Examples Of Abuse Of Power In Catch 22

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
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
The pilot simply voiced his opinion and because of Milo's power and influence was transferred to the islands. In the same chapter, Milo makes deals with the Germans and Americans for an operation at Orvieto and ends up profiting from the Germans shooting down American planes. Another of Milo's absurd practices, which can in turn classify him as an antagonist is when he bombs the group. "Milo's planes separated in a well-coordinated attack and bombed the fuel stocks and the ordnance dump, the repair hangers and the B-25 bombers resting on the lollipop-shaped hardstands at the field (267). Somehow he uses his power to get out of any punishment from the government, but starts the downward spiral that can be seen as antagonism. At numerous parts in the novel, Heller recounts events where soldiers are looking for equipment, only to find that the equipment has been removed and replaced with a note that reads, "What's good for M & M Enterprises is good for the country. Milo Minderbinder" (446). The culminating instance of this occurs during the Avignon mission, when Yossarian is tending to Snowden and finds the morphine missing from the med kit. Milo uses his position as leader of the syndicate to justify stealing supplies from his own army in order to sell them for a profit to competing