Captain John Yossarian Characteristics

The protagonist of Catch-22 is Captain John Yossarian. He is apart of Air Force Squadron 256, but most of his comrades seem to think he is insane and see him as an outsider. Yossarian has many strong character traits; he is caring, sympathetic, and helpful towards his friends. Despite that, he is not the typical hero/protagonist. He doesn't risk his life to save others or bravely fight for his country. In fact, he avoids risking his life and fighting at any cost. “After he made up his mind to spend the rest of the war in the hospital, Yossarian wrote letters to everyone he knew saying that he was in the hospital but never mentioning why. One day he had a better idea. To everyone he knew he wrote that he was going on a very dangerous mission.” (Heller 5). This shows his flaw of cowardness, with how he absconded from the war he is supposed to be fighting in by faking an illness, in order to protect himself from harm.

Yossarian is a dynamic character. At first, he was a coward and focused on self-preservation. However, when he is given the option to save himself and be sent home, he refuses because he would be endangering his comrades and helping the enemy. This is a

very hard thing to do for Yossarian because he is being offered literally all he ever wanted, freedom, at no cost to himself, which is a deal any coward would accept but he doesn't. He even says, “‘There’s a young kid in Rome whose life I’d like to save. I’ll take her to Sweden with me if I can find her, so it isn't all selfish, is it?’” (Heller 469). In addition to helping his whole squadron, he even goes out of his way to help a girl who he barely knows escape to Sweden with him, making the risk of him getting caught even higher.
The antagonist of the story would be the Bureaucracy, which is led by Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn. They both are selfish, blase and narcissistic leaders who treat their men inhumanely and use them as they please. At one point, Yossarian explicitly says Cathcart is the enemy. “'The enemy,' retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, 'is anybody who's going to
get you killed, no matter which side he's on, and that includes Colonel Cathcart.’” (Heller 129). Here Yossarian makes it clear that he is referring to his own superior officers, not the Germans or any other country that they were at war with. He says this because by continuously raising the number of missions required to go home, he is precluding any chance of the soldiers going home and increasing the chance of them getting killed in battle.
One of the biggest flaws of the Bureaucracy is being lazy and lethargic. The author shows this flaw when General Peckem says, “Just pass the work I assign you along to somebody else and trust to luck. We call that delegation of responsibility. Somewhere down near the lowest level of this coordinated organization I run are people who do get the work done when it reaches them, and everything manages to run along smoothly without too much effort on my part. I suppose that's because I am a good executive." (Heller 330). This shows how willing Peckem had been to just put the work to the side and let it fall to the bottom of the ladder.

The main exposition in Catch-22 is Pianosa, a small island in the mediterranean sea. This is where Yossarian and his Squadron live and where most of the story takes place. When
Heller first describes the island he says, “There was nothing funny about living like a bum in a tent in Pianosa between fat mountains behind him and a placid blue sea in front that could gulp down a person with a cramp in the twinkling of an eye and ship him back to shore three days later, all charges paid, bloated, blue and putrescent, water draining out through both cold nostrils.” (Heller 95). This quote shows that in addition to having a miserable life already, that Yossarian lives in a tent on a small crowded island where he could be gulped into the ocean at any moment. This exposition doesn't really affect the plot or conflict, but just makes the reader feel even more pity for the characters because they have no respite even at their own homes.
The second exposition is Rome, Italy. Only a small part of the novel takes place here, but it is important because multiple conflicts occur here. Rome is where Yossarian takes his vacations, where Nately falls in love with his whore, where Yossarian searches for Nately's whore's kid sister, where Yossarian is arrested, and the list goes on. “‘But we can court-martial you now for desertion from duty, since you went to Rome without a pass. And we could make it stick. If you think about it a minute, you'll see that you'd leave us no alternative.”’ (Heller 438). This quote shows when Yossarian is given the deal from Colonel Cathcart, one of the biggest conflicts in the story, after being caught in Rome. That goes to show that Rome is very important to the plot and causes many conflicts, including the deal that changes the whole novel.
The time period of the novel is 1944, during World War II. The time period is important because during this time the world was at war. If it was any other time, Yossarian would not even have half of the problems as he has because of the war going on around him. The reader can indisputably see how hard Yossarian is struggling to stay sane throughout the novel. “Outside the hospital the war was still going on. Men went mad and were rewarded with medals. All over the world, boys on every side of the bomb line were laying down their lives for what they had been told was their country and no one seemed to mind, least of all the boys who were laying down their young lives.” (Heller 14). Yossarian thinks the idea of war is absurd and it drives him crazy. He thinks that everyone around him is trying to kill him, including his own comrades and officers, making it even harder for him to stay sane.

Throughout the novel, Yossarian deals with many conflicts. Firstly, he has an external man vs. man conflict because of his life constantly being threatened. Even off of the battlefield, Yossarian feels his life is being threatened because of situations like Nately's whore trying to kill him and not being able to trust his own comrades. On page 25, Yossarian says, “‘They’re trying to kill me.’ ‘No one’s trying to kill you’ Clevinger replied. ‘Then why are they shooting at me?’ Yossarian asked. ‘They’re shooting at everyone. They’re trying to kill everyone.’ Clevinger answered. Yossarian answers, ‘What difference does that make?’” (Heller 25). It's almost inevitable that soldiers are going to die during warfare, and all soldiers know this. However, this takes a much bigger toll on Yossarian than the average soldier; because Yossarian takes each and every battle personally, feeling that the enemies are specifically trying to only kill him.
Another conflict in the novel is an internal conflict. This conflict is his struggle to stay sane in the middle of total madness. This problem follows Yossarian throughout the entire book anywhere he goes; while he’s at the military base, in Rome, and flying his missions. Yossarian feels like he's the only sane one left in the world, which might actually be true. This is a problem because since everyone is insane, being insane is what's normal and he's not which makes him look absurd. An example of this is when Yossarian is talking with a psychiatrist and the psychiatrist says, “‘Then you admit you’re crazy, do you?’ ‘Crazy? Why am I crazy? You’re the one who’s crazy!” (Heller 312). Yossarian struggles with staying sane because he questions his own sanity since everyone else is calling him insane.
In the end, Yossarian finds a way to resolve both of his conflicts… somewhat.

When he's offered the ultimatum of being sent home or being chastised, he doesn't make any decision and instead escapes the Squadron and goes to Sweden. “'I'm going to run away,' Yossarian announced in an exuberant, clear voice, already tearing open the buttons of his pajama tops. 'You can't run away. Where can you run to? Where can you go?' 'To Sweden.'” (Heller 467). By escaping, Yossarian won't be perturbed by the fact that his life is at risk and doesn't have to struggle each and every day to stay sane because he won't have to deal with all the chaos around him anymore. Yossarian attempts to finally gain control of his own life again instead of being controlled and used by the corrupt military he was part of for so

long.
Overall, Catch-22 was a good novel, but it could have been better in my opinion. First of all, the ending could have been better. There was so much potential, Yossarian could have took down the antagonists by exposing them, killing them, uniting the squadron against them; the possibilities are endless. However, the book ends with Yossarian in the process of escaping which doesn't help any of his comrades, doesn't take down the antagonists, and doesn't even reveal to the reader whether Yossarian even successfully escapes or what he does when he arrives at Sweden. What I liked about the book was the mix of humor, action, suspense, and irony all in one novel. I would certainly say it is one of the best wartime books I have ever read because of how Heller involved humor and irony into it. In conclusion, it's easy to see why this novel is considered a classic and I would want to read more of Joseph Heller's work.