Halfway There -- Chapters 12-22

If you have read my previous blog posts, you can probably tell that I am enjoying Catch-22 immensely.  Although I have no experience with war and hope to keep that trend alive for the rest of my life, I have enjoyed Heller's many insights into the absurdity and insanity of war.  My favorite thing about the book, however, is its humor.  Heller most often creates this humor by finding and pointing out the aforementioned direct and consecutive contradictions, often accompanied with a shift from a formal voice to an informal one, the viewpoint of one character to another, or other such shifts.  These contradictions are so common in the book that they become the lens through which almost all actions are seen.  I am going to share some examples of this style from chapters 12-22, but this is by no means a complete list; you could probably find a contradiction for every statement made in the book.  If you find these as clever and funny as I obviously do because I won't shut up about them, I would implore you to give reading Catch-22 yourself a try.

"Yossarian wrinkled his forehead with quizzical amusement. 'You won't marry me because I'm crazy, and you say I'm crazy because I want to marry you? Is that right?'
'Si.'
'You're crazy'!' he told her loudly."

Yossarain, who has a habit of falling in love with every woman he meets, asks an Italian woman to marry him.  However, she insists that anyone who wants to marry her is crazy, and she doesn't want to marry anyone who is crazy.  The humor in this passage mostly comes from the fact that this conversation continues in this circle for about a page.  Yossarian, by the way, has even fallen in love with somebody because she is the only woman who doesn't make him fall in love with her, another contradiction.  As the woman, named Luciana, leaves, a somewhat similar situation occurs:

"'Why don't you ask me to let you write my name and address on a piece of paper so that you will be able to find me again when you come to Rome?' she suggested.
'Why don't you let me write your name and address down on a piece of paper?' he agreed.
'Why?' she demanded belligerently, her mouth curling suddenly into a vehement sneer and her eyes flashing with anger. 'So you can tear it up into little pieces as soon as I leave?'
'Who's going to tear it up?' Yossarian protested in confusion. 'What the hell are you talking about?'
'You will,' she insisted. 'You'll tear it up into little pieces the minute I'm gone and go walking away like a big shot because a tall, young, beautiful girl like me, Luciana, let you sleep with her and did not ask you for money.' 
The minute she was gone, Yossarian tore the slip of paper up and walked away in the other
direction, feeling very much like a big shot because a beautiful young girl like Luciana had slept with him and did not ask for money."


This contradiction is a little bit longer and more complex than the first.  Though Luciana is the first one to suggest that she give Yossarian her address, she becomes angry when he agrees with her.  This is also an example of something Heller does often: repeat the same phrase directly after it has been said, often for comedic effect, but also sometimes to show how one phrase can mean two different or even opposite things.

"Yossarian ran right into the hospital, determined to remain there forever rather than fly one mission more than the thirty-two missions he had. Ten days after he changed his mind and came out, the colonel raised the missions [requirement] to forty-five and Yossarian ran right back in, determined to remain in the hospital forever rather than fly one mission more than the six missions more he had just flown."

Yossarian often goes in and out of the hospital with fake illnesses.  He always goes in with the intent to never emerge, then comes out after a truly sick person or someone he doesn't like enters the ward, at which point he simply tells the doctors that the pain in his liver is gone and walks out.  The story actually begins with him being chased out of the hospital by an overly-patriotic Texan.  Unlike ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen, who has spent the war safely digging and then refilling holes as punishment,  Yossarian for some reason cannot stay out of harm's way despite his constantly stating that that is his one and only goal for the war.  His inability to do this might be chalked up to the same reason Huck and Jim continue south after missing the Ohio River in Huckleberry Finn; there wouldn't be a story if they hadn't continued south, and there wouldn't be a story if Yossarian laid in the hospital the whole time.

"There were usually not nearly as many sick people inside the hospital as Yossarian saw outside the hospital, and there were generally fewer people inside the hospital who were seriously sick."

By "sick," the narrator probably means "crazy," and, as we have seen throughout the entire book, it is impossible to be truly sane during war, as to remain sane in such circumstances is itself insanity.  However, at face value, this statement is showing a deeply ironic fact about war.

"'I can't ground you,' Doc Daneeka mumbled. 'How many times do you have to be told?'
'Yes you can. Major Major told me you're the only one in the squadron who can ground me.'
Doc Daneeka was stunned. 'Major Major told you that?  Why that dirty, scheming liar!' Doc Daneeka cried. 'He wasn't supposed to tell anyone. Did he tell you how I could ground you?'
'Just by filling out a little slip of paper saying I'm on the verge of a nervous collapse and sending it to Group. Dr. Stubbs grounds men in his squadron all the time, so why can't you?'
'And what happens to the men after Stubbs does ground them?' Doc Daneeka retorted with a sneer.
'They go right back on combat status, don't they? And he finds himself right up the creek. Sure, I
can ground you by filling out a slip saying you're unfit to fly. But there's a catch.'
'Catch-22?'
'Sure. If I take you off combat duty, Group has to approve my action, and Group isn't going to.  They'll put you right back on combat status, and then where will I be? On my way to the Pacific Ocean, probably. No, thank you. I'm not going to take any chances for you.'
'Isn't it worth a try?' Yossarian argued. 'What's so hot about Pianosa?'
'Pianosa is terrible. But it's better than the Pacific Ocean. I wouldn't mind being shipped someplace civilized where I might pick up a buck or two in abortion money every now and then. But all they've got in the Pacific is jungles and monsoons, I'd rot there.'
'You're rotting here.'
Doc Daneeka flared up angrily. 'Yeah? Well, at least I'm going to come out of this war alive, which is a lot more than you're going to do.'
'That's just what I'm trying to tell you, goddammit. I'm asking you to save my life.'
'It's not my business to save lives,' Doc Daneeka retorted sullenly."

In this passage, Yossarian is trying to get Doc Daneeka to ground him again.  The titular "catch-22" makes it technically possible but in practice impossible for men to be taken off of combat duty, as they must ask to be taken off and any man that asks to stop flying missions must be sane.  This passage also, however, contains another deeply ironic comment: the squadron doctor telling Yossarian that it is not his business to save lives.  Though this could just reflect badly on this one character, it says something greater about the attitude of the military in general.