Major Major Major was Joseph Heller
's depiction of a man that accepted the rules of the system without looking further into it or complaining of his lot. Named Major Major Major by his father, he was an "A-" student and was suspected of being a homosexual by the Communists and of being a Communist by the homosexuals. When he enlisted in the army,he was promoted to Major by a computer error
, making him Major Major Major Major.
He was of middling height, and bore a bit of resemblance to Henry Fonda
. He was yelled at by his elders, and in response tried to make himself better the way they told him to, and in response they just yelled at him more. His subordinates hated him because he looked like Henry Fonda
, and was promoted to major four days after he had joined the army. He hated making decisions
because people would only hate him for doing it. In the long and the short, he was stuck where he was- nobody else would do his job as squadron commander, he couldn't get promoted because then the Army wouldn't have a Major Major Major Major, and he couldn't get demoted because then the Army wouldn't have a Major Major Major Major.
Without anywhere to go, and anything to do to enjoy himself (he was too nice to go to Italy and carouse with the pilots if they would let him), he resorted to having his meals brought to him, his receptionist not allowing anyone to see him, and jumping out the window from his office to his quarters to avoid having to talk to people. While MMMM is an exaggerated characature of the wishy-washy management class of the 1950
s, he is a beautiful one- if such a thing could honestly be called beautiful