Catch-22 was extremely controversal; half the readers hated it and the other half loved it, and people liked it for the same reason others hated it. But for whatever reason it became a popular topic in conversation and newspaper reviews. The controversy stems from the simple fact that the reader is quickly persuaded “that the most lunatic are the most logical, and that it is our conventional standards which lack any logical consistency” (Contemporary Literary Criticism, Brustein, 228). The sanity of young Captain John Yossarian, Joseph Heller’s “Alice-in-Wonderland hero”(Contemporary Literary Critcism, Littlejohn, 229) is twisted by the injustice, corruption, and unbelievable contradictions of his everyday life as an American bombardier based on a mythical Italian island named Pianosa during World War II.
Yossarian and his comrades are trying to survive in a living Hell of injustice and corruption. Many of them are brainwashed by the power of the military to value patriotism and winning the war more than their own life. For example, “Havermeyer was a lead bombardier who never missed. Yossarian was a bombardier who had been demoted because he no longer gave a damn whether he missed or not…and his only mission each time he went up was to come down alive”(Heller, 30). Yossarian and most of the other men still treasured their safety; “McWatt was the craziest combat man of them all probably, because he was perfectly sane and still did not mind the war” (Heller, 61). Even the justice system was corrupt, for when Lieutenant Scheisskopf wanted to get Clevinger in trouble for interfering with his parades and Clevinger had to plead innocent to the Action Board, Lieutenant Scheisskopf was one of the judges, the prosecutor and Cle...
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.... That’s why I never eat any fruit”… “No, fruit is good for my liver. That’s why I never eat any” (Heller, 63).
Works Cited
Riley, Carolyn. Contempoarary Literary Criticism, volume 3. Detroit, Michigan: Gale.
Brustein, Robert. “Catch-22” (originally titled “The Logic of Survival in a Lunatic World”; copyright © 1961 by harrison-Blaine, Inc.; repried by permission), in The Critic as Artist: Essays on Books 1920-1970, edited by Gilbert A. Harrison, Live-right, 1972, pp. 47-54.
Littlejohn, David. Interruptions (copyright © 1970 by David Littlejohn; reprinted by permission of Grossman Publishers), Grossman, 1970, p. 27.
Heller, Joseph. Catch 22. New York: Dell, 1961. Print.
Olderman, Raymond M. . “The Grail Knight Departs,” in his Beyond the Wasteland: A Study of the American Novel in the Nineteen-Sixties, Yale University Press, 1972, pp. 94-116.
Heller, Joseph. "Chapter 21." Catch-22. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2004. 210. Print.
Published in 1961, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is a satire of war with a twist. Heller wrote his narrative nonlinearly. Although certain critics described the novel as “disorganized, unreadable and crass”, the mismatched chronology complements Heller’s style of writing and draws the reader’s interest. One key point of Catch-22, the catch-22 paradox, makes use of the nonlinear structure to encircle the reader in the contradictions. In addition, Heller’s style of writing provides a point of viewing different from most novels. While the narrative may seem complex and overwhelming at first, the reader learns to appreciate the subtleties of Heller’s labyrinthine plot.
At what point do the qualities of an antihero become heroic? Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 follows the experiences of protagonist and noted antihero Captain John Yossarian, a bombardier of the 256th Squadron of the Air Force stationed on the island of Pianosa during World War II. Frequently opposed by the immoralities and illogic of war and military bureaucracy and haunted by the deaths of men in his squadron, Yossarian is overcome by the paranoia that “they‘re trying to kill [him]” (26), and constantly avoids his militant duties in effort to stay alive. Due to his seemingly foremost concern of self-preservation, avoidance of responsibilities and cowardice, Yossarian is commonly perceived as an antihero. However, the goodness of his character is revealed through his moral consideration of others, the way his fellow men admire him, and his reactions to the corruption he discovers in the military system. Thus, although Yossarian does not possess the typical characteristics of a traditional hero, his inherent concern for the well-being of others and defiant acts ultimately prove his heroism.
Catch-22 is a black comedy novel about death, about what people do when faced with the daily likelihood of annihilation. For the most part what they do is try to
He openly questions the war and the governments handling of if it. Yossarian was upset because ¨strangers he didn´t know shot at him with cannons everytime he flew up into the air to drop bombs on them.¨ (Heller 17). Yossarian followed orders for a long time until he began to realize that fighting strangers he didn´t know for reasons no one would tell him about. He felt like he was going in an endless circle, so he tried to rebel, but in the begining of his transformation, Yossarian was still conforming to the government. He did what the Generals and the Colonels told him too with only mild complaining. He did what he told to for a good part of the time and he was a halfway decent bombadier. He did his missions, and when the number of required missions was raised, he continued to fly more missions. The book´s anti-war message was made apparent through the eyes of Yossarian, who was once a previously decent soldier turned desserter. While he conformed outwardly, Yossarian rebeled internally and decided he had grown tired of the war and planned to join Orr in Sweden. He was a conformist through the begining of his time in the
Paul Haggis in his 2004 film Crash and Joseph Heller in his novel Catch-22 each explore the theme and value of time in both mediums, resulting in various similarities between the sequence of time and its meaning to the story. The most striking similarity between Crash and Catch-22 is the structure and use of repetition in time. Neither narrative follows the standard sequences of time, although at some points it may appear so. The repetition of the same events through different character perspectives in Catch-22, and the repetitive pattern of action and reaction in Crash emphasizes the vicious circle of military inefficacy and unnecessary death, and of racism and counter-racism, respectively. Haggis in Crash, and Heller in Catch-22, both demonstrate
Barron, W.R.J., trans. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.. New York: Manchester University Press, 1974.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, Volume One. General Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1993.
“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Element of Literature, Sixth Course. Austin: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston, 1997. 161-172. Print.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume A. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2006. 162-213.
The main character in Catch-22, which was written by Joseph Heller in 1960, was Captain John Yossarian, a bombardier in the 256th Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Force during WWII. Yossarian's commanding officer, Colonel Cathcart, wanted a promotion so badly that he kept raising the number of missions the men in his squadron were required to fight. Yossarian resented this very much, but he couldn't do anything about it because a bureaucratic trap, known as catch-22, said that the men did not have the right to go home after they completed forty missions (the number of missions the Army demands they fly) because they had to obey their commanding officers. Yossarian was controlled by the higher authority like the doctors restrained Joe. The whole novel was basically about how Yossarian tried to fight catch-22.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
The concept of betrayal and deception is as old as humanity itself, and has been appearing in literature since humans first began to write. From the Bible itself to modern fiction, deception has been a major theme in literature, appearing in countless classic and important poems and novels. In the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller deception is everywhere, on both minor and grand scales carried out by countless characters, however the most important deception comes from the protagonist of the story, Yossarian.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, Volume One. General Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1993.