Chapter 8 Catch 22 Summary

Chapters 1-7: Elements of Humor In Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, humor is strongly sensed throughout chapters 1-7. In chapter one, the first sign of humor is when a soldier, by the name of Yossarian, is admitted into a military hospital because of liver problems. The comical aspect of that, is that Yossarian is faking the whole thing so that he can get out of duty. Another great example in chapter one is the ending. This is because many of the patients decided to leave the hospital and go back into duty because of the annoyance of a patient named Texan. The second chapter is not as humorous as the first, but still has some great examples of it. For instance, throughout the chapter, Yossarian and Clevinger argue non-stop. This is amusing because

Chapter eight has a series of problems that mostly start with Lieutenant Scheisskopf. For example, Lieutenant Scheisskopf assigns his own officers instead of letting the men in combat duty elect them which angers most of the men, especially Clevinger. More problems keep building up because since Lieutenant Scheisskopf is always busy, he does not notice that his wife is cheating on him with many men, including Yossarian. Further in the chapter, Clevinger has to meet with the Action Board because Lieutenant Scheisskopf accused Clevinger of secretly planning to remove the officers Lieutenant Scheisskopf choose. The Action Board, controlled by the illogical colonel who continually threatens to pull and rip Clevinger apart, meets with Clevinger for his interrogation. The questioning makes Clevinger say inconsistent things, and the Action Board force him to do fifty-seven tours as a consequence. Clevinger does not stress about his punishment, but instead is dismayed by the hatred he felt from the Action Board, “...but the strangest of all, to Clevinger, was the hatred, the brutal, uncloaked, inexorable hatred of the members of the Action Board” (Heller 81). In chapter nine, Major Major faces many problems with bureaucracy as well. Since Major Major is very obientent and does everything he is told to do, everybody dislikes him for being so good. Major Major is always so quickly advanced because his instructors want to get rid of him as quickly as possible. This makes Major Major face many problems with socializing and speaking to his men, even in the dining hall Major Major dines alone when he really rather be dining with the other men. In the ending of this chapter, Yossarian asks Major Major for help to leave duty and get sent home, but Major Major responds by saying, “I’m sorry, But there’s nothing I can do.” (Heller