Milo Minderbinder

Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's most successful novel Catch-22. As the mess officer of Yossarian's squadron, Minderbinder is a war profiteer during World war II, "perhaps the best known of all fictional profiteers" in American literature. The Minderbinder character is a “bittersweet parody“ of the American dream, both a “prophet of profit“ and the “embodiment of evil“. Minderbinder also appears in Heller's... more

Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's most successful novel Catch-22. As the mess officer of Yossarian's squadron, Minderbinder is a war profiteer during World war II, "perhaps the best known of all fictional profiteers" in American literature. The Minderbinder character is a “bittersweet parody“ of the American dream, both a “prophet of profit“ and the “embodiment of evil“. Minderbinder also appears in Heller's late sequel Closing Time. In the 1970 film adaptation of Catch-22 the Minderbinder character is portrayed by Jon Voight. Milo Minderbinder is the mess officer at the U.S. Army Air Corps base who becomes obsessed with expanding mess operations and trading goods for the profits of the syndicate (in which he and everyone else "has a share"). Milo is a satire of the modern businessman, and beyond that is the living representation of capitalism, as he has no allegiance to any country, person or principle unless it pays him. Minderbinder, unlike... less