commanders. Major ----- de Coverley is a force of nature, but when
Yossarian moved the bomb line, he was fooled and traveled to enemy-
controlled Bologna; he still has not returned. Once, Milo approached him on
the horseshoe range and convinced him to authorize Milo to import eggs with
Air Force planes. This elated the men, except for Colonel Cathcart, whose
spur-of-the-moment attempt to promote Major Major failed, unlike his
attempt to give Yossarian a medal some time earlier, which succeeded. Back
when Yossarian was brave, he circled over a target twice in order to hit
it; on the second overpass, Mudd was killed by shrapnel. The authorities
didn't know how to rebuke Yossarian for his foolhardiness, so they decided
to stave off criticism by giving him a medal.
The squadron finally receives the go-ahead to bomb Bologna, and by this
time Yossarian doesn't feel like going over the target even once. He
pretends that his plane's intercom system is broken and orders his men to
turn back. They land at the deserted airfield just before dawn, feeling
strangely morose; Yossarian takes a nap on the beach and wakes up when the
planes fly back. Not a single plane has been hit. Yossarian thinks that
there must have been too many clouds for the men to bomb the city, and that
they will have to make another attempt, but he is wrong. There was no
antiaircraft fire, and the city was bombed with no losses to the Americans.
Captain Pilchard and Captain Wren ineffectually reprimand Yossarian and
his crew for turning back, then inform the men that they will have to bomb
Bologna again, as they missed the ammunition dumps the first time.
Yossarian confidently flies in, assuming there will be no antiaircraft
fire, and is stunned when shrapnel begins firing up toward him through the
skies. He furiously directs McWatt through evasive maneuvers, and fights
with the strangely cheerful Aarfy until the bombs are dropped; Yossarian
doesn't die, and the plane lands safely. He heads immediately for emergency
rest leave in Rome, where he meets Luciana the same night.
Luciana is a beautiful Italian girl Yossarian meets at a bar in Rome.
After he buys her dinner and dances with her, she agrees to sleep with him,
but not right then--she will come to his room the next morning. She does,
then angrily refuses to sleep with Yossarian until she cleans his room--she
disgustedly calls him a pig. Finally, she lets him sleep with her.
Afterward, Yossarian falls in love with her and asks her to marry him; she
says she can't marry him because he's crazy, and he's crazy because he
wants to marry her, because no one in their right mind would marry a girl
who wasn't a virgin. She tells him about a scar she got when the Americans
bombed her town. Suddenly, Hungry Joe rushes in with his camera, and
Yossarian and Luciana have to get dressed. Laughing, they go outside, where
they part ways. Luciana gives Yossarian her number, telling him she expects
that he will tear it up as soon as she leaves, self-impressed that such a
pretty girl would sleep with him for free. He asks her why on Earth he
would do such a thing. As soon as she leaves, Yossarian, self-impressed
that such a pretty girl would sleep with him for free, tears up her number.
Almost immediately, he regrets it, and, after learning that Colonel
Cathcart has raised the number of missions to forty, he makes the anguished
decision to go straight to the hospital.
Chapters 17-21
Things are better at the hospital, Yossarian decides, than they are on
a bomb run with Snowden dying in the back whispering "I'm cold." At the
hospital, Death is orderly and polite, and there is no inexplicable
violence. Dunbar is in the hospital with Yossarian, and they are both
perplexed by the soldier in white, a man completely covered in plaster
bandages. The men in the hospital discuss the injustice of mortality--some
men are killed and some aren't, some men get sick and some don't, with no
reference to who deserves what. Some time earlier Clevinger saw justice in
it, but Yossarian was too busy keeping track of all the forces trying to
kill him to listen. Later, he and Hungry Joe collect lists of fatal
diseases with which they worry Doc Daneeka, who is the only person who can
ground Yossarian, according to Major Major. Doc Daneeka tells Yossarian to
fly his fifty-five missions, and he'll think about helping him.
The first time Yossarian ever goes to the hospital, he is still a
private. He feigns an abdominal pain, then mimics the mysterious ailment of
the soldier who saw everything twice. He spends Thanksgiving in the
hospital, and vows to spend all future Thanksgivings there; but he spends
the next Thanksgiving in bed with Lieutenant Scheisskopf's wife, arguing
about God. Once Yossarian is "cured" of seeing everything twice, he is
asked to pretend to be a dying soldier for a mother and father who have
traveled to see their son, who died that morning. Yossarian allows them to
bandage his face, and pretends to be the soldier.
The ambitious Colonel Cathcart browbeats the chaplain, demanding prayer
before each bombing run, then abandons the idea when he realizes that the
Saturday Evening Post, where he got the idea, probably wouldn't give him
any publicity for it. The chaplain timidly mentions that some of the men
have complained about Colonel Cathcart's habit of raising the number of
missions required every few weeks, but Colonel Cathcart ignores him. On his
way home, the chaplain meets Colonel Korn, Colonel Cathcart's wily, cynical
sidekick, who mocks Colonel Cathcart in front of the chaplain and is highly
suspicious of the plum tomato Colonel Cathcart gave the chaplain. At his
tent in the woods, the chaplain encounters the hostile Corporal Whitcomb,
his atheist assistant, who resents him deeply for holding back his career.
Corporal Whitcomb tells the chaplain that a C.I.D. man suspects him of
signing Washington Irving's name to official papers, and of stealing plum
tomatoes. The poor chaplain is very unhappy, helpless to improve anyone's
life.
Colonel Cathcart is preoccupied with the problem of Yossarian, who has
become a real black eye for him, most recently by complaining about the
number of missions, but previously by appearing naked at his own medal
ceremony shortly after Snowden's death. Colonel Cathcart wishes he knew how
to solve the problem and impress General Dreedle, his commanding officer.
General Dreedle doesn't care what his men do, as long as they remain
reliable military quantities. He travels everywhere with a buxom nurse, and
worries mostly about Colonel Moodus, his despised son in law, whom he
occasionally asks Chief White Halfoat to punch in the nose. Once Colonel
Korn tried to undercut Colonel Cathcart by giving a flamboyant briefing to
impress General Dreedle; General Dreedle told Colonel Cathcart that Colonel
Korn made him sick.
Chapters 22-26
Yossarian loses his nerve on the mission that follows Colonel Korn's
extravagant briefing, the mission where Snowden is killed and spattered all
over Yossarian's uniform when Dobbs goes crazy and seizes the plane's
controls from Huple. As he dies, Snowden pleads with Yossarian to help him;
he says he is cold. Dobbs is a terrible pilot and a wreck of a man, and he
later tells Yossarian he plans to kill Colonel Cathcart before he raises
the mission total again; he asks Yossarian to give him the go-ahead, but
Yossarian is unable to do so, so Dobbs abandons his plan. Yossarian thinks
that Dobbs is almost as bad as Orr, with whom Yossarian and Milo recently
took a trip to stock up on supplies. As they travel, Orr and Yossarian
gradually realize the extent of Milo's control over the black market and
vast international influence: he is the mayor of Palermo, the Assistant
Governor-General of Malta, the Vice-Shah of Oran, the Caliph of Baghdad,
the Imam of Damascus, the Sheik of Araby, and is worshipped as a god in
parts of Africa. Each region has embraced him because he revitalized their
economy with his syndicate, in which everybody has a share. Nevertheless,
throughout their trip, Orr and Yossarian are forced to sleep in the plane
while Milo enjoys lavish palaces, and they are finally awakened in the
middle of the night so that Milo can rush his shipment of red bananas to
their next stop.
One evening Nately finds his whore in Rome again after a long search.
He tries to convince Yossarian and Aarfy to take two of her friends for
thirty dollars each. Aarfy objects that he has never had to pay for sex.
Nately's whore is sick of Nately, and begins to swear at him; then Hungry
Joe arrives, and the group abandons Aarfy and goes to the apartment
building where the girls live. Here they find a seemingly endless flow of
naked young women; Hungry Joe is torn between taking in the scene and
rushing back for his camera. Nately argues with an old man who lives at the
building about nationalism and moral duty--the old man claims Italy is
doing better than America in the war because it has already been occupied,
so Italian boys are no longer being killed. He gleefully admits to swearing
loyalty to whatever nation happens to be in power. The patriotic,
idealistic Nately cannot believe his ears, and argues somewhat haltingly
for America's international supremacy and the values it represents. But he
is troubled because, though they are absolutely nothing alike, the old man
reminds him of his father.
By April, Milo's influence is massive. The mess officer controls the
international black market, plays a major role in the world economy, and
uses Air Force planes from countries all over the world to carry shipments
of his supplies; the planes are repainted with an "M & M Enterprises" logo,
but Milo continues to insist that everybody has a share in his syndicate.
Milo contracts with the Germans to bomb the Americans, and with the
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