Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Decisions for War, 1914-1917 by Richard Hamilton and Holger Herwig investigates the origins of the First World War detailing individual country’s reasons for entering the war. Historians at War by Anthony Adamthwaite explores how scholars have understood the origins of the Second World War throughout varying times and differing national view points. Both works share a common theme of determinism; a retrospective notion placed on historical events by historians that Europe was inescapably predestined to go to war and that nothing nor anyone could inhibit that. Both remark that this popular approach does a disservice into the explanation of war as it does not accurately depict the economic and social agency present in Europe at the time. In

C.S. Lewis one said “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny”. Facing hardships and breaking free from their normal world allows the hero inside of people to come out. Many stories document this journey of a hero through the Hero’s Journey Archetype. In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, a man named Rainsford stumbles upon an island where humans are hunted by a crazed man. The hero’s journey archetype is implemented throughout Rainsford’s experiences in the story. Richard Connell used the Hero’s Journey Archetype to structure the plot and develop the theme that with clever thinking and the use of past experiences, one can succeed at anything.

It is frequently said that the novel Catch – 22 by Joseph Heller is about Heller’s opinion on war and lack of patriotism. Although it is understandable how one could grasp those concepts from the novel the main crux of the novel is for the reader to have noticed Heller’s use of satire within the characters. Also to be effected by Yosarrian’s evolution. Heller uses satire to portray his outlook on war but also other aspects in society. The other aspects are value of life, misuse of power, women and the inhuman bureaucracy of the military structure as a whole.

Through the qualities of the interrogation, Joseph Heller is able to satirize several problematic characteristics of the military bureaucracy. Corruption in the management is shown when Heller hyperbolizes the reason for

He believes that his officers and crew members are insane since the officers keep increasing the number of bombing runs a person must complete before being released from duty, and his crew members all aggravate him by crashing their planes, working for both sides of the war, and trying to convince Yossarian to run more missions. Everyone at the base thinks Yossarian is crazy, but Yossarian thinks the same about everyone else. In Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, most literature critics assume that everyone around Yossarian is completely psychotic, but if one were to observe the novel from the perspective of Orr, Clevinger, or one of Yossarian’s crew members, they would realize that Yossarian could easily escape his military duty by running away on a mission rather than dealing with the bureaucracy of the military and trying to feign illness and craziness. Therefore, the author utilizes dark humor that exposes the absurdity of the war and the military, dialogue that displays the insanity between Yossarian, the officers, and crew, and the centralized biased

“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell is able to accomplish so many thing with so little lines-mainly through the use of metaphor and diction. It explains the terrors of wars in gruesome detail and explains the ways in which wars, in a sense “breed” and “birth” death. To some, this poem is seen as the ultimate poem of war, and rightly

Catch-22 is based towards the end of World War II on a small island of the coast of Italy called Pianosa. In war people are dying all around and nobody can really do anything about it. An example of war cruelty is when Heller writes, “Nately’s death almost killed the chaplain” (378). Not only is Nately’s death a cruel death, but war cruelty is also present in the form of grief. The chaplain is experiencing the cruelty of his comrade dying. In many other war novels they are often times quite gorey. Catch-22 on the other hand is more of a story on the behind the scenes action of war; however there is one specific scene that is gorey. Heller writes, “That was the mission on which Yossarian lost his nerve. Yossarian lost his nerve on the mission to Avignon because Snowden lost his guts” (224). Snowden was just a young gunner who unfortunately was killed. The fate of war is cruel to this young boy; nobody even knew who he really was. He died there in Yossarian’s arm. His death was cruel to Yossarian because it discouraged him, and caused emotional trauma. War is a natural human interaction the is common, and it is necessary in certain circumstances. Cruelty is unavoidable in war because it is emotionally draining on everyone

Robert M. Young highlights how Milo Minderbinder and Snowden are both significantly symbolic characters in the novel. He states “Milo does everything; Snowden does one: he dies. Milo is pure opportunist, Snowden pure victim.” Milo is a conniving and self-centered character, who is thoroughly explored throughout the novel. Snowden is only seen in short snippets and the circumstances of his death are rather enigmatic throughout the course of the story. Yet, despite the clear differences between these two characters, both of them touch the reader in intense ways. Milo’s meager and unsuspecting character is slowly lifted to reveal his avariciousness and manipulative ways. He is “capitalism incarnate” according to Young. However, with the same ferocity that the reader is enraged by Milo, they are melancholy and vulnerable over Snowden’s death. The reader feels Yossarian’s helplessness as he mutters

John Yossarian is a bombardier in world war II that believes everyone is trying to kill him. His only goal is to stay alive and in doing so fakes an illness to avoid flying missions. The missions the men fly put all of their lives in jeopardy time and time again and as the novel progresses we find that the purpose for the missions is to take good aerial of the explosions. Yossarian is haunted by the memory of his snowden who died in yossarians arms. Yossarians squadron gets bombed by the mess hall officer and his men are forced to participate in a deadly mission in order to make the commanding officers look good. Throughout the novel the term Catch 22 is used. It is a paradoxical law that uses circular reasoning to trap the characters in

Catch 22 is a story about the different personalities that can be involved in a war. Out of all the different archetypes, the three I’ve chosen are John Yossarian, Albert Tappman, and Milo Minderbinder, although, not in that order. The first character being analyzed is Yossarian, the unwilling hero of this book. Although the book labels Yossarian as the main character, he constantly tries to coward out of going to battle. The second character that will be described is Milo Minderbinder, the archetypical business person of Catch 22.He runs the camp mess hall and controls what everyone in the camp is buying, selling, and eating. Milo is constantly trying to control or manipulate the economies around him, and after he gets a large commission

The short story “The Death of Dolgushov” by Isaak Babel is a gut wrenching story, at times literally, about the dilemmas of killing. Babel, a master of the short story, challenges readers’ morality by contrasting two soldiers plights. On the one hand, a soldier, Dolgushov, pleads that he has “had it (241),” meaning that he wants his comrade to kill him after being mortally wounded by machine gun fire; while on the other hand, another soldier, unnamed, cannot bring himself to kill Dolgushov. Throughout the story, war is depicted as a game until a soldier gets seriously hurt. This device, combined with the vivid imagery associated with both soldier’s plights, complicates how readers’ judge the act of killing and war in general.

Since the beginning of time, humans have sought after power and control. It is human instinct to desire to be the undisputed champion, but when does it become a problem? Warfare has been practiced throughout civilization as a way to justify power. Though the orders come directly from one man, thousands of men and women pay the ultimate sacrifice. In Randall Jerrell’s “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner”, Jarrell is commenting on the brutality of warfare. Not only does Jarrell address the tragedies of war, he also blames politics, war leaders, and the soldier’s acknowledgement of his duties. (Hill 6) With only five lines of text, his poems allows the reader to understand what a soldier can go through. With the use of Jerrell’s poem, The Vietnam War, and Brian Turner’s “Ameriki Jundee”, the truth of combat will be revealed.

A Marxist reading enables the critic to see Catch 22, by Joseph Heller, as not simply an anti-war novel but a satirical representation of the absurdity of American bureaucracy and capitalism, and thus shows the extent to which the situation at the time was of concern to Heller. The novel takes place in Italy during World War II and the novel follows Yossarian who is a part of an air squadron yet Heller confirms that “The elements that inspired the ideas came to me from the civilian situation in this country in the 1950s”. Marxist literary criticism claims writers are formed by their social contexts. Indeed, Heller’s social and political climate formed Catch 22, which Heller criticizes the complacent attitude towards profiteering at the

Richard Edward Connell was an American author, who was probably most famous for the short story “The Most Dangerous Game.” Connell started writing at the age of 10 covering baseball games for his father 's paper. By the age of sixteen he had become the editor of the Poughkeepsie News-Press. Connell was a very smart man who studied at Georgetown and Harvard.While at Harvard he was the editorial chairman. Connell 's writing style was usually action-adventure. Some of his works were probably inspired from his time working as a homicide journalist, and serving in World War I. By the time Connell passed away he had published over 300 short stories. Richard Connell was a very unique author from experiences he had through out his life, and so was the writing style that he portrayed.

Published in 1961, Joseph Heller’s satire novel Catch-22 has established itself as a prominent work in American literary history. Heller bases the novel on his own experiences as a bombardier on the Italian front during the Second World War, following the story of an American Air Force squadron stationed on the fictional island of Pianosa, Italy. The plot is centered around the anti hero Yossarian, whose fear that everyone is trying to kill him drives him to insanity. In Catch-22, Joseph Heller uses irony, humor and a non-chronological and repeated syntax to convey themes of the insanity of war and breakdown of communication in order to make his greater argument against war.