"Insanity is contagious." (Heller, 14) Insanity is something Yossarian wishes that he could catch. To his disappointment, the only thing that he will catch, is a quandary known as a catch-22. All that Yossarian wants, is to make it safely back to his home in the United States, but his absurd superiors and the catch-22 make it nearly impossible for him to do so. Yossarian is an undercover genius, who acts like a madman in an attempt to escape his situation. When Heller first introduces the protagonist, Captain John Yossarian, one might believe he is mad because he enjoys being ill in a hospital. Later, the reader finds out that Yossarian is there only to wait out the war. This led me to believe that he is a genius because although his strategy is a bit selfish, it is keeping him alive and well. It is not until Yossarian asked to be grounded that the first catch-22 comes into play. …show more content…
The first catch Yossarian comes across is when he is denied his request to be grounded. He requested to be grounded because he insisted he was crazy, and if you are crazy, you are not allowed to fly anymore. The logic behind why he was denied was that if he was crazy, he would not be asking to be dismissed, he would want to keep fighting. This goes to prove the point that he is in fact genius, because if he was mad, he surely would not have confessed to his insanity. After this catch-22, Yossarian started keeping track of other catch-22's he came