Catch-22 Summary and Complete Study Guide

Catch-22 is structured non-chronologically, jumping through time to create disorientation matching Yossarian's wartime experience. The novel circles around Snowden's death—a traumatic event Yossarian witnessed that shapes everything, though details are withheld until late in the novel. This structure makes readers feel the confusion and trauma Yossarian feels, where past and present blur together in remembered horror. Yossarian is stationed in Pianosa, flying bombing missions over Italy and France. He's terrified and trying desperately to get grounded. He tries faking illness, but Doc Daneeka won't ground him. He tries going crazy, but that triggers Catch-22: wanting to be grounded proves you're sane. He's trapped in a system designed to prevent escape—every loophole closes when you try to use it, every regulation contradicts itself, every authority figure is insane but has power. The missions get progressively more dangerous as Colonel Cathcart keeps raising the required number to make himself look good for promotion. Pilots who complete 30 missions find the requirement raised to 40, then 50, then 60. Men die on missions or go insane, but the bureaucracy continues grinding. Anyone who completes their missions and tries to go home finds new regulations preventing it. Milo Minderbinder's capitalism subplot shows war as business opportunity. Milo starts by trading eggs, builds a massive syndicate controlling black market across Europe, and eventually bombs his own base because Germans paid him to—killing American soldiers for profit. When questioned, Milo shows the profit margin and everyone agrees it was good business. This satire exposes how capitalism's logic justifies any atrocity if it's profitable. Yossarian witnesses increasing horror: friends dying in arbitrary ways, burned in planes, drowned in parachutes, killed by bureaucratic incompetence. The chaplain tries to help but is powerless. Authorities are either absent, insane, or actively malicious. Every appeal to reason, morality, or common sense fails because the system isn't designed for reason—it's designed for continued operation regardless of cost in human lives. The Snowden revelation comes late: Snowden was hit by flak during a mission. Yossarian tried to treat his visible leg wound while Snowden kept saying "I'm cold." When Yossarian opened Snowden's flak suit, Snowden's insides spilled out—the fatal wound was hidden. Snowden's death teaches Yossarian that "man is matter" and can be destroyed easily. This trauma drives Yossarian's desperate survival instinct. After Snowden, he cannot pretend war is noble or survivable through courage—it's just random death that will eventually catch everyone. Yossarian finally refuses to fly more missions, risking court-martial. The authorities offer him a deal: they'll send him home as a hero if he publicly supports them and says nice things about Colonel Cathcart. This would save Yossarian but betray everyone still trapped flying missions. He almost accepts, then refuses—he cannot save himself by endorsing the system killing others. The novel ends with Yossarian learning that Orr (who crashed on every mission and was presumed dead) actually made it to Sweden—he'd been practicing crashes to escape. This proves escape is possible. Yossarian decides to desert, fleeing to Sweden rather than accept the devil's bargain or continue flying. He chooses desertion as the only moral option when the system offers only immoral choices: fly until you die, or collaborate with the system killing others. Desertion isn't heroic but it's sane—removing yourself from insane system rather than trying to change it from within.