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 ?