Catch-22 Chapter 7 Summary

  • McWatt is the craziest man in Pianosa because he is perfectly sane and still does not mind the war.
  • Milo, the mess hall officer, is worried when he finds out that Doc Daneeka has written a letter saying that Yossarian should get all the fruit he asks for because he has a liver condition.
  • Milo meets with Yossarian because he's worried about losing profits on his fruit. And he learns that Yossarian doesn't actually have a liver condition.
  • We discover that instead of eating the fruit, Yossarian just gives it away to anybody who wants it. This depresses Milo.
  • But he is very impressed that Yossarian obtained the letter from Doc Daneeka in the first place. So he entrusts all his secrets to Yossarian. All except one. That one is the location where he buries his money.
  • We find out that Milo's goal as food supplier is to serve the men the best meals in the world. Milo freaks out when he learns that his first (and only) chef, Colonel Snark, put soap in the men's sweet potatoes to prove that they have no sense of taste. He is right because even though the men get diarrhea, they ask for more potatoes.
  • We learn that Milo lives by a strict set of morals, but that his morals allow – even require – him to charge the highest prices possible. But his morals won't allow him to borrow a package of pitted dates from the mess hall because they're government property.
  • He can, however, borrow the same package of pitted dates from Yossarian and trade it as McWatt's interest to a thief with a sweet tooth who stole McWatt's bed sheet from him that morning and then get both the dates and bed sheet back.
  • Milo takes a quarter of the bed sheet "for the syndicate" and gives half the bed sheet back to McWatt and a quarter of it back to Yossarian along with the dates. This supposedly makes sense in business lingo, but don't ask us how.
  • We find out that Milo's life goal is to open a mart. As in, a place to sell things.
  • He also has no issues with taking goods by force from a foreign trader, one who doesn't speak English.