War is often regarded as a fight for freedom and democracy. However, how can we expect to achieve freedom and democracy when the military that is fighting for these rights does not grant its soldiers any. The novel Catch 22 written by Joseph Heller has many great examples of military bureaucracy and its negative effects. In fact, the name Catch 22 is a representation of this problem that takes place in the book the law Catch 22 states that to get out of combat duty the officer has to be crazy, but if he asks to be grounded then it means the officer is sane therefore he can’t be grounded. The Catch 22 rule shows how bureaucrats don’t listen to logical explanations and justify their decisions with absurd rules that only cause harm. In the first chapter, Yossarian the main character is shown censoring letters as all patients in the hospital were required to do. This is a clear violation of the soldier’s rights and privacy as they were trying to communicate with their loved ones. In the book, higher ranking officers take away the democratic freedoms of lower-ranking officers by creating absurd rules to gain greater power. For example, Colonel Cathcart raises the number of missions required to retire from the force to impress his superiors. He is …show more content…
Clevinger was convicted of a crime he didn't do because if was accused he had to be quilty and the only way to prove that was to find him guilty. Furthermore, near the end of the book when Yossarian confronts Aarfy for raping Michaela, and then killing her by throwing her out the window we once again see the abusive power of bureaucracy. Arfy is confident that he will not be arrested for murdering an innocent young woman because she is only a servant while he is a high-ranking officer. In fact, he goes on to blame the girl for being on the street after curfew even though he was the one who throws her