Catch-22 Chunk #6

By the end of the book Yossarian is even more paranoid and decides to walk backwards that way no one can sneak up on him from behind. Also Yossarian refuses to participate in anymore missions. Yossarian refuses to go into combat at this time because his dear friend Nately had just died. Once Coloniel Cathcart and Coloniel Korn are notified of Yossarians choice they feel pity on him because of Nately's death and decide to send him to Rome in order to rest. Once in bad news Rome Yossaran breaks the news to Nately's whore and she tries to kill him for bringing her such bad news. As for Nately's sisters she is at first ok but then turns and tries to kill Yossarian also. Yossarian shows up at the Red Cross building with multiple stab wounds and once he exits the building Nately's whore is there waiting for him to stab him once again. She follows him everywhere but, finally he retaliates and flies her to a distant location and drops her off the plane with a Parachute. He still walks backwards to not allow people to attack him, and once word gets out that he refuses to fly people begin to approach him to ask him if its a fact. Once he tells them that its true they tell him that they hope he gets away with it.

Yossarian travels to Rome with Milo who is disappointed with his decision to not fly anymore. Then tells him that Rome had been bombed and all of it is in ruined. Also that the apartment where the bimbos used to live is destroyed, Yossarian finds the old lady who owned the building and she told them that the only right that the soldiers had to kick the girls out was the right called Catch 22. Which means that they have a right to do anything we cant stop them from doing.

Question: Catch 22 means that " they have the right to do anything we cant stop them from doing" what if our world as of now used this ? What would our world be like ?

Catch-22 Chunk #5

Throughout the next couple of chapters while in Rome Yossarian misses Nurse Duckett and goes on a search for Luciana. In this chapter he goes on a mission with Nately to rescue his bimbo because some men wont allow her to leave her hotel room. Once they rescue her she falls in love with him and Nately decides to move her and his little sister to America to raise his sister as his own child. But once his whore finds out about that he no longer wants to hustle, she becomes angry and it leads to an argument.

Around Thanksgiving Milo gets the men drunk and Yossarian breaks Nately nose. As he goes to bed early he is woken up to gun fire and at first is terrified but, then realizes that its his men playing a prank on him and decides to grab his gun and get revenge. Nately tries to stop him and Yossarian breaks his nose, Nately is admitted to hospital the nest morning and Yossarian feels horrible. So he decides to lie about having a disease called Wisconsin shingles. While in the hospital Nurse Duckett over hears some people talking about making Dunbar disappear and decides to tell Yossarian. Yossarian decides to try and warn his friend but cant find him and is too late. But Dunbar is not the one who dies, Cheif White Halfoat dies of pneumonia. The Nately finishes his seven missions and Yossarian begs him not to volunteer more than seven missions.

Question: Why are people trying to kill Dunbar ? Its like it never changes someone is always at risk of being killed. Who is killing everyone ?

Catch-22 Chunk #4

During this chapter Yossarian becomes more of a perve and as nurse Duckett is fixing his bed he decides to put his hand up her skirt and as she runs away Dunbar grabs her behind. Once a Doctor finally rescues her, he confronts Yossarian and he uses his sanity as an excuse. The doctor decides to send him to Major Sanderson, the hospital psychiatrist. Dobbs comes and visits Yossarian at the hospital and again tells him that he is willing to kill Colonial Cathcart. After Yossarian admits that he thinks someone is trying to kill him and that he is not comfortable with the war, Major Sanderson really believes he is crazy and suggest that he be sent home. But as happy as Yossarian may have been there so happened to be a identity mix up and another patient was sent home instead of him. He goes to Doc Daneeka but Doc refuses to ground him for his insanity, he felt like if all the crazy soldiers went home then who would fight in the world.

Yossarian decides to see Dobbs to tell him to go ahead and kill Colonial Cathcart. But, Dobbs had already finished his 60 missions and was awaiting his arrival home, so he no longer had a reason to kill him. So he suggest that he have Orr help him kill Colonial Cathcart, but Orr had crashed his plane while Yossarian was in the hospital. While in their tent Orr suggest that Yossarian fly with him some day just in case he will one day have to make a emergency landing. After arguing over if women like Yossarian, Orr flies another mission and crashes in the ocean again. But, this time is different Orr disappears.

Question: Yossarian has had multiple chances to get away from combat and even came close to being able to go home. Do you feel that the author is foreshadowing something to come by not allowing the character to be able to leave ??

Catch-22 Chunk #3

Chapter 11 is called Captain Black where Captain Black is excited to hear that Colonel Cathcart has volunteered the men for the lethal mission of bombing Bologna. He is so excited because he hates those men and gloats about them being so terrifying and hopes to become Commander some day. Chapter 12 begins with the men arriving in Bologna but, its raining and the men pray that the rain never stops including Yossarian of course because he is so afraid to go to combat. "It rains interminably before the Bologna mission, and the bombing run is delayed. The men all hope it will never stop raining. When it does, Yossarian moves the bomb line on the map so that the commanding officers will think that Bologna has already been captured. Yossarian also gives the entire squad diarrhea by poisoning the food so that they won’t have to fly. The rain then starts again." Luckily for Yossarian all the men actually caught diarrhea and the rain started again that they never got the chance to go to combat.

By the time it came to actually bomb Bologna,Yossarian wasn't in the mood and was not going to give up anytime soon. Yossarian does not feel like going over the target even once. He pretends that his plane’s intercom system is broken and orders his pilot, Kid Sampson, to turn back. Captain Piltchard and Captain Wren reprimand Yossarian and his crew for turning back and tell the men that since they missed the ammunition dumps the first time, they will have to bomb Bologna again. Ironically Yossarian arrives to Bologna confidently not expecting anything to be happening upon his arrival but he was wrong. Ultimately him and his crew drop there bombs and fight along side each other Yossarian does not die but, many other soldiers do.

Question:Why do you think Yossarian wont give up by now and go to combat ? Don't you think it's time that he realizes he might die whether at war or walking down the street ?

Catch 22 Chunk # 2

Chunk 2 of Joseph Heller's novel "Catch-22" Yossarian believes that his pilot McWatt is completely insane because of his actions. Yossarian’s pilot, manages to display a cheeriness in the face of war, even though he is perfectly sane. It causes a contradiction to Yossarian who thinks that McWatt's politeness and his sudden love for whistling tunes and smiling makes him the “craziest combat man” in his unit. But little did he know that McWatt was sane and probably more sane than Yossarian himself.

Later in the story Yossarian gets a letter from Doc explaining problems about his liver and everyone has to give him the freshest fruit and vegetables in order for him to get well, which Yossarian does not want. He worries about his liver improving and will ultimately cause him to have to leave the hospital. So he refuses to eat the fruit and Milo tries to persuade him to sell the fruit but he also refuses to do that. Milo explains to Yossarian his desire to serve the best meals in the entire world and tells him about being nervous when it comes to chef Corporal Snark, who poisoned his entire previous squad by putting soap in the sweet potatoes. Also the narrator explains the details of Major’s troubled childhood. His unfortunate name is a result of his father’s twisted sense of humor and causes Major much distress throughout his youth.


Question: Why do you think Yossarian is soo afraid to go to combat ?? What makes him think that he is any different from any other soldier fighting in the war ??

Catch-22 pages 1-78

Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn in 1923. Died of a heart attack in December 1999.He served as an Air Force bombardier in World War II and enjoyed a long career as a writer and a teacher. his first novel, Catch-22, remains his most famous and acclaimed work. Catch 22 is about a guy not wanting to face the violence of World War II, Yossarian, an American soldier, has gone to an Italian military hospital claiming to have a pain in his liver. The doctors seem unable to prove that he is well, so they let him stay. Once he leaves the hospital along with others, he realizes that he is the only human being that cares about this senseless war that is killing millions of men everyday. Later on throughout the book Yossarian thinks that someone is trying to kill him and Clevinger argues that no one is trying to kill him personally. Yossarian rejects Clevingers claims because of the simple fact that someone kept shooting at him.

Yossarian sees his roomate Orr and is told that Clevinger has been missing and announces to everyone in the meeting that he is Superhuman because no one has killed him yet. Which could ultimately cause someone to want to kill him more. But at the same time it made Yossarian more cautious about the people around him because now he knows for sure that someone is trying to kill him. As the story goes on General P.P. Peckem hopes to take over the command of Yossarian’s unit from General Dreedle. But, everyone knows that General Peckem is a trouble maker. By the end of this chapter Yossarian feels sick but Doc.Daneeka refuses to ground him.

Questions: Do you feel its ironic that Yossarian has not been killed but other's have ? Is there a reason for this one person to never die when it comes to the books purpose ?

Stiff by Mary Roach Chunk # 3

Throughout this great intense book by Mary Roach,she had grossed me out and also made me laugh at the same time.This book is about the lives of cadavers in other words dead bodies, and how they are used for experiments performed by scientist or researchers.Throughout this book I have read about bodies being treated differently than a human being, how cadavers are not good for anything but they take pain very well, and how the fact that even though there is a body there,that person spirit is gone.The way Roach sees is "The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain has shut down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much new happens, and nothing is expected of you." Which I kind of agree with her being a dead person is not a bad thing,but neither is it great when you become a product or experiment. Roach doesn't exactly agree with people being called a CADAVER"
My mom was never a cadaver; no person ever is. You are a person and then you cease to be a person, and a cadaver takes your place. My mother was gone. The cadaver was her hull." I totally agree with Mary Roach a person is not a cadaver their body is taken over as that name but their spirit will never be forgotten or lost.This has been one of the most weirdest books I have ever read.But I'm glad I did read it,its interesting and overwhelming at times.But thumbs up to Mary Roach she wrote an excellent intense book!!







-Application Question:Do you feel like Cadavers is the correct name for a dead person to be called??
-Clarification Question:Not saying that being a cadaver is a bad thing,But,would you ever(if you had a chose)to become one after death??