Yossarian's Point Of View In Catch 22

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Recommended: Critical analysis of Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

In the novel, Catch 22, the story follows twenty-eight year old bomber pilot Yossarian and his struggles to avoid combat missions in the Italian front of World War Two. Yossarian is afraid that Colonel Cathcart, his flight leader, is out to get him. Every single time Yossarian almost reaches the mission limit to go off-duty, Cathcart increases the mission count to insure that Yossarian remains on combat duty permanently. Yossarian believes that he is hopeless and will have to remain on combat duty for the rest of the war. There is, however, a way for Yossarian to go home before completing his required missions. He learns from Doc Daneeka, the field medic, that he will be sent home if he is deemed crazy by the medical ward. If the ward declares …show more content…

This is displayed prominently in chapters introducing new characters into the story, such as the background on Major Major and how he assumed his position in the bomber command. In the eyes of Major Major, he, “Enjoyed every gamboling moment right up till the day Colonel Cathcart roared up and made it impossible for him to ever enjoy playing basketball there again (Heller, 88).” This point of view is shown once again later in the novel, in a different perspective, that of Colonel Cathcart. Cathcart instead believes the promotion was a joke and that Major Major’s promotion was good for publicity. The switching of point of view clarifies the thoughts and feelings of many key characters, that might otherwise be vague in their motives. The character Milo, for example, bombed the squadron airfield, but justifies in action in that he made a large profit, explaining, “He could reimburse the government for all the people and property he destroyed and still have enough left over to continue buying Egyptian cotton (Heller, 258)”. The point of view helps to give cause to character’s actions, and to give closure to an otherwise unknown action and the decisions behind the character. This in turn makes the story of the novel more nonlinear, and more open to the

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