Catch-22

The narrative recounts when Nately fell in love with the sex worker, which happened on a night when she was sitting in a room with many enlisted men. She played blackjack, “naked from the waist down” (231), but garnered attention from only Nately. Even then, she quickly grew annoyed with Nately and refused his money. When Aarfy insulted the woman, Nately was offended. Aarfy continued with his insults, even though he was fixated on working for Nately’s rich father after the war “in some executive capacity” (232).

Aarfy and his terrible sense of direction are responsible for one of Yossarian’s legitimate trips to the hospital. The narrative jumps forward a couple months to this fiasco in September 1944: Aarfy is the navigator on a flight over Leghorn when bullets tear through the plane and into Yossarian’s leg; Yossarian faints. When he wakes up in the hospital, Yossarian sees his friend Dunbar, who has convinced an enlisted man named A. Fortiori to swap places with him. Yossarian does the same and becomes Homer Lumley. However, the medical staff eventually uncover the deception. Nurse Duckett drags Yossarian by his ear back to his proper bed.