Catch-22 - A Comedy The novel, Catch-22, is a comedy about soldiers during World War II. However, these comedic scenes and phrases are quite tragic when you think about it, as most things related to war are, which makes this comedy completely absurd. The best way to represent this idea is through the characters in the book, especially Yossarian, Huple, and Nately's whore's younger sister, and the events that occur with their thoughts and actions. Clearly, the main character, and the one whose life is primarily described, is Yossarian. Yossarian has a slightly sick sense of humor and way of looking at things. In the first chapter Heller tells us that letters sent by soldiers had to be reviewed to prevent secret information from being disclosed to the public or, even worse, to the enemy. Yossarian, for lack of anything better to do, censors all the letters. Sometimes he erases everything except a, an and the, sometimes adjectives, whatever he feels that day. For his final gag he signs these letters as Washington Irving to totally confuse the readers of these letters. This is funny, but ultimately tragic. These are the letters every wife, mother and daughter runs to the mailbox to see that their husbands, fathers and sons are okay. This is a letter that could say, “Honey, I'm coming home,” or “I love you. When I get home I want to marry you. These letters could change the entire lifestyle of so many people and only Yossarian is tampering with them. The absurdity of this is immense. A scene of slightly greater consequence occurred in Chapter 12, when Yossarian decided to move the bomb line to Bologna. What I think is the most ridiculous thing about the whole process was the reason he did it. Not everyone wanted to undertake this mission to capture Bologna. They prayed that the rain would never go away, or that the bomb line would mysteriously shift, whatever it took to carry out this mission. Clevinger, incredulous at the stupidity of these men, tells Yossarian, "They really believe we shouldn't fly that mission tomorrow if someone tiptoed up to the map in the middle of the night and moved the bomb line past Bologna. Can you imagine ?" So Yossarian thinks, “Why not?