How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. (5.64)
It is futile to try to get out of combat duty. Catch-22 defeats that purpose by giving a circular definition of what craziness is. It makes it impossible to be crazy and get out of combat duty simultaneously. As soon as you attest to being crazy, you are deemed rational.
Quote #8
"Catch-22?" Yossarian was stunned. "What the hell has Catch-22 got to do with it?"
"Catch-22," Doc Daneeka answered patiently, when Hungry Joe had flown Yossarian back to Pianosa, "says you've always got to do what our commanding officer tells you to."
"But Twenty-seventh Air Force says I can go home with forty missions."
"But they don't say you have to go home. And regulations do say you have to obey every order. That's the catch. Even if the colonel were disobeying a Twenty-seventh Air Force order by making you fly more missions, you'd still have to fly them, or you'd be guilty of disobeying an order of his. And then Twenty-seventh Air Force Headquarters would really jump on you." (6.48-51)
Catch-22 overrides the authority of the Air Force Headquarters by stating that men must obey what their commanding officer says. This means that if Colonel Cathcart requires fifty missions to be discharged, his men must fly them even though the Air Force requires only forty. Catch-22 makes it impossible for men to avoid flying all the required missions.