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
about living, but finds power abuse to prevent him from ending his tour of duty at each step along the way. The absurdities and abuse of power in Catch-22 are very well depicted in the actions and character of Milo Minderbinder and the impact those actions have on Yossarian and the others in his group. Milo Minderbinder is a twenty-seven year old lieutenant, who in his second week becomes the mess officer after approaching Major—de Coverely with a fresh hard boiled egg.
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
power. In Chapter 22, "Milo the Mayor," Milo's travels and business deals are explained and recounted, and the power that he gets and abuses from his position as syndicate leader are expounded upon. After traveling to Palermo, Yossarian finds out that, "Milo had been elected mayor of Palermo—and of nearby Carini, Monreale, Bagheria, Termini Imerese, Cefalu, Mistretta and Nicosia as well…" (245). Milo was also Assistant Governor-General of Malta and: not only Vice-Shah of Oran, as it turned out, but also the Caliph of Baghdad, the Imam of Damascus, and the Sheik of Araby. Milo was the corn god, the rain god and the rice god in backward regions where such crude god were still worshipped by ignorant and superstitious people (247-8).

Milo uses all this power to buy and sell products on the black market and cheats the army out of their mess fund money in order to make a profit for the syndicate. In this particular trip, Orr and Yossarian tag along, and because of Milo's power he has the best lodgings and offices in each town, while Yossarian and Orr are degraded to staying with whores or sleeping on the cold metal floor of the cargo plane. Because of Milo's power, Yossarian and Orr's rest leave is completely ruined. When Milo's power is questioned by an "uncooperative fighter-plane commander" (262) in Chapter 24, General Dreedle has the pilot sent to the Solomon Islands to bury dead bodies.
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
armies. Milo is a hated character in the novel, and "Everybody but Yossarian thought Milo was a jerk, first for volunteering for the job of mess officer and next for taking it so seriously. Yossarian also thought that Milo was a jerk; but he also knew that Milo was a genius" (263). Milo is an antagonist to Yossarian and works directly against him, depriving his squadron of much needed supplies, leading to Yossarian cursing him during the Snowden affair. During one of his deliveries from German bombers, Milo even shows outrage that the Americans would confiscate their goods and imprison the pilots. He is clearly working against the American army in this affair. Milo works for no one but himself. While he claims that everyone profits from the syndicate, the only thing he really cares about is making money for himself and using his influence and power to coerce others to give him exactly what he needs in order to continue making money. He does not stop at diminishing fleets of planes, but even taps into supplies to make the profit that he so desperately desires. In performing these actions he shows no regard for anyone but himself and will do what he feels he needs to do at all costs. Milo is an authority figure and an abuser of power and therefore an antagonist to Yossarian, who shuns all authority and at the end claims that he will no longer be a puppet to his commanding officers designs.