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Sparknotes: Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)

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SparkNotes: Catch-22 presents an unsentimental vision of war, without romantic pretenses, glory, and honor. Instead, we find a nightmarish comedy of violence, bureaucracy, and paradoxical madness. The story is told as a series of loosely related mini-stories in no particular order. Leadership continually raises the number of missions required for the men to go home - it makes the leaders look good. The leaders pay more attention to the quality of aerial bombing photographs than the actual bombing results.

The M.D., counselor, and chaplain values each become subverted by their war duties. The doctor ends up providing useless treatments, the counselor unavailable for appointments, and the chaplain loses faith in god. All three are rewarded by the hierarchy, and none are punished.

Yossarian, the central figure, focuses on his own survival, faking various illnesses and troubled by the death of Snowden who had died in his arms on a bombing run. Yossarian discovers its possible to be discharged because of insanity, only to also learn that by claiming to be insane one has proven himself sane. That's 'Catch-22.'

Meanwhile, mess officer Milo Minderbinder gets fabulously rich through trading by his various companies, including at one point with the Germans who subcontract with him to conduct a bombing run on the American base. Eventually, Yossarian goes AWOL, is offered a court-martial or discharge - the latter if he supports the leaders' new mandate for 80 millions. Yossarian avoids the moral temptation by fleeing to Sweden.

The Sparks Notes summary provides an excellent overview of the motifs and characters, as well as chapter summaries. It also supplies good suggestions on writing a book summary, or essays in general.