Catch 22 begins in a military hospital with John Yossarian on the island of Pianosa. He's in the hospital because he's sick and the doctors aren't entirely sure why he's sick, so they're just treating him for constipation. While there he is assigned the task of censoring letters sent from the hospital to soldiers' homes. Play with these letters, for example blacking out all the adjectives and sometimes eliminating every a, an and the from the letters. This is strange because when you think about the military they're supposed to be like a brotherhood, so you'd think he'd want letters from his fellow soldiers to get home to their families, but instead he basically destroys the messages in them. Yossarian, like any other sane individual, does not want to go back to fighting; he understands that if he remains in poor health they will no longer be able to send him on missions. The doctors think there is something wrong with Yossarian's liver so they give him a fruit that is supposed to help your liver and make you healthy. Yossarian never eats the fruit because he knows it will make him feel better and that's what he doesn't want. Yossarian has flown nearly forty missions, and forty is the required number of missions to complete to return home. He is now told that the required number of missions for discharge is a maximum of fifty. Every time Yossarian is close to being able to leave the requirement is increased even more and this makes Yossarian just want to go home. This shows the corruption of the military during World War II. The fact that they had to continue to increase the number of missions completed shows that the military was desperate for good soldiers. In 1944, when Catch-22 takes place, there was no draft. The draft... in the middle of the paper... makes a good impression in the eyes of the country. But Yossarian rejects the deal proving that he may be the only ranking officer untouched by corruption. In the novel Catch – 22 Joseph Heller is trying to prove that there is military corruption out there. He wants people to know that the military wants to make itself look good. He wants you to see what really happens, not what higher-ranking officials want you to know. With power comes corruption, they go hand in hand if you are able to make yourself look better to get more power, you will if you want that power. It also tries to convey the idea that there are good people and that even if some people act in self-interest and do shady things to be praised, there are still good people. Works Cited Joseph., Heller,. Catch-22 a novel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. Print.