The novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is described as a portrait of absurdities. This essay explores and answers the question as to what this absurdity can be derived from. Guiding research questions are: how is the bureaucratic system depicted in the novel, and how does this system compare to the ideal model of a bureaucracy created by Max Weber? Through a comparative analysis of these two texts the result is that various organizational structures of the system: rationality, consistency, rules and regulations, procedures, and hierarchy, each and together give rise to a notion of absurdity in the novel because of how these structures are depicted.