I read Catch-22 by Joseph HellerUsing Kafka-esque characters and conflict, Heller relates the cost – in young lives – of war.
Major Major Major Major
A man whose rank, first, middle and last name are Major takes his meals in private, refuses to see anyone and jumps out his back window when he has a visitor.
Doc Daneeka
Doc Daneeka's name erroneously appears on the flight manifest of a plane that crashes. This letter is sent to his wife:
Dear Mrs., Mr., Miss, or Mr. And Mrs. Daneeka:
Words cannot express the deep personal grief I experienced when your husband, son, father or brother was killed, wounded or reported missing in action.
Mrs. Daneeka collects more than one life insurance policy and receives other benefits because of her husband's supposed death. At the base, Daneeka's squadron mates ignore him and he pilfers food because being dead disentitles him to eat in the mess hall with the enlisted men.
Dear Mrs., Mr., Miss, or Mr. And Mrs. Daneeka:
Words cannot express the deep personal grief I experienced when your husband, son, father or brother was killed, wounded or reported missing in action.
Mrs. Daneeka collects more than one life insurance policy and receives other benefits because of her husband's supposed death. At the base, Daneeka's squadron mates ignore him and he pilfers food because being dead disentitles him to eat in the mess hall with the enlisted men.
Milo
Milo is an entrepreneur who uses government resources to smuggle food and manages to turn a profit despite impossible odds: he buys eggs at seven cents apiece and sells them at five cents apiece. His endeavors are so successful that grateful cities elect him mayor. The savvy importer/exporter is widely revered, holds positions of state in many countries and demigod status in primitive cultures.
Lieutenant Scheisskopf
Scheisskopf cannot hold parades but is allowed to schedule and cancel them. It is better if he doesn't schedule the parade at all then posts a notice that it has been postponed. It looks like this:
Due to circumstances beyond my control, there will be no big parade this Sunday afternoon.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, there will be no big parade this Sunday afternoon.
Yossarian
Yossarian fakes illnesses to avoid flying. When he is forced to fly, he doesn't care if he hits his target or not as long as he makes it back alive. He wants to go home but must first complete a mandatory number of missions. Unfortunately, each time he approaches the magic number it is raised.
Each chapter of Catch-22 gets its title from the character who is dominantly featured in it. Yossarian – the main character of the book – must wait until the final chapter for his.
The book's thesis can be found in a passage from one of the final chapters. While on leave in Rome, a soldier named Aarfy kills a young woman by throwing her out a window. Yossarian admonishes his dumbstruck friend as the police knock down the door: “You can't take the life of another human being and get away with it, even if she is just a poor servant girl. Don't you see? Can't you understand?” Heller hopes the reader will. But, in the nonsense world these characters inhabit, Aarfy is not arrested for killing the girl. Instead, Yossarian is punished for being in Rome without a pass.
He refuses to fly more missions and is told he can go home.
Of course, there is a catch.
Each chapter of Catch-22 gets its title from the character who is dominantly featured in it. Yossarian – the main character of the book – must wait until the final chapter for his.
The book's thesis can be found in a passage from one of the final chapters. While on leave in Rome, a soldier named Aarfy kills a young woman by throwing her out a window. Yossarian admonishes his dumbstruck friend as the police knock down the door: “You can't take the life of another human being and get away with it, even if she is just a poor servant girl. Don't you see? Can't you understand?” Heller hopes the reader will. But, in the nonsense world these characters inhabit, Aarfy is not arrested for killing the girl. Instead, Yossarian is punished for being in Rome without a pass.
He refuses to fly more missions and is told he can go home.
Of course, there is a catch.
