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Yossarian marches around backwards so no one can sneak up behind him and refuses to fly in any more combat missions. When they are informed of this, Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn decide to take brief pity on Yossarian for the death of his friend Nately, and send him to Rome, where he breaks the news of Nately's death to Nately's whore, who tries to kill Yossarian with a potato peeler for bringer her the bad news. When he resists, she tries to seduce him, then stabs at him with a knife again when he seems to have relaxed. Nately's whore's kid sister materializes, and tries to stab Yossarian as well. Yossarian loses patience, picks up Nately's whore's kid sister and throws her bodily at Nately's whore, then leaves the apartment. He notices people are staring at him, and suddenly realizes that he has been stabbed several times and is bleeding everywhere. He goes to a Red Cross building and cleans his wounds, and when he emerges Nately's whore is waiting in ambush and tries to stab him again. He punches her in the jaw, catches her as she passes out and sets her down gently. Hungry Joe flies him back to Pianosa, where Nately's whore is waiting to kill him with a steak knife. He eludes her, but she continues to try to kill him at every opportunity. Yossarian walks around backwards; as word spreads that he has refused to fly more combat missions, men begin to approach him, only at night, and to ask him if it's true, and to tell him they hope he gets away with it. One day Captain Black tells him that Nately's whore and her kid sister have been flushed out of their apartment by M.P.'s, and Yossarian, suddenly worried about them, goes to Rome without permission to try to find them.

He travels with Milo, who is disappointed in him for refusing to fly more combat missions. Rome has been bombed, and lies in ruins; the apartment complex where the whores lived is a deserted shambles. Nately finds the old woman who lived in the complex sobbing; she tells Yossarian that the only right the soldiers had to chase the girls away was the right of Catch-22, which says "they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing." Yossarian asks if they had Catch-22 written down, and if they showed it to her; she says that the law stipulates that they don't have to show her Catch-22, and that the law that says so is Catch-22. She says that the her old man is dead. Yossarian goes to Milo and says that he will fly as many more combat missions as Colonel Cathcart wants if Milo uses his influence to help him track down the kid sister. Milo agrees, but becomes distracted when he learns about huge profits to be made in trafficking illegal tobacco. He slinks away, and Yossarian is left to wander the dark streets through a horrible night filled with grotesqueries and loathsome sights; he returns to his apartments late in the night to find that Aarfy has raped and killed a maid. The M.P.'s burst in. They apologize to Aarfy for intruding, and arrest Yossarian for being in Rome without a pass.

Back at Pianosa, Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn offer Yossarian a deal: they will allow him never to fly another combat mission and will even send him home, if only he will agree to like them. He will be promoted to major and all he will have to do is to make speeches in America in support of the military and the war effort, and in support of the two colonels in particular. Yossarian realizes it is a hideous deal and a frank betrayal of the men in his squadron, who will still have to fly the eighty missions, but he convinces himself to take the deal anyway, and is filled with joy at the prospect of going home. On his way out of Colonel Cathcart's office, Nately's whore appears, disguised as a private, and stabs him until he falls unconscious.

In the hospital, a group of doctors argues over Yossarian while the fat, angry colonel who interrogated the chaplain interrogates him. Finally the doctors knock him out and operate on him; when he awakes, he dimly perceives visits from Aarfy and the chaplain. He tells the chaplain about his deal with Cathcart and Korn, then assures him that he isn't going to do it. He vaguely remembers a malignant, almost supernatural man jeering at him "We've got your pal" shortly after his operation,. He then and he tells the chaplain that his "pal" must have been one of his friends who was killed in the war. He realizes that his only friend still living is Hungry Joe, and but then the chaplain tells him that Hungry Joe has died--in his sleep, with Huple's cat on his face. Later, Yossarian wakes up to find a mean-looking man in a hospital gown leering saying "We've got your pal." He asks who his pal is, and the man tells Yossarian that he'll find out. Yossarian lunges for him, but the man glides away and vanishes. He flashes back to the scene of Snowden's death, which he relives in all its agony--Snowden smiling at him wanly, whimpering "I'm cold," Yossarian reassuring him and trying to mend the wound until he opens up Snowden's flak suit and Snowden's insides spill out all over him. He then --and remembers the secret he had read in those entrails: "The spirit gone, man is garbage." man is matter, and without the spirit he will rot like garbage.

In the hospital, Yossarian tries to explain to Major Danby why he can no longer go through with the deal with Cathcart and Korn: he won't sell himself so short, and he won't betray the memory of his dead friends. He tells Danby he plans to run away, but Danby tells him there is no hope, and he agrees. Suddenly the chaplain bursts in with the news that Orr has washed ashore in Sweden. Yossarian realizes that Orr must have planned his escape all along, and joyfully decides there is hope after all. He has the chaplain retrieve his uniform, and decides to desert the army and run to Sweden, where he can save himself from the madness of the war. As he steps outside, Nately's whore tries to stab him again, and he runs into the distance.

CHARACTERS’ PROFILE

 

Yossarian - The protagonist and hero of the novel. Yossarian is a captain in the Air Force and a lead bombardier in his squadron, but he hates the war. His powerful desire to live has led him to the conclusion that millions of people are trying to kill him, and he has decided either to live forever or, ironically, die trying.

Milo Minderbinder - The fantastically powerful mess officer, Milo controls an international black market syndicate and is revered in obscure corners all over the world. He ruthlessly chases after profit and bombs his own men as part of a contract with Germany. Milo insists that everyone in the squadron will benefit from being part of the syndicate, and that "everyone has a share."

Colonel Cathcart - The ambitious, unintelligent colonel in charge of Yossarian's squadron. Colonel Cathcart wants to be a general, and he tries to impress his superiors by bravely volunteering his men for dangerous combat duty whenever he gets the chance. He continually raises the number of combat missions required of the men before they can be sent home. Colonel Cathcart tries to scheme his way ahead; he thinks of successful actions as "feathers in his cap" and unsuccessful ones as "black eyes."

The Chaplain - The timid, thoughtful chaplain who becomes Yossarian's friend. He is haunted by a sensation of deja vu and begins to lose his faith in God as the novel progresses.

Hungry Joe - An unhinged member of Yossarian's squadron. Hungry Joe is obsessed with naked women, and he has horrible nightmares on nights when he isn't scheduled to fly a combat mission the next morning.

Nately - A good-natured nineteen year-old boy in Yossarian's squadron. Nately comes from a wealthy home, falls in love with a whore, and generally tries to keep Yossarian from getting into trouble.

Nately's whore - The beautiful whore Nately falls in love with in Rome. After a good night's sleep, she falls in love with Nately as well. When Yossarian tells her about Nately's death, she begins a persistent campaign to ambush Yossarian and stab him to death.

Clevinger - An idealistic member of Yossarian's squadron who argues with Yossarian about concepts such as country, loyalty, and duty, in which Clevinger firmly believes. Clevinger's plane disappears inside a cloud during the Parma bomb run, and he is never heard from again.

Doc Daneeka - The medical officer. Doc Daneeka feels very sorry for himself because the war interrupted his lucrative private practice in the States, and he refuses to listen to other people's problems. Doc Daneeka is the first person to explain Catch-22 to Yossarian.

Dobbs - A co-pilot, Dobbs seizes the controls from Huple during the mission to Avignon, the same mission on which Snowden dies. Dobbs later develops a plan to murder Colonel Cathcart, and eventually awaits only Yossarian's go-ahead to put it in action.

McWatt - A cheerful, polite pilot who often pilots Yossarian's planes. McWatt likes to joke around with Yossarian, and sometimes buzzes the squadron. One day he accidentally flies in too low, and slices Kid Sampson in half with his propellor; he then commits suicide by flying his plane into a mountain.

Major  - The supremely mediocre squadron commander. Born Major Major Major, he is promoted to major on his first day in the army by a mischievous computer. Major Major is painfully awkward, and will only see people in his office when he isn't there.

Aarfy - Yossarian's navigator. Aarfy infuriates Yossarian by pretending he cannot hear Yossarian's orders during bomb runs. Toward the end of the novel, Aarfy stuns Yossarian when he rapes and murders the maid of the officers' apartments in Rome.

Orr - Yossarian's often maddening roommate. Orr almost always crashes his plane or is shot down on combat missions, but he always seems to survive.

Appleby - A handsome, athletic member of the squadron and a superhuman ping-pong player. Orr enigmatically says that Appleby has flies in his eyes.

Captain Black - The squadron's bitter intelligence officer. He wants nothing more than to be squadron commander. Captain Black exults in the men's discomfort and does everything he can increase it; when Nately falls in love with a whore in Rome, Captain Black begins to buy her services regularly just to taunt him.

Colonel Korn - Colonel Cathcart's wily, cynical sidekick.

Major  de Coverley - The fierce, intense executive officer for the squadron. Major ----- de Coverley is revered and feared by the men--they are even afraid to ask his first name-- though all he does is play horseshoes and rent apartments for the officers in cities taken by American forces. When Yossarian moves the bomb line on a map to make it appear that Bologna has been captured, Major ----- de Coverely disappears in Bologna trying to rent an officers' apartment.

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