Catch 22 Satire

In this famous satire by Joseph Heller, he uncovers the reality of war and the many the many injustices it warrants. Catch-22 is the forefront of the novel and each character depicts a systematic part of the government or those who live to be against the government and its bureaucratic tendencies. The dimwitted and over achieving characters who really don't achieve anything in the novel symbolize all that Yossarian strongly dislikes; the government and bureaucracy. While, the peculiar and distinct characters of the novel are those who Yossarian are in love with because they are everything bureaucracy is not. There are reasons behind every character's attributes, personality, and actions that play an acute part in the messages of the novel.

They all represent military bureaucracy and it’s illogical patterns. Colonel Cathcart, for example, continually raises the number of missions the men must complete in order to go home using the phrase a Catch-22. Doc Daneeka tells Yossarian, ). Cathcart’s only reason for doing so is personal ambition to become general and impress the public. Colonel Cathcart, and with almost every misjudgment he made you could be certain he would raise the number of missions without any concern of his men getting hurt. All the qualities of Cathcart; irrationality, laziness, incompetence, ignorance, stand to represent everything Heller hates about American bureaucracy and thus his protagonist of the story (Yossarian) hates as well. His men are disposable objects to him and he looks at them like they are machines. Yossarian has a subversive plot. He’s not a hero in the heroic sense. In the story he is there to save himself from people such as Cathcart, who destroy and leave without a sense of

Yossarian in the opening lines as told by Heller,The Chaplain, has great admiration for his friends and family. He cares so much that he often thinks about what they would do without him if he were to die. He takes measured risks for his two close friends in the novel, Yossarian and Nately. When Nately dies the Chaplain is greatly affected. He approaches multiple authority figures to try to lighten the load of missions for Yossarian so he is not in harms way. He’s going against the bureaucracy the authority figures of the novel have created. He also does not fit into the system; he listens to God not these authority figures. With all the chaplain’s good intentions he is not confident enough to stand up to the authority when they will not listen to him. He feels like he cannot excel because of these adversities he faces. People in our country's democratic system today face not having the confidence to pursue the upper class or work their way in because they are timid and believe the system was not designed for them