Joseph Heller 's Catch 22

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

Sleep is the most highly thought of means of recreation for a soldier (45). This ultimately represents a yearning for the simplicity of the pre-modern. The complacency that one was birthed into in previous centuries is, in the military, presented as conscious lifestyle choice. On the matter of preference of placement within the military structure, Rico’s recruitment officer speaks dismissively of a “that” “being what you think would make you happy.” (28). The allure of the military lifestyle is not having to be concerned with one’s own happiness. Happiness is portioned out according to the decisions of men like Rico’s placement officer whom “you could relax and take it easy with” (32). That this easiness and happiness is built upon faith in a Chinese Legalism and a utilitarian calculus is un-concerning to Rico. That same placement officer has quotas and his first duty is to those quotas, people will suffer because of that. Similarly, the method through which complexity and moral ambiguity is avoided has caused suffering. The suffering of the Temporary Third Lieutenant on the HMS Chesapeake (154) is the price paid for a rigid and easy to understand law of behavior that expects no field philosophizing. Rico as emblematic of the military man in general, does not what to think, does not want to know, and does not want to ask. This shown to not be as we would expect a discipline required of him but instead a favor granted

The effects of war are devastating for those who experience it. The wake of destruction left behind by bloody conflicts can traumatize any onlooker; those who face the fighting firsthand are often permanently affected by the horrors they witness. Frequently, combatants require special treatment for the psychological torment that can follow intense fighting. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five explores the harmful effects of isolation, imprisonment, and oppression through a soldier’s perspective.

Heller makes the case that war, regardless of the era or location, is simply a violent game played by leaders behind safe desks, far away from any danger. The pointless death and brutality that accompanies war is a focal point in Catch-22. Heller illustrates the absurdity of war through his characters’ various reactions to the carnage engulfing them and through graphic descriptions of that violence. As Yossarian ironically points out, he prefers life inside a hospital as opposed to the battlefield because “They couldn’t dominate Death inside the hospital, but they certainly made her behave.” (165) In the hospital, soldiers “didn’t explode into blood and clotted matter. They didn’t drown or get struck by lightning, mangled by machinery or crushed in landslides. They didn’t get shot to death…People bled to death like gentlemen in an operating room or expired without comment in an oxygen tent.” (166) Heller’s praise of death within a hospital as opposed to fighting on the front line further proves how horrible and senseless war is for those who are forced to risk their lives for the ‘greater good’.

Student, loyal, arrogant, passionate General George S. Patton was known as many things but above all he was known for his ability to inspire action by leading from the front. While his vision and operational leadership was never in doubt some of his character traits opened him up to controversy. This paper’s focus will not only center on how General Patton’s visionary leadership and unethical behaviors not only effected his career and the lives of his men, but how ultimately his traits influenced the outcome of World War II. This paper will also

In Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22, it is clear that the American idealism on war is if you are a true American you will fight in the war and you may die, but that is fine because you will be viewed a hero. It is absurd to think that is it okay to die fighting in a war. Of course, the soldiers who have fought and died in the wars are heroes but it is time to examine the illogical perceptions that many Americans have about what makes you a hero. Most of it was what the parents in the era of WWII thought it was the right thing that all the young men should strive for and it showed how patriotic they were. “Like most American kids who had been old enough at the time of World War II but too young to fight in it, I had a kind of yearning to see what the army

In Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, war is not a collective effort for peace, but rather a conflicting mesh of self-interests, which are met solely based on one’s military rank. This blatant hierarchy of welfare leaves lower-ranking soldiers such as Captain John Yossarian in a struggle to hold onto not only their lives, but their humanity. The bureaucracy treats these inferiors as mere chess pieces in a game of their own capitalistic and despotic interests. Symbols are used throughout Catch-22 to enhance the corruption in this relationship by contributing to the characterization of the soldiers and themes such as greed and mortality. One prime example is that of the soldier in white, who represents the passive nature of the

Snowden’s tragic death portrays the inefficacy of words. In gory scene of Snowden’s death, Captain Yossarian is left to console “the small tail gunner” (Heller, 446). He repetitively uses the words, “There, there” and tells him “you’re going to be alright” in an effort to comfort the dying young man to no avail of course (Heller, 447). Yossarian’s comments to Snowden are just as pointless and deceitful as the words of Yossarian’s commanding officers. Catch-22 itself is just an assortment of words put together in several sentences that contradicts itself. Words are just words and nothing makes sense. It becomes so bad that the men deceive and carelessly respond to each other, often showing no emotions. This is shown when “Yossarian kept nodding in the co-pilot's seat and tried not to listen as Milo prattled on.” Yossarian is pretending to listen to his

“ In order to be grounded you must be crazy, but if you ask to be grounded, you must not be crazy anymore, so you have to continue flying”(Heller 40). This is the justification of what a catch-22 is. Insane behavior and the fight for freedom are both acts, which transpire in Catch 22. Yossarian, a squadron captain is in World War II flying a plane and fighting for his country. Though trying to get out, he knows there is only one way, and that would only get him “away” from all of the terror. This brings the reader to the theme of the play, escape. “Insanity is the only sane way to deal with an insane situation”(Heller 78). Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 explains an insight of which a paradox providing no way out of conflict is overcome and in

The term “Catch-22” is generally defined as a circumstance in which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory situations. In this book, Joseph Heller uses many different examples of this clause to help show us the importance of this term in the military and in the government. In this essay, I have chosen to compare and contrast the different examples of “Catch-22”. The first example of this clause is when Doc Daneeka informs Yossarian that “Catch-22” specified that a worry for one’s own safety in the face of a threat about to happen was the process of a sane mind.

“Tick, Tick, Tick…BOOM!” One of the most lethal and disastrous bombs our world obtains, corruption. A fist of an orange and blood-red flame punches its way out of the shell, smoke and varicolored fire rushing out, while the corpses of innocent lives, lay on the cold-stone ground helplessly, paying the insolent price of conformity. For every tick of the bomb, a defenseless and innocent life is sacrificed. There is only a transient amount of time we have to defuse the bomb, until it explodes, obliterating society as whole. In Catch 22, Joseph Heller unveils the idea of corruption in war and military systems and how one must never conform to flawed ideas and rules because if we are against any type of moral, idea, or rule, and we sit back, observing the issue, nothing in this world will ever change, allowing corruption to consume us, bit by bit, just like a bomb.

Furthermore, Darren Felty argues in his critical article, “An overview of Catch-22”, that Yossarian’s superiors “value only the power they hold in the military,” (Felty 106). It is true that Yossarian’s superiors, more specifically Colonel Cathcart, view their men as tools with which to gain rank within the military. Cathcart repeatedly uses his men for his own personal gain and Yossarian resents him for it. Yossarian believes that anyone who places him in the face of danger is his enemy, no matter what side they are fighting for. This is why he detests Colonel Cathcart so much, he recognizes Cathcart’s selfish pursuit for glory will place him on a path for imminent death.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is an obvious satire about modern day ethics in business, medicine, and the military and the incompetence, pettiness, and corruption within the bureaucratic ranks of the military. Each of its character’s represent something special and they are either aggressors or victims of the aggressors. The aggressors in the novel are the ones who bully or manipulate selfishly and heartless. They have zero compassion for human life and answer only to those with the money and the power. The victims are the ones that are the target of such bullying and manipulation by the aggressors. The aggressors in the novel are Milo Minderbinder, ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen, Colonel Cathcart, General Dreedle, and Captain Black. The victims in Catch-22 are Yossarian, Doc Daneeka, Nately, the Chaplain, and Major Major.

There is a man whose name is “Major Major Major,” a name his dad picked for him. In the military, he achieves the rank of Major, and was therefore referred to as Major Major Major Major for the majority of the book. His name by itself is a joke making him a man to be made fun of for most of his life. This adds him to the nonsense that certain chapters of Catch 22 contain. The book lists his reason for even reaching the rank of Major as “Major Major had been promoted by I.B.M. machine with a sense of humor”(86), which is immediately followed by him being bounced around from different stages of training and deployments because his superiors always wanted to get rid of him as soon as they could. It showed how military men move him and promote him with no reason. Never did they move him because he needed to be, or because his skills would be better utilized elsewhere. His superiors would always just be tired of Major Major Major Major. This is satirizing the military by poking fun at how military higher ranking often turns into more of a political game than merit based advancement. Heller uses Major Major to point out how many leaders, not only in the military, are incompetent and ill prepared for their leadership positions. He advanced with no true show of skill or

Catch-22 takes place within an authoritative military environment, led by one principle: the Catch-22, an excuse for everything