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The discussion of Col. Cathcart's "farm" offers us the ludicrous spectacle of a point-of-view that can rationalize any immoral practice into a legal act. The chapter then writes this in larger letters, as we see a similar justification made by Milo for bombing the group: the bombing made "a huge net profit." With this, we see that not only is war a business (Dreedle takes "his son-in-law into the business"), but also the military setting is now a metaphor for a larger arena: the industrial-financial complex. |
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In keeping with the larger and larger scope of the novel's concern (eventually, Pianosa stands for the world, and the squad equals mankind), Cathcart sees the trouble he may be in as an "inscrutable cosmic climax." Once the cosmic arena has been suggested, we are next given, true to the associations the novel has been cultivating, Major — de Coverly, the "cosmic" figure. |
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The chapter then contrasts two episodes, the award presentation in which General Dreedle takes a surprisingly lax view of Yossarian's nakedness, stemming from his lack of shame and pretense, and the Avignon briefing in which we see the callousness which stems from Dreedle's confusion of ideals worth fighting for with the idiosyncrasies of his own superiors. (Note here the device of close repetition used in the presentation of General Dreedle's orders to shoot Major Danby.) |
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In the main, this chapter, following upon some rather more somber chapters, serves to re-emphasize the comic and humorous as part of the continuing counterpoint of the novel, a method it shares with other modern tragicomedies. |
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Chapter twenty-two, physically in the center of Catch-22, provides us with much more detail on the two focal points of the novel: Snowden's death and Milo's syndicate operations. |
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As far as Snowden's death is concerned, we are given more information as to what happened and how, and this information is provided in such a way as to indicate how inter-connected the variety of things which "cause" his death are. This is important since the episode occurs within the context of the obvious dangers of war and is the major turning point for Yossarian since it was in this incident that "Yossarian lost his nerve." Appropriately, then, Heller re-introduces the image of the "trapped mouse," now symbolic of this aspect of the terrors besetting the men. |
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In the face of such obvious dangers, there would seem to be an obvious answer: direct action. So it is that Dobbs suggests that they kill Cathcart. (Note how Col. Cathcart is becoming the representative villain.) But the kind of intellectual clarity and singleness of purpose necessary for direct action are missing. Dobbs, too, has no individual perspective, no absolute |
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