Catch-22 Discussion Question

Discuss the significance of the man in white and what he represents.

Faceless man - how bureaucracy seems us
according to Catch-22

In the book Catch-22 by Josef Heller, the man in white, while not a major character, is used as a tool to establish and reinforce a few of the book's major themes including seeming worthlessness of man in war and the inefficiency of bureaucracy in war. The man in white is first introduced while Yossarian is in the hospital in the beginning of the book. The man was sneaked into Yossarian's ward in the middle of the night while everyone was sleep. Covered completely from head to toe in white wrappers, none of the men in the ward know anything about the man in white. Yossarian describes the man in the first chapter:

"Sewn into the bandages over the insides of both elbows were zippered lip through which he was fed clear liquid from a clear jar. A silent zinc pipe rose from the cement on his groin and ... carried waste from his kidneys and dripped it efficiently into a clear, stoppered jar on the floor. When the jar on the floor was full, the jar feeding his elbow was empty, and the two were simply switched quickly so that the stuff could drip back into him. All they ever really saw of the soldier in white was a frayed black hole over his mouth" (Heller 4).

A stop motion, artistic video depicting the man in white's story.

The men in the hospital ward were all terrified of the man in white. He is intended to highlight how men are viewed by bureaucracy as dispensable. The man in white remains faceless and nameless, a direct symbolization of the lack of individual from the viewpoint of bureaucracy. Later in the book, it is hypothesized by Yossarian and others that there might not even be a man in there at all. Months after this man dies, another man in head to toe bandages is brought in. The second man is treated the same as the first, which leads the men to believe that it is the same person inside. The man remains representative of the worthlessness of the individual to a government in war. He remains a mystery; even whether or not he's alive is a mystery. He symbolizes bureaucracy's apathy toward the life of individuals in an attempt to push them through the system and secure a win for the bureaucracy.