Catch 22’s Yossarian Is a Hack

I chose Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 as my Great American Choice Novel. I don’t know what a “Catch 22” is, so I decided to read Catch 22 to learn what a “Catch 22” is. Four “Catch 22s” two sentences, yeah that’s right. Anyways, the story is set during the second world war, and the main character of the novel seems to be a guy named Yossarian, who is a captain in the Air Force flying bombing runs in Italy. Yossarian, like many of the characters so far in Catch 22 is not eager to participate in the war. In fact, Yossarian prolongs a hospital stay by faking a liver condition (which at one point was real) and taking advantage of his naturally high body temperature. But more importantly, Yossarian is a hack. Yossarian enjoys messing with people. Take this interaction between Yossarian and fellow soldier Milo Minderbender for example:

“Let it trouble me [Yossarian]. You see, I don’t really have a liver condition. I’ve just got the symptoms. I have a Garnett-Fleischaker syndrome.’

‘I see,’ said Milo. ‘And what is a Garnett-Fleischaker syndrome?’

‘A liver condition.’

‘I see,’ said Milo, and began massaging his black eyebrows together wearily with an expression of interior pain, as though waiting for some stinging discomfort he was experiencing to go away. ‘In that case,’ he continued finally, ‘I suppose you do have to be very careful about what you eat, don’t you?.

‘Very careful indeed,’ Yossarian told him. ‘A good Garnett-Fleischaker syndrome isn’t easy to come by, and I don’t want to ruin mine. That’s why I never eat any fruit.’

‘Now I do see,’ said Milo. ‘Fruit is bad for your liver?’

‘No, fruit is good for my liver. That’s why I never eat any.’

‘Then what do you do with it?’ demanded Milo, plodding along doggedly through his mounting confusion to fling out the question burning on his lips. ‘Do you sell it?’

‘I give it away.’

‘To who?’ cried Milo, in a voice cracking with dismay.

‘To anyone who wants it,’ Yossarian shouted back.”

For clarification, Yossarian gets free fruit from the military in order to treat his “liver condition.” Instead, Yossarian uses the fruit for his own personal gain. Yossarian could’ve easily just explained his cheat to Minderbender, who also makes shady profits through the war, but instead he creates a befuddling train of logic about his liver health in order to bewilder Milo. This interaction, from what I know so far, encapsulates Yossarian. It seems as though Yossarian copes with the intensity and horror of the war by messing with his fellow soldiers. It’ll be interesting to see how this changes or affects other characters through the rest of the novel.