistress, and Peckem does not care what gets bombed so long as bombs fall in an appealing "bomb pattern” for documentary photographs.

Cathcart signs the men up for a dangerous mission over Bologna. In this mission, Yossarian has a close brush with death, as his plane is nearly downed by enemy fire, and he runs off to Rome where he meets a woman named Luciana, with whom he spends a single night. Soldiers begin dying or disappearing on a more regular basis. Dunbar, another friend of Yossarian’s, is "disappeared” by the military brass, for his complaints about unnecessary bombing runs. Orr has to crash land his damaged plane in the Mediterranean Sea and floats away on a raft. McWatt, buzzing the camp once more, kills Kid Sampson by accident and, in recognition of this, flies his plane into a mountain. Nately, Havermeyer, and Dobbs are killed on the same mission.

Meanwhile, the chaplain has been crusading on behalf of Yossarian, to send the pilots who have flown enough missions home. Cathcart, Korn, and other higher-ups rebuff the chaplain. Government officials investigating the group for supposed forgeries of letters settle on the chaplain as their prime suspect. He is tortured and threatened with imprisonment, but later set free. Although the chaplain’s faith is tested throughout, he eventually decides that he does believe in God and that only by standing up to Cathcart, Korn, and other superiors will he aid the soldiers with whom he serves.

As Yossarian's friends die, he begins to feel it is genuinely unjust for Cathcart to raise the number of required missions, especially since the war is almost over, and many missions are no longer militarily necessary. After a final visit to Rome, which is now devastated by war, Yossarian says he will no longer fly. Cathcart and Korn offer him two options: court-martial, which would place him in prison, or a deal sending him home. The deal’s only catch is simple: Yossarian must pretend to like his commanding officers.

Although Yossarian is tempted by this deal, the chaplain subtly convinces him that it would be unfair to his fellow men. Yossarian thus finds a way to escape his Catch-22 altogether: he will no longer fly, nor will he be a lackey to his commanding officers. He resolves to flee to Sweden, where he believes Orr now lives, to wait out the end of the conflict.

Theme

1. Communication. At the beginning of the novel, Yossarian is censoring letters, blocking out important military information, while lying in the hospital. He begins signing his name as Washington Irving or Irving Washington. This introduces a theme of communication, and garbled communication, that runs throughout the text. Appleby, a soldier, and superlative Ping-Pong player is told by Orr that he has flown in his eyes, but hears that he has "sties in his eyes.”