While Joseph Heller’s “Catch 22” is a story about a World War Two
bomber squadron over Europe, it is anything but a glorification
of war. It is instead an almost absurdist review of human behavior.The plot revolves around Yossarian a young bombardier who has decided he doesn’t want to be in the war or a war plane. Logically, he goes to the flight surgeon to ask to be taken off flight status. The flight surgeon, Doc. Danika, explains that, while you would have to be insane to fly daylight bombing missions and insane people should be grounded, there’s a catch. People sane enough to be asked off of flight status are sane enough to fly. It’s Catch 22.We follow Yossarian through flight after flight, mishap after mishap. At last he jumps into a raft in the Adriatic intending to paddle all the way to Neutral Sweden.Characters are a major factor in the book. There’s Milo Minderbinder who gets so into the economic opportunities of the war that he ends up calling an air strike on his own base. There’s Arfie who rapes and murders an Italian Girl then boasts that he’s never paid for sex. And there’s Major Major Major who is so cowardly you can only come visit him when he’s not at his office.The other driving factor in the book is
opposition. Characters are described as having self opposing attributes; courage and cowardice for example. Also there are characters who end up in opposition such as Doc. Danika who is reported killed in a plane crash and therefore not allowed into the mess hall. He is opposed by The Dead Man in Yossarian’s Tent, a man who died before he arrived at the base but is believed by the administration to still be alive.