Essay Joseph Heller's Catch 22 and World War II

Hitler was in many ways a great leader and his influence on the German people was immense; he used his motivational and powerful speaking abilities to gain support and popularity. Hitler knew how to appeal to people's baser instincts and made use of their fears and insecurities. He could do that,

Deceased philosopher Bertrand Russell once said, “War does not determine who is right- only who is left”. Those left are the soldiers of the 1-502nd, specifically Bravo Company 1st plt, and the Janabi family and to a greater extent, the ever-changing global world we all live in today. The tragic events that conspired in a small Iraqi village became a microcosm of how leadership failures at every level shaped the actions of a few soldiers who committed atrocious acts. One can also see how a high operational tempo, along with prolonged violence and death, has on a person’s psyche. It is the ugly side of war that the average American citizen may not want to hear or talk about. For a soldier, it is inevitably what they train their

The glorified act of war is often staged in historical literature by idolizing the soldiers who partake in the event. Soldiers are made to seem intrepid, ruthless and muscular, each with a ceaseless desire to fight valiantly for their countries. Timothy Findley and Kurt Vonnegut discard this typical hero archetype in their anti-war novels by portraying the soldiers who fight in the war as the men they are, not as the templates of heroes they are expected to fit, in furtherance of strengthening their anti-war stances. Findley and Vonnegut illustrate their protagonists as a tragic hero and an anti-hero, respectively, in order to juxtapose the atrocities of war with the flawed humanness of man and to challenge the stereotypical image of a

Part of the irony that envelops Catch-22 is the use of it's extremely creative dialogue and scenes in the story. Heller places the reader in a atmosphere where comedy shouldn't be able to exist at all, but Heller somehow puts a reverse on the normality and creates a memorable scene. "Heller invents dialogue rich in humor and pathos in order to fit the serious religious and philosophical implications of 'Catch-22' into his comic novel." (Colmer 212)

world. This war is also considered one of the most costly wars because of all the people

Adolf Hitler used propaganda to turn people against Jews, blacks and about everyone else that was not German and he also use it to make people want to join Nazi army. Franklin Roosevelt or F.D.R also use the science of propaganda to turn people against Germany, Italy and Japan. Hitler had first become aware of propaganda and its uses before the First World War. During the war he saw the effect of British propaganda on the soldiers of the Central Powers. Later on after the war Hitler wrote a book called Mein Kampf (My Struggle), he devoted two whole chapters to the study and practice of propaganda. He once said “the psyche of the masses,” he wrote, “is not receptive to anything that is weak. They are like a woman, whose psychic state determined less by abstract reason than by an emotional longing for a strong force will complement her nature. Likewise, the masses love a commander, and despise a petitioner” (Hitler). After many speeches and papers he wrote on

Joseph Heller’s 2011 novel Catch-22 reveals many different but unique characters within a particular story during World War Two in an intuitive third person narration. Set in Italy, the main character, Yossarian is an outraged bombardier that is furious because thousands of people that he has never met in his life are trying to kill him above the skies. Although he is the main protagonist in the story he is not truly a hero due to that instead of saving his friends, he first tries to save himself from death itself. His real troubles are within his own Army which multiply the number of missions the men must accomplish in order to complete their service within the military. If the men themselves try to exclude themselves from these missions,

Vonnegut knows that there will “always be wars, [and] that they were as easy to stop as glaciers” (Vonnegut 3). However, he hopes to change the perception of war in people’s minds and convince them that war is immoral. For this reason, he implies that readers should not be like Billy Pilgrim, the pathetic antihero. Billy does not tell his son about the horrors of war and allows his son to become a Green Beret, a perpetuator of war and death (Vonnegut 24). In contrast, Vonnegut, as a character in the book, instructs his sons not to “take part in massacres” and to “express contempt for people who think we need [massacre] machinery” (Vonnegut 19). Both characters know that they cannot stop war. However, while Billy passively accepts war, Vonnegut actively protests war and believes that people are morally responsible to view war as

In the times of World War 2 there was a man by the name of Winston Churchill. He was known as one of the most influential people in his time. He made speeches to the families of the Jews who were killed during the war. His beliefs were very different from others in his time. He was on the side of the people. He wanted the leaders in the German Army to get a just punishment for their crime.

Satire is woven throughout the novel to expose the faults of American institutions within the military, such as religion and war. Religion is depicted through the chaplain, who gradually

In contrast, the author uses George as a metaphor for those who would fight, kill, and die in the war; this element is an important part of the author’s persuasive strategy. W.D. Howells wants to appeal to the values and the emotional sensibility of his audience, for this reason, Howells portrays George as passive and unsure of himself. George is fearful of the war and he sees no glory in it. He believes that God is peaceful and the idea that God would advocate for war runs counter to George’s belief in peace. In short, the author uses George’s story to illustrate the consequences of war for the reader. This strategy works to persuade a resistant audience to relate to George, hence, lowering their resistance to the anti-war message of this piece.

The author, Joseph Heller, creates the character of Yossarian as a way to express his true beliefs of what heroism is. The book Catch-22 has impacted many people with how it refers to war and the way the soldiers fought and survived it. Joseph Heller created a new way of how to view the war and how most of the soldiers felt through it at that time. The approach that Heller took towards the meaning of war and what truly happens in it was formed when he himself served. Today, some soldiers still have that feeling, but not quite as strong as back then.

Set during WWII, ​Catch­22 is centered around Yossarian a U.S. officer, and depicts his misadventures throughout life. In order for Yossarian to keep his identity safe, his skills are put to the test against an illogical military system (Kramer Internet). The Air Force regulation asserts that a man is considered insane if he willingly flies dangerous combat missions. Ultimately, Yossarian's eyes are opened up to the deadly truth of language being power (Warren 380).

Perhaps, Heller wrote the characters to be quick to pull the trigger because in the world they live in, isolation is safety and new people are potentially death. At one point he phrases this in a profound way when he has Hig ponder

The first time reading the novel, it can be described as a satire with plenty of black humor. However, upon rereading it and paying further attention to the syntax and diction, one can begin to see the novel through Young’s eyes. “The novel – one of the century’s greatest and one whose subtleties I have only begun to convey – turns on what happens at the intersection of character and the institutionalized reifications and cruelties of debased societies and societies at war, internally and with nominally external enemies” (Young 8). To summarize, Young is stating how the pressures of war and the expectations of society lean heavily on the shoulders of the individual. These kinds of burdens induce heavy psychological damages along with the troubles of external problems (i.e. the “nominally external enemies”). After reading Young’s critical review, one gains the ability to read the novel in a new light, and further appreciate the enormous complexity Joseph Heller wove through the sentences. For example, page 356 says, “It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice” (Young 8). The complexity—as well as the raw truth—of the above sentence shows the kinds