Alex Dzwierzynski
Post Number Three
As mentioned in a previous blog post, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is mostly character based, with
plot having little to do with the story overall. Being a character based novel,
it is required that more characters other than Yossarian and Major Major Major
Major be interesting. And they are. But while most of the characters besides
the aforementioned two are interesting, none more so than Milo Minderbinder, a
mess officer in charge of a vast criminal syndicate in which “every man will
have a share” (76). Milo starts his business as a simple egg selling business
in which he can “buy eggs in Malta for seven cents apiece and sell them at a
profit in Pianosa for five cents” (76). Although he explains how he does this
to Yossarian several times, nobody really understands how Milo does this. Eventually,
he turns his egg-selling business into an elaborate money-making scheme buying
eggs in Malta and selling them to the soldiers in his squadron and three others,
resulting in his planes flying “back and forth seven days a week as every
officer in the four squadrons began devouring fresh eggs in an insatiable orgy
of fresh-egg eating” (145). Growing jealous that Milo’s bomb group and
associates get fresh eggs, the other groups dispatch their “own planes to Malta
for fresh eggs, but discovered that fresh eggs were selling there for seven
cents apiece,” more expensive than the five cents Milo sells them for (146).
So, these other bomb groups turn their planes over to Milo to get fresh-eggs,
who eventually all arranges them in his international criminal empire known as
the syndicate. The syndicate grows to the point where eventually, anything is
able to be procured. As the war progresses, Milo’s syndicate grows more
powerful, eventually shaping up into a business, with his captured German
planes having their swastikas painted over with the words “M & M
Enterprises, Fine Fruits and Produce,” transforming “his syndicate into an
international cartel” with planes coming in “from everywhere in Europe, in
fact, but Russia, with whom Milo refused to do business” (264). By creating a
successful criminal syndicate, Milo is profiting off the war, bending the rules
to suit his own needs and the need of the syndicate. Milo justifies his selfish
actions by claiming that “everybody has a share” of his syndicate and that everybody
benefits when he benefits, although throughout the novel, nobody seems to
benefit except for Milo (241). Through his syndicate, Milo becomes so
profitable and successful, that because of his vast trade connections, he has
become the Vice-Shah of Oran, as well as the “Caliph of Baghdad, the Imam of Damascus,
and the Sheik of Araby” also becoming “the corn god, the rain god, and the rice
god in backward regions where such crude gods were still worshipped” (247-248).
However, in typical Heller fashion, Milo’s luck takes a turn for the worse when
he agrees to “purchase the entire Egyptian cotton crop” only to figure out that
nobody wants Egyptian cotton (267). After an attempt to coat the cotton with
chocolate and trying to feed it to Yossarian fails, “M&M Enterprises verged
on collapse” (267).
As a result of his empire collapsing, Milo’s true
nature is revealed, and he is shown to only care about money. Making a deal
with the German’s to “bomb his own outfit,” Milo is revealed as the closest
thing this novel has to a true antagonist (267). By bombing his own outfit
purely for the monetary benefit of it, Milo is representative of a war profiteer,
one who engages in war only to seek money off of it and the people who surround
him. By claiming that everyone has a share in his syndicate, Milo is running on
the notion that whatever is good for him, must be good for everyone else. Although
he is selfish, greed and a criminal, through Heller’s amazing writing ability,
he remains one of the funniest and most likable characters despite his faults.
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