Catch-22

Catch-22 Summary | Chapter 1 "The Texan" Summary

Catch-22 begins in a World War II military hospital, where an American bombardier, Yossarian, feigns illness to escape combat duty. As an officer, he is expected to censor the outgoing letters of enlisted male patients. Yossarian instead arbitrarily strikes out select parts of speech, fraudulently signing his work as either "Washington Irving" or "Irving Washington," a simple subterfuge which proves adequate enough to foil the efforts of a C.I.D. investigator planted in the ward. Yossarian blacks out the entire content of one letter and writes at the bottom "I yearn for you tragically. R.O. Shipman, Chaplain, U.S. Army" (Heller, 8).

Yossarian shares the ward with a chess-playing artillery Captain, a mustached fighter pilot, a soldier in white, wrapped up in a full body cast, an obnoxiously affable Texan, who feels that "decent folk" should get more votes, and Yossarian's friend Dunbar, who believes it is possible to extend one's lifespan by enduring boredom. Ignored by the other patients, the Texan constantly talks to the soldier in white, never minding the lack of reply. When the soldier finally succumbs to his injuries, Yossarian and Dunbar both accuse the Texan of murder, presumably by means of talking the soldier to death. Yossarian meets and develops an instant fondness for visiting Chaplain A. T. Tappman. The Texan eventually proves so obnoxious that he inspires the miraculous recoveries of everyone in the ward.