Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

1659 Words4 Pages

Journal Entry 3 and 4:

Motive of the Novel and Intended Messages:
• I found there to be numerous motives that Heller was striving to achieve. The first being to slander the name of war and those involved, this on its’ own is not a difficult thing to do, however he did it in a way that really diminished on the intelligence of those involved high up; Cornel Cathcart is made out to be a neurotic who constantly doubted his own command and was constantly getting “black eyes” from his superiors as a result of raising the mission but raise them again he did, Major Major wouldn’t talk to anyone and was uniformly hated by people who didn’t know him, and Scheisskopf was obsessed with marching to no avail.
• It was also likely to be an “exposé” on the life of a bomber during WWII. To give people insight into what was likely to happen to you if you partook in a war. At the end Yossarian is faced with the sobering reality of most of his friends being dead or at least removed from him, having either gone crazy (Aarfy and McWatt), being killed in action (Dobbs, Natley and Clevenger) or disappeared (Dunbar). It shows a slow process of mental deterioration over the course of the novel.
• Heller was also making a mockery of bureaucracy that can be best summed up by the example of Yossarian moving the bomb line in the middle of the night and the days it took than to get it straightened out. It can, however be personified by Lieutenant Colonel Korn, Colonel Cathcart and General Dreedle. As the ranks get higher, they seem to get more and more incompetent, each being totally lost in their decision making without the other.
• The last of Heller’s’ motives were to show what having a conscience would do to you in the military. The two examples that stan...

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...cate sadly reminds me of the current state of affairs in America. Cathcart cannot make a decision by himself and needs the support of Korn, but at the same time he hates Korn and can’t let him seem smart or look favorable to others. What I have just described is congress who, if they were on fire could not pass the poor water of congress bill. Milo of course, is every large bank in America, who said that the high risk, high interest loans that they were doling out were best for everyone because it would stimulate economic growth. What the public didn’t know is that the banks had removed all the safety policies (CO2 canisters in the life jackets) from these policies and nearly brought down the global economy. Milo did something similar by not flying any missions putting additional strain on the soldiers in the squadron and inversely forcing them to fly more missions

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Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Comparative Analysis of A Few Good Men