There are a great deal of characters in the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

Yossarian

Captain John Yossarian is the protagonist of the 1961 novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. He is a captain in the 256th squadron of the Army Air Corps (which later became the US Air Force). The character is based on Joseph Heller himself; both were bombardiers in the Air Corps during World War II, both were stationed on islands off the coast of Italy, and both lost crew members when their plane was attacked on their 37th flight to bomb the city of Avignon.

Yossarian is also the protagonist of Catch-22's sequel, Closing Time, published in 1994. Although Heller describes his roots as being "Assyrian", his name indicates an Armenian background.

Yossarian's main concern in life is that people are trying to kill him, a justifiable qualm considering he is fighting a war. Because of this, Yossarian tries repeatedly to get grounded. His primary method is to feign either illness or insanity. He can feign illness easily because he claims to have a liver condition, something doctors cannot easily help him with. As such, he spends much time in the hospital, out of the war. The barrier that blocks him from getting grounded and sent home is a rule known as Catch-22.

As the plane's bombardier, he is known for directing his pilot to fly with wild banking, climbing and diving manouvers to avoid enemy fire.

"Aarfy" Aardvark

Captain Aardvark, a character in Joseph Heller's magnum opus "Catch-22," giggles in serious situations and takes pleasure in others' pain. He is oblivious to incoming flak near his bomber, and punches thrown by the main character Yossarian are absorbed into his belly without apparent effect. The consequences of his encounter with a sexually promiscuous Roman maid, Michaela, form an emotional center of the novel.

Captain Black

Captain Black (first name unknown) was the squadron intelligence officer in the 256^th Army Air Force squadron, in the 1961 Joseph Heller novel, Catch-22. Because of the lack of risk involved in not flying missions, he presumed to take over Major Duluth's position as squadron commander when said Major was killed over Perugia. He was thwarted, however, by Major Major Major Major who was appointed by Colonel Cathcart.

Captain Black felt he'd been cheated by the hapless Major and nursed a grudge that culminated in the Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade. This was a system devised by Captain Black in which one must sign one or more loyalty oaths to do anything, including pick up maps and flak suits for combat duty, all while preventing Major Major Major from signing any at all. The crusade came to an abrupt halt when Major_----_de_Coverley waved away a loyalty oath and demanded that Milo "Give everybody eat!"

Captain Black is also known for taunting Lieutenant Nately about his sexual exploits with Nately's Whore.

Colonel Cathcart

Colonel Cathcart is a character in Joseph Heller's Catch 22. He is the squadron commander based in Pianosa and is obsessed with becoming a general. As such, he does whatever it takes to please his superiors, particularly, by raising the number of missions the men have to fly to complete a tour of duty, beyond that normally ordered by other outfits. This becomes the bane of Yossarian's life.

In his attempts to please nearly everyone, Cathcart discovers that all the other soldiers hate him. This perspective lives largely in his mind. But it affects his relationships with the others and they soon begin to actually dislike and/or avoid him. His paranoid behavior grows throughout the book.

Clevinger

Clevinger is a character in Joseph Heller's classic novel Catch-22. Like Yossarian, Clevinger is part of an air crew in a bomber squadron operating out of a small island in the Mediterranian.

Clevinger is a complete opposite of Yossarian, in his completely naïve view of the world. During his training he is put on trial for no apparent reason. In this trial, which is one of the most powerful reflections on human character throughout the book, Clevinger learns how someone you don't even know can badly want to kill you. He is put on trial by Lieutenant Scheisskopf, who is the prosecutor, defence lawyer, and one of 3 judges. There is no formal charge against him, other than the suspicion by Scheisskopf that he was smart, and therefore troublesome. Charges are added during the course of the trial for trivial things such as not saying "Sir" to an officer and is grilled as to the exact timing of when he didn't tell Yossarian about his thoughts on the trial. This trial is Heller's way of describing the most absurd bureaucracy.

Despite this experience, throughout his service in Pianosa, Clevinger still exhibits a complete lack of cyncism, and some would argue - realism. He refuses to accept Yossarian's theory about everybody trying to kill him, until he himself vanishes with his plane into a cloud. His whereabouts are never known, although Yossarian believes there's a possibility that Clevinger went AWOL.

Nurse Cramer

Nurse Cramer is a fictional character from the novel Catch-22. She is the best friend of Nurse Duckett. After Nurse Duckett starts a relationship with Yossarian, Nurse Cramer stops speaking to her, but they're still spending their spare time together.

Major Danby

A character in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22. He is a college professor and intellectual who sees himself as a poor match for the armed services. He briefs the airmen on upcoming missions. He is almost shot for subordination -- sighing after a demand for silence -- by General Dreedle. Along with Chaplain Tappman, Hungry Joe, Nately, and Orr, he is one of the few soldiers with whom the main character Yossarian maintains a decent relationship throughout the novel.

Doc Daneeka

In Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22, Doc Daneeka is Yossarian's friend, the squadron's doctor. Catch 22 is first explained to Yossarian when he asks Daneeka to excuse him from combat duty.

He feels that his problems are infinitely worse than anyone else's (He was drafted just as he was making tons of money by taking patients of other drafted doctors) and spends his time getting his temperature checked by his assistants. He is basically a tool of the Army (He could ground the men by declaring them ill-fit for combat, but refuses to do so for fear that he will be shipped off to the Pacific front). He gets in his flight hours by convincing McWatt to put him on the flight roster and ends up being declared dead when McWatt smashes into a mountain. The Army declares him dead rather than admit that the roster might be wrong. Daneeka's wife collects GI insurance and many other donations in Doc's name and, in the end, prefers him dead to alive.

Mrs. Daneeka

Mrs. Daneeka is a fictional character from the novel Catch-22. She is the wife of Doc Daneeka, the squadron's doctor. After Doc Daneeka presumably gets killed in the suicide of McWatt, a bomber pilot who crashed his plane into a mountain after he accidentally killed Kid Sampson, and therefore was officially declared dead. After the official announcement that her husband died, she also received a letter from him in which he begged her to make clear to the defense department that he wasn't dead. She tried, but failed. After that, the money from the insurance policies and from several veteran's organisations started trickling in, and she decided that she was better off with her husband dead and moved with her kids into another state altogether.

Major — de Coverley

A character in the Joseph Heller novel Catch-22 with a terrifying visage - so much so that nobody has ever managed to find out his real name. Also uncertain is the exact nature of his duties within the bomber group, but he is noted for being alongside the allied armies as they liberate an Italian city. After arriving in a newly freed city he secures residences for both the officers and enlisted men in the group, so that they might have quarters for use while on leave.

First encountered throwing horseshoes, he goes missing in combat after spearheading the liberation of an Italian city, and having the old man from the whore-house throw a flower into his eye.

Dobbs

Dobbs is a fictional character in the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. He is a pilot, and is flying the plane when Snowden is killed. Dobbs tries to enlist Yossarian's help in murdering Colonel Cathcart. Dobbs is killed along with Lieutenant Nately over La Spezia.

Nurse Duckett

Nurse Duckett is a fictional character from the novel Catch-22. Nurse Sue Ann Duckett is one of the ward nurses in the hospital where Yossarian gets treated. She is the best friend of Nurse Cramer. Also, she will have a liaison with Yossarian (see chapter 30).

Her name seems to signify "Duck it" as she often does during the novel.

Dunbar

Dunbar is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's magnum opus Catch-22.

Dunbar's chief goal is to prolong his life to whatever extent possible. In this respect, he and Yossarian are quite similar, and so they make fast friends. However, Dunbar's method for his life's prolongment is vastly different from Yossarian's: Dunbar realizes that if he only lives his life occupied with only the most boring or unpleasant tasks, his life will be - subjectively, at least - very, very long.

Havermeyer

Havermeyer is a fictional character from the novel Catch-22. Although seemingly the most brave, calculating airman, it is later revealed that, in private, Havermeyer has become completely twisted by his experience at war. We see this most at the end of Chapter 3 in which Havermeyer takes sadistic pleasure in the shooting of field mice.

Hungry Joe

Hungry Joe is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22. He is noted in the novel for constantly trying to photograph women nude, claiming to be a photographer for Life Magazine (which, ironically, he actually is). His pictures never come out; reportedly, he chokes by leaving the lens cap on or forgetting to put film in the camera. Like most men in the novel, he tries to have sex with these women as well, and likewise he fails, for reasons the novel never explores. Huple's cat repeatedly sleeps on his face, thereby suffocating him until the last moment when he wakes up. He eventually dies when he does not wake up, causing him to suffocate.

Major x4

Major Major Major Major is a fictional character in the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. He has the surname Major, and at birth his father gave him the given name Major, and the middle name Major. The novel presumes this was a joke on his father's part, and notes that it is not a particularly funny one.

Inducted during World War II, he is promoted from the rank of Private to the rank of Major while still in boot camp, without any officer training. This is either through a computer error, or as the story puts it, a computer's sense of humor on par with his father's.

Throughout the novel, it is revealed that he can never be promoted or demoted, because, for dubious reasons, he must always remain Major Major Major Major.

Woefully unprepared to be an officer, he spends most of his time avoiding members of his command. He often enters and exits his office via the window. Yossarian successfully confronts him by meeting him at the window. As the novel progresses, the character develops to show he is not as helpless as it would initially appear.

His father, mentioned only briefly in the novel, is also interesting. He is one of the richest farmers in his home community, while at the same time he did not grow any crops. He earned his money from a farm subsidy granted for not growing crops — and used the money to buy up more farmland to leave fallow. He often preaches that being given money for performing no work is divinely ordained. He preaches the famous phrase, "You reap what you sow,", a very ironic phrase to use when he in fact reaped (was paid) what he did not sow (that is, alfalfa).

All told, MAJ Major M. Major and his father add to the theme, present thoughout the novel, highlighting the absurdity of a bureaucracy.

McWatt

McWatt is a fictional character created by novelist Joseph Heller in the novel Catch-22.

He is the pilot of Yossarian's plane, and is known for his dangerous maneuvers. He loves to fly very low near Yossarian's tent and thus scaring Yossarian white and making him mad. He has a very flippant view of life as his catch phrase is, "Oh well, what the hell?" However, he later commits suicide by crashing his plane on purpose, because he has accidentally killed the character Kid Sampson by cutting him in half with the propellers of his plane during a training exercise.

Milo Minderbinder

Milo Minderbinder, also Milo for short, is a character in Joseph Heller's classic novel Catch-22. Milo is the messhall officer at the base in which the novel takes place before he becomes obssessed with expanding mess operations and trading goods for his enterprise. Milo's character is a satire of the modern businessman, as he has no allegiance to any country unless it pays him.

Milo, like most characters in Catch-22, is the subject of his own chapter (chapter 24) but is mentioned much earlier. He is one of the main characters in the novel. His most interesting attribute is his absurd logic in the operations of his enterprise.

Milo's enterprise becomes known as "M & M Enterprises", with the two M's standing for his initials and the "&" added to dispel the myth that the enterprise is a one man operation. Milo travels across the world, though mainly the Mediterranean, trying to buy and sell goods at a profit. Everyone in the camp has a "share", which Milo uses to defend his actions, stating what is good for the company is good for all. Milo even begins contracting missions for the Germans, fighting on both sides during one battle, and bombing his own US camp.

In typical Catch-22 satirical fashion, Milo's business is incredibly profitable, with the exception of his attempts to sell chocolate-covered cotton.

Milo is a friend of the main character, Yossarian, and tends to trust Yossarian more than he trusts anyone.

Mudd

Mudd, a character in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22, is the dead man in Yossarian's tent. He was killed in action before signing in properly, due to some record fiddling by Doc Daneeka aiming to fraudulently gain his combat duty bonus. Because he died before officially arriving in the squadron, his name cannot be removed, and he lives on permanently on record in Yossarian's tent, despite all efforts to remove him. When Yossarian's new roommates solve this problem by simply throwing away the dead man's things, Yossarian panics, afraid that he can be disposed of just as easily.

Nately

Lieutenant Nately is a character in Joseph Heller's war novel Catch-22.

He starts off the book as a 19 year old lieutenant, who came from a very rich and respected family. His family originally enlisted him to serve in the Air Corps because he would, according to their calculations, not see the war because they believed that it would be over by the time he finished his training, and during his training mingle with "gentlemen". Therefore, Nately could gain the pride of enlisting without actually having to fight. Instead, he mingled with Yossarian and Dunbar, and was sent overseas. His most notable contribution to the book is his involvement with a whore, who is for the most part uninterested in him until he gave her some time to sleep. He is often filled with American optimism, shown by his desire to marry his "whore" and send her kid sister to a respected American college. However, he is killed on a mission over La Spezia.

Nately's Whore

Nately's Whore is a fictional character in the Joseph Heller novel Catch-22.

She is portrayed as a very tired prostitute who really has no interest in sex. She would rather sleep. She is constantly hounded by her sister (who Heller rather pedantically refers to as "Nately's Whore's kid sister"). Therefore, Lieutenant Nately (who is madly in love with her), cannot convince her to engage in a (meaningful) relationship with him; she engages him sexually, but it is cold and mechanical. However, when she finally does get some rest, she falls as madly in love with Nately as he did for her. When she was still a prostitute, Captain Black would frequently sleep with her just to rub it in Nately's face.

When Nately is killed on a bomb run, she blames his death on Yossarian, and spends the rest of the book trying to kill him. She eventually manages to severely stab him, but not to the point of death. She nearly succeeds in stabbing him at the end of the novel, but he jumps in time to save himself.

Kid Sister

Nately's Whore's Kid Sister is a character from Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22. Her real name is never mentioned, and Heller only refers to her in terms of her relationship with her sister, even though she is specifically mentioned more than once.

The Old Man in Rome

The Old Man in Rome, a character in Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, is an elderly man who runs a whore house in Rome, and is beloved by the girls that service soldiers from Yossarian's unit.

The old man's politics infuriate Nately, who believes whole-heartedly in loyalty and patriotism. The old man, however, believes whole-heartedly in whoever has power at the moment. He supported the Italians when they ran the country, the Germans when a puppet government was installed and after Italy was liberated he supported the Americans. Nately is incensed by the old man's lack of loyalty, but cannot refute the man's argument that he will outlast whoever is in power because of the way he changes loyalty so easily. The old man can be considered a model and a symbol for a successful politician, as his ideological stance is as easy to nail down as water. As such he can move with the times and exploit the situation for his good. His age, 107, can also be interpreted as how long (metaphorically) a politician's reign in office will be if he becomes as fluid as this.

Orr

Orr is another of the myriad characters in Joseph Heller's Catch-22. He is presumed a simpleton by the other characters, but is eventually revealed to have had the clearest view of the absurdities of their situation. He is also very mechanically adept, as he manages to make he and Yossarian (his bunk mate) a veritable palace out of a (slightly oversized) tent.

Orr has a bucktoothed smile and frequently puts crab apple's in his cheeks and chestnuts in his hands. He never gives any explanation for this other than he wants big cheeks. An incident with an un-named prostitute in a Roman hotel is one of the most puzzling and elusive things about Orr (at least in Yossarian's view), and it is never entirely explained to the reader: apparently, she was hired to jump up and down in the nude, and hit a giggling, equally naked Orr on the head with her heeled shoes. Each time she jumped and hit him, Orr giggled louder, making her even more (seemingly) angry; she would then jump higher and hit him harder, causing him to giggle even more. The vicious cycle ended when she put him out cold, leaving him with a concussion. Orr was paying her to do this as a potential way to escape the war, but she does not do enough damage for him to be returned home.

Orr may be a play on words for 'oar', as at times Orr seems to be "up a creek without a paddle". In the end, however, he always survives, and eventually rows his way to Sweden to escape the war.

Kid Sampson

Kid Sampson is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's book Catch-22. Sampson is cut in half by the propeller of McWatt's airplane.

Lieutenant Scheisskopf

Lieutenant Scheisskopf is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's novel Catch 22.

Scheisskopf's military rank changes throughout the book. He goes from "Colonel Scheisskopf" to "General Scheisskopf" in a what seems to be a matter of days.

It is interesting to note that "Scheisskopf" literally translates from the German as "Shit Head", a title by which characters in the book occasionally refer to him.

Scheisskopf seems to want a quiet life, being only interested in parades, and not beating or having sex with his wife (much to her dismay). Due to a running battle between two of the Generals, his parades are cancelled, to his great chagrin. He only recovers when General Peckem allows the compromise that he will be able to officially cancel the nonexistent parades, as and when he wants, thus indicating that he could have had a parade if he had wanted.

Snowden

Snowden is a character appearing in Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (ISBN 0684833395).

Snowden's character is vital to Heller's story, acting as catalyst for fundamental change in the mentality of the main character Yossarian.

Snowden is a member of Yossarian's flight on a mission during World War II (the setting of the novel). After their plane takes heavy anti-aircraft fire, Snowden is mortally wounded. Yossarian attempts to come to Snowden's aid and does his best to treat his wounds. Critically, however, Yossarian only notices and treats a wound on Snowden's leg. Eventually Yossarian notices the major wound, a belly/chest wound, and realizes that his care for Snowden was useless and there was nothing he could have done to save him. Snowden grows weak and cold in the chill of high altitude flight, and dies muttering "I'm so cold." In a last, vain effort to save him, Yossarian tries to warm the boy up by wrapping him in a parachute.

When Snowden dies, the contents of his intestines and other body-matter empty out onto his uniform. The sight shocks and horrifies Yossarian who realizes that a body without a soul is simply an empty shell, which is nothing more than garbage.

The experience on the plane and his realization after Snowden's death quickly and dramatically changes Yossarian's attitude towards life. He now looks only to protect his own life and, to a lesser extent, the lives of his close friends. Yossarian also turns against the military after this flight and refuses to wear a uniform. His justification is that Snowden died in one, and his remains were soaked into Yossarian's.

The Soldier in White

The soldier in white is a fictional character in the novel Catch-22.

Located in the hospital, he is totally wrapped in bandages, and two bottles are connected to him. One bottle feeds into his arm, the other drains from a catheter. However, the arrangement is made unusual because both bottles contain an identical and unidentified clear liquid. When the first bottle is empty and the second bottle is full, they are switched, to repeat the process again. His temperature is taken daily, and ultimately, his death is noted by that information alone.

This obvious case of poor medical practice is barely acknowledged by the novel, to highlight the absurdity of the military bureaucracy.

The character of the soldier in white is an enigmatic one, symbolic of many people throughout the novel. Yossarian considers that he has been murdered, at first by Nurse Cramer or by the Texan. The novel's characters also develop the supposition that he is a negro, and is wrapped in bandages to hide his presence in a segregated hospital. The supposition is also raised that there is no body within the bandages, a literally hollow man to counterpoint the emptiness of the other characters.

The Chaplain

Chaplain Albert T. Tappman (A.T. Tappman) (usually simply referred to as "The Chaplain") is one of the main characters in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22. A naïve Anabaptist minister, Chaplain Tappman is tormented by his assistant, Corporal Whitcomb. He is the only character in the book Yossarian truly trusts.

Interestingly, this was not his original name. In the original version of the book, Chaplain Tappman was called "R. O. Shipman", and this was changed by about the third edition (possibly some name conflict with a politician or personality name).

Many of the C.I.D. men that have been dispatched to his squadron are convinced that he has been intercepting Major Major Major Major's mail and signing them Washington Irving.

Corporal Whitcomb

Corporal Whitcomb is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's book Catch-22. He lives with the Group Chaplain, Chaplain Tappman, away from the other members of the squadron. Although an atheist, he feels that he could be a better chaplain and that Tappman is constantly trying to prevent him from using his good ideas. In particular, Whitcomb is pushes and eventually gains the adoption of general forms to be sent to deceased men's families.

Chief White Halfoat

Chief White Halfoat is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's book Catch-22. Before he got enlisted for the US Army Air Corps, Halfoat lived in several states. Anywhere he and his family went, oil was found. Soon, every major oil company in the United states was following them. Anytime they tried to settle down, they were moved away because oil had been discovered. Eventually, the oil companies started drilling ahead of where Chief Halfoat and his family might go, so they had nowhere to go. He was enlisted in the nick of time, as his family did not have anywhere to settle. When the men thought they had discovered oil on Pianosa, Halfoat was immediately kicked off of the base.

Chief White Halfoat was also a heavy whiskey drinker, and vowed to die of pneumonia, which, in the end, he did.

ex-PFC Wintergreen

Ex-Private First Class Wintergreen is a character from Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22. He is an "Ex-PFC" because of his constant urge to go AWOL. Ex-PFC Wintergreen wields a great deal of power in the novel, being responsible for mail distribution, and attempts to compete with Milo's syndicate by selling zippo lighters.