How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #28
[…] with an air of disillusioned disgust, he tossed down on the table the pad on which the chaplain had signed his name. "This isn't your handwriting." The chaplain blinked rapidly with amazement. "But of course it's my handwriting."
"No it isn't, Chaplain, You're lying again."
"But I just wrote it!" the chaplain cried in exasperation. "You just saw me write it." (36.44-47)
This is absurd because the chaplain just wrote on the paper. It is his handwriting, but the officials refuse to recognize it.
Quote #29
[An old woman:] "Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing." (39.21)
The old woman says something that should be common sense, but is made absurd by repeating the obvious.
Quote #30
At the next corner a man was beating a small boy brutally in the midst of an immobile crowd of adult spectators who made no effort to intervene. Yossarian recoiled with sickening recognition. He was certain he had witnessed that same horrible scene sometime before. Déjà vu? The sinister coincidence shook him and filled him with doubt and dread. It was the same scene he had witnessed a block before, although everything in it seemed quite different. (39.81)
Yossarian experiences déjà vu, a sort of dream-like atmosphere. Then he realizes why: he has seen a tragically similar scene just a street earlier.