Catch 22

In Catch-22, Joseph Heller reveals the perversions of the human character and society. Using various themes and a unique style and structure, Heller satirizes war and its values as well as using the war setting to satirize society at large. By manipulating the "classic" war setting and language of the novel Heller is able to depict society as dark and twisted. Heller demonstrates his depiction of society through the institution of war (i.e. it's effects and problems during and after war). In the novel, the loss of individuality through the lives of the soldiers; the insanity of war and Heller's solution to insanity; and the idea of "there is always a catch" in life is shown to a dramatic extent. Heller's novel not only satirizes war, but all of society.

Catch-22 shows how the individual soldier loses his uniqueness not as much from the battlefield like other novels set during a war, but from the bureaucratic mentality. An example of this Lt. Scheisskopf's obsession with parades that he sees the men more as puppets than as human beings. At one point in the novel, he even wants to wire them together so their movements will be perfectly precise--just as mindless puppets would be. This theme also appears when Colonel Cathcart keeps increasing the number of missions his squadron must fly--not for military purposes, but to solely enhance his prestige. One other example of this theme is in the novel, when Yossarian is wounded. He is told to take better care of his leg because it is government property. Soldiers, therefore, are not even people, but simply property that can be listed on an inventory. In a bureaucracy, as Heller shows, individuality does not matter.

Most war novels show that such things as lying, killing, adultery, and stealing are permissible if the ultimate goal is just--Catch-22 demonstrates this idea. For example, the men pleasure themselves with prostitutes in an apartment provided by the army. Also, one of the men steals life-raft supplies to trade. Despite the suppression of these important values, those such as honor and patriotism are also suppressed in the novel. The men fight for "what they had been told" was their country, but it's really only to make their officers look good. The officers at one point tell Yossarian that they are his "country". Here again, Heller shows the failures of a bureauc...

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...e. the exaggeration, the grotesque, the comic-like characters, the unusual deaths) is aimed to first make the reader laugh, then look back at horror at what amused them--and this is the technique Heller applies to satirize society.

One other obvious structural style that adds to the satirical purpose of the novel how it is organized--the novel is not organized chronologically--time is disjointed. This disjoining of time is used for effects in the novel such as deja vu to show that time equals mortality and to give the mind set and psychological impact of the men to the reader; but it primarily serves to confuse the reader--to have the reader take a second look--just as the descriptive sensation metaphors purposes.

Through various themes and structural and descriptive styles, Heller's Catch-22 is not the typical war story, but a satire. Heller gives us a different perception of war and society--such as the pointlessness of war and how when it is looked at closely hurts both the enemy and the allies--and from a greater perspective, how we humans inflict catastrophe on ourselves. Catch-22 ultimately makes us stop and think about the faults and tendencies of the human character.