Post Number One

Alex Dzwierzynski

Post Number One

In Joseph Heller’s masterpiece, Catch-22, characters are everything. The novel centers around an American bombardier in World War II named Yossarian, a soldier who is annoyed due to the required amount of missions needed to be dismissed from the army keeps getting raised. A coward, Yossarian does his best to avoid fighting at all cost in an effort to keep himself alive. Catch-22 is full of bizarre characters like Yossarian but one character really sticks out, Major Major Major Major. Yes, you did in fact read that right. Born Major Major Major as a result of his father’s bizarre sense of humor, the story of this unfortunately named major is quite sad and fascinating at the same time. Growing up believing that his name was Caleb Major, the realization that his actual name was Major Major hit him heard, causing his friends to abandon him, thinking him a stranger and mistrusting him as he had “deceived them by pretending to be someone they had known for years” (95). As a result of growing up alone and friendless, he excelled at school, taking “his studies so seriously that he was suspected by the homosexuals as being a Communist and suspected by the Communist of being a homosexual,” resulting in the FBI opening a file on him, gathering enough information on Major Major “to do whatever they wanted with him” (95, 96). Sent to the army, he was promoted on his first day to Major by an IBM computer with “a sense of humor almost as keen as his father’s,” becoming Major Major Major Major (96). Finally finding happiness in the army, his life takes another unfortunate turn when he is promoted to squadron commander. This isolates him from his fellow soldiers as they believe he “had been elevated to squadron commander because he resembled Henry Fonda,” with some of them going so far to believe that “Major Major really was Henry Fonda but was too chickenshit to admit it” (99). And as squadron commander, he is plunged back into his childhood misery, being forced to eat “broiled Maine lobster with excellent Roquefort salad and two frozen éclairs” instead of the normal grub they feed the other soldiers, further isolating him (110). “Being bored and dissatisfied with his new position,” he starts forging the name Washington Irving on important documents after a man comes to investigate Yossarian for doing it. Finding immense satisfaction in the forging, doing “all his signing with his left hand and only while the dark glasses and false mustache” (107).

In the simple forging of Washington Irving’s name instead of his own, Major Major is putting himself in control. All of his life he has been subject to unhappiness based on decisions that he cannot control. From the unfortunate humor of his father and the IBM computer to his promotion to squadron commander, Major Major’s life has been the result of events out of his control. By faking his name while wearing a costume, he feels like he is finally taking control of his own life. Fed up with everyone always changing his life, his forging of Washington Irving also works to express his dissatisfaction with his name and rank, both of which were given to him by forces outside his control. This becomes a recurring theme throughout Catch-22, with numerous other characters being subject to executive decisions outside their control.