Symbolism In Joseph Heller's Catch 22

Catch 22 is a novel about the madness and paradoxical aspects of war that drive those participating insane. The structure of war is corrupt and unjust; but there is nothing that those in the war can, or are even willing, to do about it. Joseph Heller uses the symbolism of the soldier in white to emphasize the inhumane treatments presented through wartime politics.

During Yossarian’s stunts at the hospital, Heller provides a description of the soldier in white. He is an unnamed character, “...constructed entirely of gauze [and] plaster…”, that suddenly appeared in the hospital bed, in Yossarian’s ward. He is connected to two large jars of unidentified fluids; one pumps the liquid through an IV into him and the other drains the fluids from him through a zinc catheter. When they are empty and full, respectively, the nurses come in and switch the jars.

This man does not speak, move, or make any noises at all. In the beginning of the novel, Dunbar claims that there is actually no one underneath the bandages. However, Nurse Cramer and Nurse Duckett continuously came around to check and record his temperature and switch the jars. When they find out that he is in fact dead, the hospital simply replaces him with another soldier in white; although the others in the

He personifies the anonymous fate, of all those men in the army especially: Every person is replaceable, essentially devoid of uniqueness, under the underhanded policies of the bureaucratic organization. Through this character, Heller is constantly reiterating that names and faces are much less important than the duties that must be fulfilled. The fact that none of those in the hospital knows whether or not the soldier in white is alive or dead, indicates that the bureaucracy is apathetic to the knowledge of who is alive and who is dead. To them, these men are all unidentified, expendable