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Catch-22 Literary Analysis

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War, it stripes people of their sanity and ethics, still it is considered a catalyst for change. In the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller it tells the story of a twenty-eight year old bombardier stationed in world war two, set in a fictional island, Pianosa, somewhere in Italy. There are many opinions on war, there are pacifists, those who are willing to fight, and those who refuse to be involved even though it is very much needed. Although war may be necessary for self-defense, it is by no means virtuous and has in fact affected the mental health of many like Yossarion. War is many things; malevolent, economically challenging, and controversial, but nevertheless it is necessary. In spite of the fact that Joseph Heller depicts the characters similar to Colonel Cathcart as an opposing factor, they do notice the importance of their role in the war, unlike Yossarion. Consequently, if the veterans don’t acknowledge their importance then our progress as a nation will fail to proceed, our economic gain will suffer, over population will occur (worse than it already is), and our territory and freedom will be purloined, “I’m not running away from my responsibilities. I’m running to them. There’s nothing negative about running away to save my life.”(Joseph Heller, Catch-22) War occurs so we can have our freedom, we cannot just lie around idly and expect to reap the benefits. As a result, the government chooses eligible citizens to bravely fight for their country and when they
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