Catch-22: The Inherent Abuse Of Power Through Milo Minderbinder

Catch-22: The Inherent Abuse of Power Through Milo Minderbinder

Two major themes of Catch-22 by Joseph Heller are the absurdity of war and the abuse of power. These two themes depend on one another in order to coexist. It is through the power exhibited by senior officers and command staff that the absurdities take place. In this novel, the main character, Yossarian, is a bombardier in a squadron in Pianosa, Italy. He is surrounded by absurdity and power abuse, most notably from Catch-22. Catch-22 is a provision which states that in order for a soldier to be grounded, he must be insane, but in declaring himself insane, he is showing that he is sane and must therefore continue to fly. Yossarian wishes to be grounded because he is so concerned about living, but finds power abuse to prevent him from ending his tour of duty at each step along the way. The absurdities and abuse of power in Catch-22 are very well depicted in the actions and character of Milo Minderbinder and the impact those actions have on Yossarian and the others in his group.

Milo Minderbinder is a twenty-seven year old lieutenant, who in his second week becomes the mess officer after approaching Major--de Coverely with a fresh hard boiled egg. Major--de Coverely puts a plane from the squadron at Milo's disposal and says:

You're a good mess officer, Milo.

I'm not the mess officer, sir.

You're a good mess officer, Milo.

Thank you, sir. I'll do everything in my power to be a good mess officer (145).

From that short conversation, Milo is promoted to mess officer and his abuse of power begins.

When he first begins his duties, Milo has only one plane at his disposal, but after the other squadrons in Colonel Cathcart's group get wind of the fresh eggs at Milo's mess hall, Milo starts to gain more planes. On page 145, Heller writes, "Then the other three squadrons in Colonel Cathcart's group turned their mess halls over to Milo and gave him an airplane and a pilot each so that he could buy fresh eggs and fresh butter for them too." The rest of the groups in General Dreedle's combat wing eventually gave Milo even more planes and pilots, and Milo began the formation of his syndicate. In essence, this may seem like a good thing, but with his influence Milo took away one plane from each squadron depriving the wing of that much firepower. This is just one example of how Milo abused his power.

In Chapter 22, "Milo the Mayor," Milo's travels and business deals are explained and recounted, and the power that he gets and abuses from his position as syndicate leader are expounded upon. After traveling to Palermo, Yossarian finds out that, "Milo had been elected mayor of Palermo--and of nearby Carini, Monreale, Bagheria, Termini Imerese, Cefalu, Mistretta and Nicosia as well..." (245). Milo was also Assistant Governor-General of Malta and:

not only Vice-Shah of Oran, as it turned out, but also the Caliph of Baghdad, the Imam of Damascus, and the Sheik of Araby. Milo was the corn god, the rain god and the rice god in backward regions where such crude god were still worshipped by ignorant and superstitious people (247-8).

Milo uses all this power to buy and sell products on the black market and cheats the army out of their mess fund money in order to make a profit for the syndicate. In this particular trip, Orr and Yossarian tag along, and because of Milo's power he has the best lodgings and offices in each town, while Yossarian and Orr are degraded to staying with whores or sleeping on the cold metal floor of the cargo plane. Because of Milo's power, Yossarian and Orr's rest leave is completely ruined.

When Milo's power is questioned by an "uncooperative fighter-plane commander" (262) in Chapter 24, General Dreedle has the pilot sent to the Solomon Islands to bury dead bodies. The pilot