History Literature / CatchTwentyTwo

** Orr [[spoiler:rows away.]] "Orr" is also [[BilingualBonus Swedish for "grouse"]], a bird known as a poor flyer. He escapes to Sweden.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:[=McWatt=], after accidentally killing Kid Sampson]]

** [[RepetitiveName Major Major (middle name: Major)]], who is named as such because his father thought it would be ''funny''. This later causes an IBM Machine to promote him to Major, leading to his full title being [[UpToEleven Major Major Major Major.]]

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: All well-defined, and most with chapters named after them (although the proportion of each chapter that is devoted to its title character varies). Scheisskopf and MagnificentBastard Milo Minderbinder are the only characters who get more than one chapter titled after themselves.

The plot mostly consists of [[RandomEventsPlot an assortment of random events]] on base, shifting focus across [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters several characters]], but mostly focusing on the main hero Yossarian. Most events highlight the absurdities of life, especially government and war. Many details that seem random become significant later on, often with much darker implications.

** The book also has a deeper anvil dropped about the individual's responsibility for the [[CrapsackWorld evils of the modern world]]. Almost every character death could have been prevented by Yossarian, had he actually done anything, and his friends continue to die around him until [[spoiler:he finally balls up and sticks it to TheMan]].

** For example, Yossarian and company throw the uniforms of several generals out the window while they are naked, because if they are naked they can't prove they are generals so Yossarian won't have to take orders from them. [[ActuallyPrettyFunny Even the generals think this is a workable strategy.]]

* StepfordSmiler: The 2019 miniseries makes it clear that McWatt is this.

* NoNameGiven: Major ---- de Coverley, whose face is so forbidding that no one dares ask his first name.

[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/catch_22.jpg]]
[-[[caption-width-right:280:"That's some catch, that Catch-22."]]-]

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Lieutenant Scheisskopf gets his MeaningfulName from a common mistake about German. It supposedly means "shithead" (by combining ''scheiße'', "shit", with ''kopf'', "head"), but this word doesn't actually exist in German: the equivalent term is "Arschlocke".

** Major Major is promoted to Major on his second day in the army be an IBM machine with a sense of humour. Circumstances mean he cannot be promoted or demoted either.

** Orr [[spoiler:rows away.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Captain Black, General Dreedle, Corporal Whitcomb.

* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:Dobbs's plans to murder Cathcart. As soon as Yossarian is willing to cooperate with him, Dobbs's plane crashes into Nately's, reulting in both Dobbs and Nately dying overseas.]]

** Lieutenant Scheisskopf's name means "Shithead" in German,[[note]][[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign Actually, it doesn't]]: the equivalent term in German is "Arschloch".[[/note]] and he fits the bill.

A satirical antiwar novel written by Joseph Heller and published in 1961, ''Catch-22'' focuses on Yossarian, a USAAF bombardier on the Italian Front during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, who would very much like to ''not'' be on the Italian Front during World War II. It is considered one of the greatest books of the Twentieth Century and at the same time is often [[BlackComedy gut-bustingly funny]].

* SkewedPriorities:

* SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX: Enlisted Men. Cathcart says this to the Chaplain when stating that he wants to keep enlisted men out of the prayers. The best part is when Cathcart tells the Chaplain, "After all, you wouldn't want your sister to marry one", and the Chaplain replies his sister ''is'' an enlisted (wo)man, a Sergeant in the Women's Army Corps (WAC).

* AnachronicOrder
* AnyoneCanDie

--> '''Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen''': "I almost cancelled [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Operation Overlord]] until [[UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower Eisenhower]] added more armor."

* BiTheWay: Yossarian, who falls madly in love with the Chaplain and, like most of his fellow soldiers, enjoys the services of Italian prostitutes.

** Lieutenant Scheisskopf's name means "Shithead" in German,[[note]][[ArtisticLicenseLinguistics Actually, it doesn't]]: this is a common non-Latin example of CanisLatinicus. The equivalent term in German is "Arschloch".[[/note]] and he fits the bill.

** Lieutenant Scheisskopf's name means "Shithead" in German, and he fits the bill.

* MaleGaze: The camera focus when Col. Cathcart is chasing a girl down the streets.