Colonel Cathcart

Catch 33, by Joseph Heller follows the events and characters of an army cap controlled by a
tyrannical lunatic. The colonel endangers the lives of his troops more than any other colonel moraly
could. Colonel Cathcart traps his men in duty by raising the number of missions needed to go home,
endangering and killing the soldiers drafted to serve him, just for a promotion. He is shown to be an
insane ignorant and inhumane leader.
The colonel’s insanity is shown throughout the books he endangers his men for the sole
purpose of receiving a promotion to general. He raises the necessary number of missions to return
home, follows everything the generals do without reason, and insanely tracks all of his imaginary
victories and defeats, only to ‘impress’ the “people of prominence who were scarcely aware he was
even alive”(page 188). The colonel “lived by his wits in an unstable world” (pg 188) where everything is
controlled by his obsession of the general rank. The colonel “wanted to be general so desperately” that
he actively endangered the lives of his men on a daily basis, all while claiming he was on the side of the
United States, making his men serve several times more missions than any other group.
Colonel Cathcart’s obsession with rank leaves him oblivious to the sufferings of the men he
sends to their deaths. The colonel continues to raise his soldier’s mission counts despite the deaths
and protests of his soldiers. Since the beginning of the book, Cathcart’s choices led to the deaths of
Dobbs, Dunbar, Hungry Joe, McWatt, Hobbs, Kid Sampson, Nately, Snowden, Clevinger, and so many
other unnamed soldiers, as he ignores the dangers, protests, and deaths of his previous actions, all of
which could have been avoided, had he listened to the soldier’s protests. Instead of this, he sends his
men to more and more missions to more and more dangerous places like Bologna, even as his soldiers
become visibly depressed and do as much as they can to delay and avoid the mission that almost
guarantees their death.
Most horrendous of all, Colonel Cathcart seems to have little to no compassion with others. He
sees other humans as mere tools for his promotion. He sends his men to suicidal missions constantly
using other men to complete the missions for one of his favorites, and encouraging the bombing of a
mountain village just to please a general who barely knew he existed. He sent his men on missions that
almost guaranteed death such as Bologna, Ferrara, and Spezia, where countless lives were lost. He
raised the number of missions again, just so his favorite soldier could be saved, reasoning they could
fill in his missions for him, protecting him from the dangers he was sending others to. Worst of all, he
endorsed the bombing of a neutral village for the sole purpose of impressing General Pechem, as seen
when he says “Lets see you put all those bombs on a dime”, referring to the real purpose of bombing
the village, to have a “tight choreographed bomb drop, to “impress” the general, ignoring the excuse he
had made for them to bomb the village.
Colonel Cathcart’s insanity, ignorance, and inhumanity led to the sufferings and deaths of his
camp, only to have a chance for a promotion. He used Catch 22, a contradicting set of conditions that
traped his men in duty, allowing him to go beyond the moral boundaries the rest of humankind avoids.