A Paradox! A Paradox!

In Catch-22, Joseph Heller conveys his anti-war beliefs by creating scenarios that are paradoxical and absurd. He demonstrates the insanity of those involved in war primarily through the character of Yossarian. The reader is first introduced to him when he is in the hospital (pretending to be ill in order to avoid flying more missions) and censoring letters written by soldiers. Since the number of missions he has to fly is increased every time he is close to completing a tour of duty, he begins to search for loopholes the in military system. In this search, he comes upon “catch-22” which states that a pilot can be grounded if he is insane. However, he has to ask to be grounded and asking to be grounded proves sanity because a desire to avoid harm demonstrates sound mental health.
In the novel, more highly ranked officials are portrayed as either particularly insane or particularly sadistic. Thus far, my personal favorite of these mad higher-ups is Major Major Major Major. This fellow is so cowardly that he cannot even handle being in the presence of any of his fellow soldiers. He instructs his assistant, Sergeant Towser, to only allow people to see him once he has fled the building (another “catch-22” per se). I believe that Heller is using these people and scenarios to demonstrate how the lives of thousands of young men should not be put into the hands of inefficient governments and corrupt, sadistic officials.
The variety of “catch-22”scenarios builds toward a general theme of war itself as a “catch-22”. In order to achieve peace, the opposing sides have to kill each other until they are weary from killing each other. Minor incidents of silliness such as signing false names on documents, en masse feigning diarrhea, absurd names, absurd practices, and tampering with intelligence reports all guide the reader to the realization that the entire war itself is a massive farce. (316)