Rodriguez 1

Gustavo Rodriguez
H. contemporary english
Period 3
4/1/17

Catch-22

In his novel, Catch-22(1961), American author Joseph heller purports that war is
very confusing and unnecessary. Heller uses these zany characters that are alway
trying to get out of duty by finding loopholes in the system. The author provides many
scenarios where the characters are faced with a contradictory problem in order to show
the corruptness of the government and the lengths they would go to manipulate their
soldiers into flying missions. Considering the comical and satirical tone used to write
about something serious as war, Hellers intended audience are those who want
something new that are also looking for something that pushes boundaries.
Many issues are brought up in the novel the main one being the complete
insanity of war many people can see this when Yossarian and his crew make up many
excuses to not to fly missions. The book begins with with captain Yossarian in a hospital
with a mysterious liver problem which is only a lie to get him out of his duties as can be
seen when they Heller writes Yossarian shook his head and grinned. No, I'm sorry. I
have everything I need and I'm quite comfortable. In fact, I'm not even sick.(Heller 13).
Heller also wrote the story out of order to imply the connotation of insanity and not
making sense. Many times the story overlaps like when Yossarian was in the hospital
and receiving many letters that were censored by a mystery man only to find out later
that it was the newly recruited Major Major Major Major using a fake name in chapter 9.
Another problem that arises is the is the need for war. As the main character yossarian
says You're right, you're right, you're right, you're right. The hot dog, the Brooklyn
Dodgers. Moms apple pie. That's what everyone's fighting for. who's fighting for the
decent patriotism, that is what it is. and no matriotism, either.(Heller 9). This shows that
Yossarian sees it as a cry for patriotic help, he knows it is pointless and that is the main
reason he doesn't want to fly missions. A good example is when his friend Nately dies in
a mission but he crashes into an american plane showing that we are only destroying
ourselves with war so there is really no point all the madness. The last problem that
comes up is the manipulation and trickery of the government. Basically Heller is asking
the reader would you blindly follow someone that is a higher rank than you? The
problem arises from the paradoxical law called catch-22 in which it states that if you are
insane you will no longer need to fly missions but you just need to ask not to fly them
and if you ask you are sane enough to see that you are putting your life in danger then
you can fly more missions this can be seen when there was only one catch that was
catch-22 which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of danger that
were real and immediate was the process of the rational mind. Orr was crazy and could
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be grounded. All he had to do was ask and as soon as he said, he would no longer be
crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and
sane if he didnt, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If you flew them he was crazy
and didnt have to but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to(Heller 46). And that
wasnt the only problem. Colonel Cathcart keeps raising the number of missions they
have to complete in order to go home so he can be promoted and just as soon
Yossarian gets close to finishing the number goes up by five.This leads to the all the
lying done in this book, the reason why it's so confusing, but is it okay to lie to put your
own safety at risk. It all comes down to what the author wanted to show us with this
book and that is war is the destruction of everything even sense and knowledge.
Many people may think so what, many of this was in relation to WWII those kinds
of problems do not concern us anymore. But they are wrong because we still face the
problem of war and many people still support, many important people as a matter of
fact. Reporter Joshua Keating talks about how Trump, President of the U.S., supports
the ongoing war in yemen. Keating says, The Trump administration is planning to
increase its support for the operation, which has not only had a devastating
humanitarian impact on one of the worlds poorest and most unstable countries, but has
mostly failed to accomplish its military goals(Keating), which show the more
sentimental side to the war. How are we going to go in their risk our peoples lives and
take theirs? And for what dominance or to prove a point? Just because a certain group
of people are doing bad things doesnt mean everyone else should suffer the
consequences. This is like in Catch-22, by Joseph heller, when he writes Colonel
Cathcart was impervious to absolutes. He could measure his own progress only in
relationship to others, and his idea of excellence was to do something at least as well as
all the men his own age who were doing the same thing even better. The fact that there
were thousands of men his own age and older who had not even attained the rank of
major enlivened him in foppish delight in his own remarkable worth; on the other hand,
the fact that there were men of his own age and younger who were already generals
contaminated him with an agonizing sense of failure and made him gnaw at his
fingernails with an unappeasable anxiety (Heller 189); which shows that Cathcart has
a lack of judgment and ability to make decisions because of pressure from the
bureaucracy. It is the same thing with President trump as he is unable to make a good
decision because he promised a lot of stupid thing that he has to comply to at the
beginning of his campaign, like building a wall around Mexico, and this is sadly just
another one of those promises. So these problems are still very well alive today.
War is the one thing that has never changed in the course life. People will
continue fighting over everything and destroy whatever they get their hands on. But
why? Is all this fighting necessary and for what? Well this book answers just that in its
own style. He picks on America for their stance on war in a joking manner, something
that has never been done before. When it comes to war it is such a serious topic but
Heller shows that even in the darkest of times you can count on humour to shed some
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light on these horrible times. It really goes to show that just because you dont share the
same opinion as other it doesn't mean you're crazy it might mean that you are the only
person who can view something differently like Yossarian or Heller. Heller started a
chain of people writing satirical books on topics that are usually taken seriously. It is
also was the book to really inspire the non chronological story time of the postmodern
era.
He is the king of hypocrisy for quotes like Racial prejudice is a terrible thing, Yossarian.
It really is. It's a terrible thing to treat a decent, loyal Indian like a nigger, kike, wop, or
spic."(Heller 44), and it is for the contributions to literature that we thank him.
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Bibliography
Keating, Joshua. "Yet Another Indication That the Trump Administration
Doesnt Care About Human Rights." Slate Magazine. The Slatest, 30 Mar. 2017.
Web. 03 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/30/yet_another_indication_that_
the_trump_administration_doesn_t_care_about.html>.
Heller, Joseph. Catch 22. London: Vintage Classic, 2011. Print.