Catch-22

Yossarian lies in the hospital faking illness. He meets the Texan, a cheerful presence who drives everyone out of the hospital by being too agreeable.

The squadron is introduced. Yossarian attends Clevinger's absurd tribunal, a kangaroo court of military formalism where the verdict precedes the trial.

The missions and mission requirements are established. Havermeyer is introduced as a perfect bombardier who feels no fear and endangers everyone by refusing to take evasive action.

The squadron doctor who is terrified of flying and therefore cannot ground anyone. The catch-22 of medical authority is established.

The intelligence officer who believes he will die of pneumonia. The absurdity of military intelligence work is established through Chief White Halfoat's history with oil companies.

Hungry Joe screams all night from nightmares when he's not flying, but sleeps soundly when missions are scheduled. His photography obsession and psychological inversion are examined.

McWatt the cheerful pilot who flies dangerously close to things for fun. His arc ends in tragedy that illuminates how good men get destroyed by proximity to the machine.

Milo Minderbinder's capitalist empire is introduced and established. He trades in everything, answers to everyone, and answers to no one.

Major Major Major Major — named by a joke of fate and promoted by a computer — can only be visited when he's absent. Power and bureaucracy render him paralyzed.

Colonel Cathcart raises missions from 45 to 50, driven by his need to impress General Dreedle and his fear of 'black eyes.' The administrative absurdity of command is anatomized.

The chaplain wrestles with faith and institutional pressure. His sense of déjà vu is explored as an existential condition of the novel's world.

The Bologna mission terrifies everyone. Yossarian moves the bomb line on the map and the mission is delayed. The moral ambiguity of small acts of sabotage is explored.

Nately falls in love with a whore in Rome and argues about patriotism and survival with an ancient amoral Italian who has outlived every ideology.

Orr's constant crashes and small mechanical expertise begin to look like pattern rather than accident. Kid Sampson and others demonstrate how the war treats human lives as resources.

Yossarian returns obsessively to the Avignon mission where Snowden bled to death. The central trauma is circled but not yet revealed.