Havermeyer (Catch-22)

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Havermeyer is a character from Joseph Heller's classic novel Catch-22, and is the title for Chapter 3.

Havermeyer lives in the tent next to Yossarian's, and according to Colonel Cathcart he is "the best damn bombardier we've got." This was because he insisted on flying his plane dead straight to, over, and past the target despite any anti-aircraft fire he receives. He has a notorious fondness for peanut brittle, and its crumbs are nearly constantly on his face. He even admits to the squadron that he gets a kick out out flying straight through flak as other planes in his flight catch fire and crash, and relishes the hatred of the men in his plane. This is starkly contrasted with Yossarian's strategy of wild maneuvering, mission be damned. While Havermeyer is an unsympathetic character, his human side is revealed in his confession to Yossarian that he would like to refuse to stop flying missions as well, but he does not want to disgrace his wife and child.

[edit] Shooting Mice

Although seemingly the most brave, calculating airman, it is later revealed that, in private, Havermeyer has become completely twisted by his experience at war. We see this most at the end of Chapter 3 in which Havermeyer takes sadistic pleasure in the shooting of field mice with the .45 he steals from the dead man in Yossarian's tent, Lt. Mudd. He uses candy as a bait and when a mouse starts to nibble, Havermeyer would turn on a bright light so that the animal would freeze. He would wait for the mouse's eyes to fall on his, and then he would laugh and pull the trigger showering mouse all over the tent.