Catch-22

Justice, or the military distortion of it, is a major theme specifically emphasized in Clevinger's trial (Chapter 8) and the interrogation of Chaplain Tappman (Chapter 36). At cadet school in Santa Ana, California (in 1943), Yossarian's friend Clevinger manages to alienate Lieutenant Scheisskopf by pointing out ways that Scheisskopf could improve morale. For his efforts, Clevinger is brought to trial in front of the Action Board. In a satirical distortion of justice, Heller makes Scheisskopf serve as the prosecutor, the officer defending Clevinger, and a member of the judging panel. Charges stem from the fact that Clevinger tripped one day while marching to class; for this, he is accused of "breaking ranks while in formation, felonious assault, indiscriminate behavior, mopery, high treason, provoking, being a smart guy, listening to classical music, and so on." After a trial that is literally a mockery, in which Heller plays with distorted logic as well as language gone askew, the author reverses the standard concept that a person is innocent until proven guilty: Clevinger is found guilty simply because he is accused. Chaplain Tappman meets a similar fate. Summoned to a cellar without due process or any explanation of charges, the chaplain is interrogated in a harsh and arbitrary manner. Eventually, he learns that he is suspected of signing a hospital letter, which Yossarian forged as a joke, and stealing a plum tomato that Colonel Cathcart actually gave him. His denials are in vain. When he claims that he is not guilty, he is asked, "Then why would we be questioning you if you weren't guilty?" Like Clevinger, Tappman is assumed to be guilty because he is accused. The process is reminiscent of the methods of U. S. Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy's Senate hearings in the 1950s, which resulted in a national witch-hunt for anyone associated with the Communist Party. Heller quotes a specific McCarthy tactic when one of the accusing officers says to the chaplain, "I have here in my hands now another statement. . . ." McCarthy sometimes would wave a handful of papers and say that he had in his hands the names of so many Communists in some branch of government; but the names would not be released and probably never existed. In the McCarthy hearings, which were front-page news as Heller wrote early drafts of this novel, the presumption of guilt replaced a presumption of innocence. In the novel, that authoritarian approach is taken by the military. (See "Introduction to the Novel" for further discussion of historical context.)