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Catch-22 Chapter 9: Major Major Major Major
Major Major, absurdly named by his joking father, is promoted to the rank of major by an IBM computer glitch. All Major Major desires is acceptance and companionship, yet he is continually ostracized in cadet school. He is excluded from squadron basketball games, and disliked by fellow officers due to his speedy promotion and his resemblance to actor Henry Fonda. Promoted prematurely to squadron commander, Major Major Major has no idea what he is expected to do. Bored and depressed, he begins signing "Washington Irving" on official documents after two strange C.I.D. men question him regarding the forging incidents at the hospital. Major Major Major becomes reclusive and instructs his assistant, Sergeant Towser, to admit visitors only when Major Major is out of his office. Major Major no longer takes meals in the mess hall and he jumps out the window of his tent to avoid his office workers and visitors.
"With a little ingenuity and vision, he had made it all but impossible for anyone in the squadron to talk to him, which was just fine with everyone, he noticed, since no one wanted to talk to him anyway." Chapter 9, pg. 111
Only Yossarian manages to tackle and speak to the antisocial major. Major Major thinks Yossarian is a freak because he carries on about a dead man in his tent and because he went naked to receive an award for heroism from General Dreedle. Yossarian asks Major Major to take him off combat duty. Major Major lamely replies that there is nothing he can do.
