Paradoxical situations occur all the time, and people cannot escape situations or take advantage of them because taking action is impossible. In Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22, these paradoxes occur many times. The paradoxes, called Catch-22, trap Yossarian, an Air Force pilot from the 256th Squadron, in an endless cycle of despair that he desperately wants to escape. However, Catch-22 not only affects Yossarian but also his entire squadron. The military bureaucracy uses Catch-22 to control soldiers and appear innocent, as if the soldiers are in control of themselves, at the same time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Yossarian first encounters Catch-22 when he requests to be sent home and relieved from combat duty. He tells Doctor Daneeka that he, Yossarian, is crazy and should be grounded or not allowed to carry out any more missions. However, asking to be sent home due to insanity proves his sanity; therefore, Catch-22 prevents him from leaving regardless of his sanity:There was only one problem and that was Catch-22, which specified that concern for one's safety in the face of real and immediate danger was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be punished. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did that, he would no longer be crazy and would have to do more missions. Orr would have been crazy to do more missions and would have been sane if he hadn't, but if he was sane he should have done them. If he let them fly he was crazy and shouldn't have done it; but if he didn't want to, he was in his right mind and should do it. Even if it's just a simple paradox, Catch-22 is brilliant. Escaping from Catch-22 is impossible because, regardless of what action Yossarian takes, he ends up in exactly the same place he was before. Ultimately, Yossarian tries to outsmart Catch-22 by attempting to fly the number of missions requested by his commanding officer, Colonel Cathcart. However, whenever someone actually reaches the number of missions required to return home, Colonel Cathcart simply increases the number of missions. Once again, Yossarian finds himself captured by Catch-22, controlled by the military bureaucracy and forced to do its will, but the members of the bureaucracy appear innocent because they cannot send Yossarian home unless he is insane, and according to Catch-22, Yossarian is completely sane. Another example of these recurring paradoxes occurs when Captain Black initiates a Loyalty Oath Crusade. Captain Black begins making his men sign an oath of allegiance every time they want to do something, from eating to using a vehicle, to affirm their loyalty to the United States. However, he refuses to let Major Major sign a loyalty oath because Captain Black becomes convinced that Major Major is a communist and therefore should not be allowed to sign any loyalty oath: "From now on I will make sure that every son of a bitch who comes to my intelligence tent signs an oath of allegiance. And I won't let that bastard Major Major sign one, even if he wants to.” Because Major Major can't sign an oath even if he does wanted, he is a communist and, according to Captain Black, Major Major is a communist, so he would not sign the oath even if he could. Although Captain Black, who represents the military bureaucracy, does not explicitly mention this indirect use of Catch-22 when initiate the Oaths of.