by Arden Davidson

Created on: October 04, 2009

No female character plays a particularly prominent role in Joseph Heller's Catch-22. However women in general significantly influence the thoughts and behaviors of the novel's protagonist, Yossarian, as well as the other male characters. Women, for Yossarian and his comrades, are objects of desire that arouse them and captivate their emotions. Yossarian falls instantly 'in love' with just about every woman he meets, from Dreedle's nurse, to the maid, to the bald prostitute, to Mrs. Scheisskopf, to "Nately's whore". Unfortunately, none of these women do much to break the stereotypes of women either being sexual objects, men's caretakers (i.e, nurses and maids) or inane or insane.

Discussions about women among the men provide evidence that even though the word "love" is thrown around quite frequently, what is really meant by the term is "lust". Even women who the men consider to be strong and intelligent are still described primarily in terms of their body parts. For example Nurse Duckett is described as a "tall, spare, mature, straight-backed woman with a prominent well-rounded ass, small breasts and angular ascetic New England features that came equally close to being very lovely and very plain" (274).

What is most interesting about the description of Nurse Duckett is that because she is considered to be "able, prompt, strict and intelligent" (274)...a woman who "welcomed responsibility and kept her head in every crisis" (274)...a woman who "was adult and self-reliant, and there was nothing she needed from anyone" (274), one would think that she would garner respect. However instead, Yossarian pitied her and decided to "help her" by slipping "his hand stealthily into the narrow space between her knees" (274).

There is also an indication that women in the novel are seen as prizes - that is, something to be pursued and won, much like a trophy in a sport. For example, Nately makes it clear that he has more than just a passing interest in his "whore", which naturally evokes in Yossarian a need to possess her as his own. Once again, the terms used to describe a female character are framed almost solely in terms of her body parts: "Her breasts were pointy and large in the thin white sleeveless sweater she wore that squeezed each contour and flowed outward smoothly with the tops of her enticing hips" (269). It is almost as if an auctioneer is describing her attributes and awarding her to the highest bidder.

Also in stereotypical fashion, female characters in the

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