Heller's Use of Satire Within the Characters of Catch-22 Essay

Flannery O’Conner argued that “[Distortion] is the only way to make people see”. This famous statement is initially contradictory and incongruous, but in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 it is easy to see the truth of this paradox. The pages of Catch-22 are lined with distortion and each instance provides for a new kind of clarity. Catch-22 is simply a war story illustrated by ridiculous behavior and illogical arguments and told in a flatly satirical tone. Though the book never states outright that matters are funny, the reader is always aware of how outrageously bizarre the characters and situations are. Heller uses out of sequence narration, a confused distinction between appearance and reality, and the irrationally

The comedy that Catch-22 brings is ironic in itself, think how can you get humor out of war which entails pain and suffering, that beats me how Heller does it but by whatever means used Heller creates a complete package of humor and real life occurrences which is a great fete in itself. "Though it's comic formula riddle, Heller's novel expresses the apparently inescapable human predicament." (Colmer 213)

Yossarian is constantly afraid of death throughout the story and it is clear that the cause of this fear is derived from the numerous amount of missions Colonel Cathcart puts him through and because of his other experiences in the Air Force. There is a scene in which Yossarian says he keeps a “list” in his head of all

Here, the exchange suggests that the Action Board is made up of imbeciles, causing the reader to negatively view military bureaucracy. Not only does Joseph Heller portray these bureaucrats this way, he even goes as far as to making one of the names a derogatory term; Lieutenant Scheisskopf would pass as a normal name, if it wasn’t German for “shit head’. This can be regarded as the largest insult to military bureaucracy. Ultimately, Joseph Heller satirizes the Action Board as lumbering and corrupt in order to ridicule military bureaucracy in real

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

Cruelty is a callous indifference to, or a pleasure in causing pain and suffering. Catch-22 is filled with cruelty. Throughout this book there are multiple examples of cruelty. Three examples of cruelty make themselves well-known in this book. War cruelty, cruelty against women, and self cruelty are the main forms of cruelty in this book. War is cruel all in itself, so the cruelty of war is prevalent in this novel. The female characters in this book are portrayed inferior to men, and the book makes them to be downgrading. As a result of the women being inferior to the men, the men treat the women cruely, and they make them seem like objects. In Catch-22 written by Joseph Heller the cruelty of war and women are awful, but self cruelty is the

The quote above describes the relationship with Colonel Cathcart, in which Cathcart has a worrying doubt about Yossarian and his role in the squadron. Yossarian complains to Doc Daneeka about Colonel Cathcart’s dictum regarding the mission count during every visit to the medical tent. Cathcart’s opinion about Yossarian also dawns upon the other men who start to wonder about the man with that name and who he actually is. One of the main points within the story is when the soldiers question Yossarian during the death of Lt. Mudd, whom the men continuously call “the dead man in Yossarian’s tent” (Heller 166). A character that changes Yossarian completely about war is Snowden. After Snowden’s death, Yossarian is given a medal of honor for fighting through that battle, but unlike the other men, Yossarian shows up in a disorderly fashion. He realizes that he doesn’t want to be in a war-like atmosphere anymore and starts to long for his trips throughout Italy. It is after these trips that Yossarian tries to weasel his way out of the squadron by feigning sicknesses and pleading for Doc Daneeka to claim him insane. "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't

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

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, is a fictitious novel that depicts life on an American bomber squadron on Pianosa, an island off the coast of Italy, during the closing years of World War II. A bombardier by the name of Yossarian, the main character in the story, is joined by many others to create a comic drama unlike any other. But aside from the entertainment, Heller uses Catch-22 to satirize many aspects of everyday life that consist of hypocrisy, corruption, and insanity. From the laziness of policeman to the fake happiness brought about by money, the novel is painted with a great number of points targeted against the faults of modern society. However, along with these smaller targets, a majority of the Heller’s satire in the novel is

The most important and prevalent aspects of Heller's style are satire, sarcasm, and irony. Heller pokes fun at the faults of society. At the same time,

Laughing in the face of war and death, literally, is one of the things that make the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller such an intriguing and original story. It was written in 1961, a time when, due to the fighting of the Second World War, all war novels were written with a dark and dreary tone, while still trying to continue the pre-conceived romantic notions about war. However, Joseph Heller strips away all of the romantic pretense, and pulling heavily on his own Air Force experience during WWII, presents war in its most raw, un-censored version. It takes away thoughts of being the amazing hero, and winning medals, and replaces them with the screwed up, bureaucratic way that we fight wars.

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.

Catch-22 is a novel and a satire about war, but when one takes the time to deconstruct the novel’s plot and its main character, Yossarian, it can be argued that the book is truly about the human spirit and the will to survive. Throughout the novel, the reader is acutely aware of Yossarian’s fear of flying missions, and can sense that his will to survive the war, seemingly by any means necessary, is critical every decision he makes.

Heller begins the novel by portraying Yossarian’s opposition to his circumstances as passive and not wholehearted in nature, creating a starting point for the revelation of his intellectual journey. This is first seen in Yossarian’s strange response to Clevinger’s questioning of who exactly is trying to kill them, which he responds “Every one of them” (Heller 17). This ridiculous portrayal of Yossarian’s opposition to his enemy is fanciful, almost ridiculous, and the reader is bamboozled by the ridiculous logic which is highly contrary to traditional logic. It makes it seem like he is overestimating a common circumstance and is overreacting, so the conflict is seen as unimportant. The absurdity continues with Orr and his unique habit of keeping crab apples in his cheeks and rubber balls in his hands to “deny there were crab apples in [his] cheeks” (Heller 24) by

War can be defined as illogical because it attempts to bring peace to a dispute only through the creation of a physical conflict. The novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is a war-time story that depicts the meaningless nature of war through a character named Clevinger who is characterized in contrast to the ongoing war. The reason for Clevinger's imperative role in this story originates from Heller’s creation of a juxtaposition that contrasts Clevinger's rational thinking with the irrationality of war to emphasize the novel’s theme of the absurdity of war and how war should not be used to resolve a conflict.