Unraveling Insanity: Yossarian's Struggles in Catch-22

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Human nature has capacity for both greatness and smallness, due greatly to the way they deal with thoughts, words, and actions. If they overcome their fears, maintain confidence and honesty, mental stability is nourished. However, when humans succumb to denial or fear, mental instability is the result. In the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, Yossarian, the book’s protagonist makes a critical choice that leads to a devastating consequence: insanity. Since he is a coward and doesn’t like to take risks like everyone else who are fighting for their lives too. He is a bombardier who flew in endless amounts of missions seemed to have never gotten the chance to return home healthy and safe. Returning mentally healthy would be one of the problems that apparently seemed to be the only thing Yossarian cared about. Insanity evolves in this novel through the main character's actions as a cause and effect. In the novel “Catch-22” the author uses imagery, internal conflict and irony to reveal the causes of Yossarian’s insanity.
Joseph Heller …show more content…

As much as he wants to go home, he doesn’t make the rules neither his colonel. If they ask Yossarian to fly more missions than what he was originally asked to fly he has to do it. When the author stated, “He had decided that his only mission every time he had to fly was to comedown alive”. He had to pay more attention to his own goal that what the colonel had ordered him to do. When the pilot asked him, “Did you hit your target”? Yossarian answered, “What target”? Proving that his focus was far gone because of his worries taking over what is indeed more important to him than what is important to contribute to win the war.The internal conflict Yossarian experiences with himself is like a computer with a virus, since it slowly takes over his train of thought and his focus making him malfunction during the time of

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