Catch-22: Allusions 4 key examples

The reference to Saul alludes to the book of Samuel. Saul was the first king of the united Kingdom of Israel, but he was not held in great esteem by many of his people after he was shown to be greedy. Samuel, a shepherd, tells Saul that he has lost the support of God, and Saul feels great anger and misery. He hides in his tent among his camp and refuses to leave; David and his men steal a spear and helmet from him while he sleeps.

This allusion is quite a strange one from Heller, because Saul and Major Major are not all that similar. Major Major's defining qualities are that he is mediocre and that he is chosen as a major in a cruel joke by an IBM machine. Saul was chosen as monarch through an arduous process by which Samuel decided among various clans and tribes who would be the leader of a united Israel. The reasons why they hide in their tents resemble each other only in the vaguest ways: Saul is at specific odds with David, in a bitter conflict, and hides in his tent among his camp; everyone in company on Pianosa dislikes Major Major simply because he is their inferior in skill and experience but still their superior in rank. Heller's reference to Saul lacks much historical or biblical rigor.

Furthermore, it is odd to see a biblical reference in Catch-22, which otherwise is an irreligious text. The discussion of God in the novel surrounds how Yossarian and other characters do not believe in him. Comparing Saul to Major Major stands out, then, as an odd and inscrutable allusion.

Heller references the first lines of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" and does so in such an obvious way that it comes across as parody. This is the beginning of the original poem:

"April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

Winter kept us warm, covering

Earth in forgetful snow, feeding

A little life with dried tubers."

Heller is, of course, subverting Eliot: April had been the best month for Milo, not the cruelest. The references to lilacs and fruit on the vine drive the point home. But Eliot was himself subverting Geoffrey Chaucer, in the first few lines of the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, one of the first major poetic works in the English language (here translated into modern English):

"When that April with his showers sweet,

The drought of March hath pierced to the root,

And bathed every vine in such liquor

Of which virtue engendered is the flower [...]"

So Heller's version of April agrees with Chaucer: both find it a pleasant and fair month. But Heller's description has a sarcastic ring that is not in Chaucer. The sarcasm comes both from Heller's inevitable tone built up through the book and from the cultural knowledge of this phrase having gone from Chaucer to Heller through Eliot. Heller is making a self-conscious spoof of both. Allusions are not always made with a positive feeling to the original source: here Heller is parodying Eliot, making fun of his famous lines by using the opposite of them. (Earlier in the book, "T.S. Eliot" is used as a code name, and none of the officers know who he is; Heller, a longtime English professor, lambastes Eliot at multiple points.)

There are notable similarities, however, between the versions of April in "The Waste Land" and Catch-22. In Eliot's poem, April is cruel because even though the preceding winter was destructive and barren, life still returns; Eliot sees this as a cruel forgetting of the winter's suffering. In comparison, Milo is having an excellent April, in which he steals money from the other soldiers through his immoral schemes. This is similar to Eliot's April: Milo is pulling his own benefits out of a bad situation, like "lilacs out of dead land." Within Heller's parodying tone, the allusion to Eliot still helps to describe Milo's thieving ways.

Heller is referencing the well-publicized remark of Charles E. Wilson, former chief executive of General Motors, during his hearings for his appointment to the Secretary of Defense by Dwight Eisenhower, in which Wilson said, "What's good for General Motors is good for the country." (Milo himself would be unaware of this remark, since this hearing took place in 1953, and Milo wrote this note in 1944.)

"What's good for General Motors is good for the country" was the widely publicized, and widely remembered, version of the quote. The real version, though, was slightly different. Wilson was asked whether he would be willing as Secretary to make a decision that would negatively affect GM if it helped the country, and he said that such a decision was not possible, because "What would be good for the country would be good for GM and vice versa." The above version, "What's good for General Motors is good for the country," is much better known, probably because it depicts more simply the character of greedy capitalists, rather than Wilson's truer, more nuanced opinion. 

One major purpose of Heller's allusion is to inflect the novel with the feeling of the 50s. This is common throughout the novel (with "loyalty oaths" and IBM computers, among other things). Milo is just the sort of money-pinching capitalist who became part of the American cultural imagination more thoroughly in the 50s, a comparison strengthened by the allusion to Wilson. Heller also seeks to make a comment on the connection of American manufacturing to the war effort, often for the economic self-interest of certain individuals. Milo is meant to satirize greedy defense contractors who sacrifice quality for profit, and the allusion emphasizes this satire. In addition, Heller was likely aware of the real quote and chose to use the inaccurate one on purpose. This is partially because the inaccurate quote simply sounds better. But it is also because Heller, in Catch-22, sought to use the American perception of the 50s in his satire, even if it different from real historical evidence; in other words, he used the quote as it was remembered in culture, not as it really was said. The inaccuracy of the quote, as alluded to in the novel, drives home Heller's intention.

Korn compares Yossarian to Achilles, the hero of the Iliad, an ancient Greek epic poem by the legendary poet Homer. In the Iliad, Achilles is a demigod hero, and he is the greatest soldier among the Greek army. But while the rest of the Greek soldiers are fighting the Trojan War, Achilles stays in his tent, refusing to fight. Korn notes that Yossarian is acting like Achilles, and he is proud of his clever allusion to an ancient poem.

But Korn's allusion to the Iliad is inaccurate. When Korn hears that Yossarian refuses to fight because Nately died in the fight over Spezia, Korn is indeed reminded of Achilles. This is because Korn, misremembering the Iliad, thinks that Achilles refused to fight because of the death of his great friend and lover, Patroclus. This is not what happens in the poem. In fact, Achilles refused to fight because he was publicly slighted by Agamemnon, the Greek commander. Achilles's ego was hurt, and he stayed in his tent for months with Patroclus. It is true that Patroclus, like Nately over Spezia, does die in the poem. But this is only when Patroclus offers to fight on Achilles's behalf. It is Patroclus's death that finally spurs Achilles to action. So Korn, remembering that Achilles had a friend who died in the Iliad, makes the connection between Yossarian and the ancient hero. But that allusion is incorrect.

This still constitutes an allusion from Heller to the Iliad, but a misremembered allusion through a not-so-well-read character. This particular allusion, though, indicates to the reader what is coming for the remainder of the book. This erroneous reference to the Iliad signals that the remainder of the book will be a sort of Iliad, but an Iliad imagined and remembered incorrectly. The Iliad as a whole is full of gruesome and direct portrayals of violence, with repetitive depictions of blood and gore. The later parts of Catch-22, from Chapter 38 to the end, are full of an Iliad-like series of violence. Through this particular allusion to the Iliad, Heller indicates that the rest of the book will be violent like the ancient poem, but also full of people like Korn, who do not know what they are talking about.