Major Major Major Major
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Major Major Major Major is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's classic novel Catch-22.
[edit] Fictional character biography
He has the surname Major, and at birth his father gave him the first and middle names Major and Major, despite informing the mother that he had named the boy 'Caleb' in accordance with her wishes. She only discovers Major Major Major's real first and middle names when his birth certificate is required for him to enter kindergarten, and the shock leads to her death. The novel explains this was a joke on his father's part, and notes that it is not a particularly funny one.
Inducted during World War II, he is promoted from Private to Major while still in boot camp, without attending the Officers Training Corps or any advance warning at all. This is caused by an IBM machine with a "sense of humor almost as keen as his father's". A recurring joke in the book is that he bears a striking resemblance to Henry Fonda, even to the point of some people thinking that he is in fact Henry Fonda. In an interview, Heller states that he would imagine Major Major to either be played "by Henry Fonda or by somebody who looks nothing like Henry Fonda."
During the novel, it is revealed that he can never be promoted nor demoted, because the army has only one Major Major Major Major and Ex-PFC Wintergreen does not intend to let this change.
Major Major was also promoted to squadron commander after his predecessor, Major Duluth, was killed in action. It is this event that causes Major Major to become a recluse: he stops eating meals at the mess hall, he avoids all his duties by forging false names to correspondence requiring his signature, and he enters his office by scooting along a ditch, then jumping through a window.
Upon discovering that forging false names (like Washington Irving and Irving Washington) to official correspondence would considerably decrease his workload, Major Major began to sign every document with those two names. This caused a duo of C.I.D. men (who were not working together, and were in fact trying to kill each other) to begin an investigation to learn the identity of the forger. Because Yossarian once censored an enlisted man's letter and attached the group chaplain's name to it, the CID men believed that said chaplain was intercepting Major Major's correspondence and forging signatures onto them. This investigation eventually leads to the chaplain's arrest and trial. However, Yossarian had also used the name Washington Irving and had probably given the idea to Major Major Major Major.
His father, a staunch Calvinist, mentioned briefly in the novel, is one of the richest alfalfa farmers in his community. He receives a farm subsidy for every crop of alfalfa that he does not grow with his farmland and uses this money to buy more land to not grow alfalfa on. He believes that receiving money for not producing something is divinely ordained. Ironically, he preaches the proverb "You reap what you sow", and maintains that federal aid to anyone but farmers is "creeping socialism". "He would leap out of bed at the crack of noon each day, to ensure that the chores were not being done."
Major Major and his father both reinforce the novel's theme that bureaucracy is absurd. His character also stands in contrast to the other authority figures in the book who relish their power and use the bureaucratic system and the law of Catch-22 to maintain or try to increase their power over others. Major Major's character shows how an indifferent bureaucratic system can award a position of authority to someone who, being unwilling and/or unable to handle the position, can only fulfill his responsibilities by hiding from them (as shown by Major's using the window to enter and leave his office and not signing his real name to documents). Major Major doesn't want to be compared with Henry Fonda or to be in a position of authority; he just wants to live a "normal" life by mitigating the damage dealt by his ridiculous name, but bureaucracy forbids him. It's yet another Catch-22, as indeed is the arrangement by which any of the men may meet him: you can only see him when he's not in.
Eventually Major Major disappears from the book, although it is uncertain if this is because he hides or if he was "disappeared" like Dunbar.
[edit] Film
Major Major was portrayed by Bob Newhart in Mike Nichols' 1970 film adaptation of the novel. He is initially a Captain, acting as the laundry officer. Colonels Cathcart and Korn drive up in a Jeep after Major Duluth's death, promote him on the spot, and drive off.
