CATCH 22 JOSEPH HELLER
1961 – Although the novel is set in 1941 – 1943, and Heller does target the insanity and chaos of war, the text is more grounded in the early sixties and the movement for individual expression and anti establishment protest.
Novel – satiric
SETTING:
The main setting inCatch-22is the island of Pianosa, off the coast of Italy, in 1944, in the midst of WWII. Heller mentions that this island is too small to accommodate the military base, the men posted there (the fictitious 256thSquadron), and their actions, which introduces the self-defeating logic of the entire book, highlighting Heller’s flippant humor, and the battle between institution (the military bureaucracy) and the individual. The army hospital at Pianosa is an establishment that is associated with escape from the harsh world of war, as many men, including Yossarian, attempt to hide away and fake illness in order to stay in this safe haven, which they believe is free from the insanity outside. A major portion of the book is set in the air as well, as the men fly many missions and bomb different areas, leading to tragedy and loss. The sky symbolizes a place of absurdity, twisted logic, and death (in the case of Snowden, the suicide of McWatt, and the Bologna/ Avignon raids). Yossarian realizes in his encounters in the air that he is not invincible, death is imminent, and no human hands can restore life to a destroyed body. The sea is another setting in the novel, as Kid Sampson is killed in the ocean by McWatt’s plane, while Orr escapes by boat to Sweden, unveiling both the mortality of man and the irremovable impulse for survival that exists inside us all. Many nations are quick stop-offs for Milo Minderbender’s capitalist ventures, as he goes to cities in Mediterranean Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa for his own selfish benefit and profit. Nearby Rome serves as a recreation ground for off-duty soldiers, and is the center of social madness, as corruption and misery surround the aviators. For much of the novel, Rome is the headquarters for General Peckem, the head of Special Services, and the men constantly visit brothels. Nately falls in love with a whore here, and Yossarian falls in love with many women, including the maid in lime-green panties and Luciana. One of the nicknames for Rome is “The Eternal City”; this conveys an interesting message, as Heller makes this the title of the climactic Chapter 39, in which Yossarian wanders the streets after the disappearance of Nately’s whore and her sister. This once relaxing paradise transforms into a nightmare landscape, as Yossarian takes in the nighttime devastation, abuse, oppression, and neglect on the streets, and realizes that suffering is everywhere. This world is a fallen paradise, once dominated in Yossarian’s mind by lavish apartments and beautiful women, now overrun by military police and immorality. When he returns to Aarfy he finds that his comrade murdered an innocent maid, Michaela, as he had no regard for human life, just like the army administration, and had too much pride to pay for his desires. The setting inCatch-22plays a major role in character relations and the development of the plot, establishing themes that focus on the impermanent nature of life and the foolish circular logic of the book as a whole.
THEMES:
In Catch 22, there is an underlying theme of the constant struggle between sanity vs. insanity. Heller points this out in his book quite clearly this meaning. Yossarian, the captain, struggles with his ability to cope with the war. He is not in favor of even wearing his uniform. He is portrayed as the symbol of an insane person trying to cope with the war. He thinks unjustly that everyone around him is out to get him and that he is the sane one and the rest of the world is insane. It is this constant flip flop of thinking that has the author on his toes trying to switch back and forth in the ability to see things clearly from the viewpoint of saneness and craziness.
Another example of this tug of war would be Yossarian’s refusal to fly. The Doctor believes he is the crazy one but, in reality, maybe Yossarian is the sane one because he doesn’t want to lose his life. Is he crazy because he wants to be grounded so he will not lose his life and are the rest of the flyers insane because they are willing to fly and risk their life? Has the world gone insane and it is impossible to trust in anyone’s sanity? The symbolic effects of war constantly challenged each of the characters in pursuing this theme of sanity and insanity and trying to distinguish these beliefs and meaning, clearly by the roles of the characters in Catch-22.
Soldiers as Governmental Puppets:
InCatch-22,Heller uses certain characters to represent the government usage of people as puppets. Heller questions people’s freedom to operate. He questions whether people are really free to do what they want or if they are shaped in advance by institutional. The fact that the men do what they are told with no questions shows that they just give up, conform to the institution, and do what they are told. Heller uses Colonel Cathart as a personification of the government. Cathart continues to raise mission numbers, not caring how many of his men die, just to get the promotions he wants. He sees his soldiers not as men but as property to be listed on an inventory. Another example of Heller’s idea of men as property is when Yossarian injures his leg and gets told to take better care of himself because his leg is “government property”. Heller also uses Lt. Scheisskopf’s obsession with parades to demonstrate the need to show off their accomplishments. At some point there is mention that he even wants to wire the men together so that their performance is perfect. A fourth example is the soldier in white. He is brought to the hospital but is never seen or heard. He sits there quietly. His IV and pee bag just get switched when one is empty. His legs are strewn up and he look like the puppet strung up. A visual representation of the Governments Puppet.
CHARACTERS:
Yossarian is a captain in the Air Force, he plays the protagonist and hero of the novel Catch 22. He is a lead bombardier in his squadron, yet despises anything to do with the war. Yossarian is a hypochondriac for the purpose of not having to risk his life in dangerous and often pointless missions. He often fakes crazy non-existent diseases to stay out of the plane causing the rest of his men to believe the war has made him go insane. The other men in his squadron see Yosarrian as an outcast. He doesn’t like being a soldier and will do anything to prevent himself from risking his life. Yossarian redefines the meaning of heroism. He lacks any characteristics of what one would imagine a hero to be like, but decides that lives aren’t worth being lost in such a place of chaos without any valid reason other than the simple ordering by the government. He takes his men’s deaths very deeply and ultimately decides to leave the war altogether in order to save himself and to stand up against the government for what he believes is right.
Nately is a nineteen year old boy that comes from a family of wealth and is very young, innocent, sweet, and naive. While in Rome, he falls in love with a whore. Since he wants her to stop being a whore, he pays her so that she can ultimately give up her "job." Nately dies in combat and Yossarian delivers the tragic news to his whore, who goes off on a rampage and tries to blame Yossarian for Nately's death. She tries to stab him many times, trying to make him seem responsible. In a way, Nately represents the optimism during the war along with its sudden tragedies. Even though he is one of the youngest men in the squadron, he seems to be killed along with his optimistic views about life in general.
Doc Daneeka is a flight surgeon, who is notorious for his complaints. Although his problems are relatively petty, he continuously begins his sentences with, “you think you’ve got problems…”. He constantly has his temperature checked, but is always in perfect health. He is afraid of flying so Yossarian helps him record more flight hours than he is deserving of, but he never returns the favor. Even though Yossarian is terrified to fly more mission and it is well within Doc Daneeka’s means to ground him, he refuses to, which is consistent with his selfish nature and belief that his problems are more important/worse than everyone else’s problems. Later in the book, he has Yossarian fake more hours for him by putting his name on McWatt’s flight log. McWatt then crashes the plan and commits suicide and all aboard the plane are declared dead. He spends the rest of his time in the war trying to convince people he is alive, including his wife, to whom he writes that he is not dead. His wife decides she would rather accept the money she received after his death than acknowledge that her husband may be alive. This is ironic because Doc Daneeka spent his entire life complaining about the money he lost when he opened his practice and was shipped off to war and trying to regain the amount lost through falsely signing his name to missions he was not brave enough to fly. After Doc Daneeka’s “death”, Colonel Cathcart raised the number of missions again, much to the dismay of the other men in the squadron, and he is further isolated.
Snowden is a young man in Yossarian’s squadron who is gruesomely killed on a mission over Avignon. Snowden’s guts get on Yossarian’s uniform while he is dying, and his death causes Yossarian great mental pain and shock. We see snippets of this incident throughout the book but it is never fully shown until the end of the book.
Snowden’s death causes the mental pain and trauma that inspires Yossarian’s hate for the military bureaucracy. We aren’t let in on the details of his death and why it changed Yossarian until the end of the book, making the scene far more significant and shocking. The reveal of Snowden’s death helps explain Yossarian’s intentions and mindset throughout the book. While Snowden himself isn’t a character that is depicted in any instance other than this scene, his impact on the book is tremendous. Snowden’s guts pouring out onto Yossarian serve as a symbol for the expendability of human life in the hands of the military, as they are seen in Yossarian’s eyes as “garbage” and cause him to see himself and his squadmates as disposable pawns in the American war effort. The gruesome scene of Snowden’s death also creates a harsh juxtaposition with the lighthearted absurdity of the rest of the book, changing the entire feel of the book and making us rethink the various actions of Yossarian.
Dubar is Yossarian's closest friend. They are very similar and have the same fear of dying and a strong instinct to survive. They both have the same type of humor and they play off each other when they are mocking other soldiers. At first he is obsessed with slowing down time so he can prolong his death but eventually the becomes too much for him to handle so he accepts that he's going to die. Like Yossarian Dunbar has no issues with switching identities to avoid combat duty. In chapter 26 he becomes A. Fortiori and that gives Yoss the idea to switch identities as well.
The Texan is a minor character who only appears in the very beginning of the novel. He is a soldier who Yossarian and the other men in the medical ward find extremely irritating due to his cheery demeanor. The Texan's cheer has absolutely no place, in the other men's minds, in a place where death must be faced every single day. Yossarian blames the Texan for the death of the soldier in white. While the Texan talks about being American as apple pie and the Brooklyn Dodgers and criticizes the lack of patriotism that Yossarian and his comrades have, he turns out to be a hypochondriac avoiding the war just like everyone else in the medical ward. In the end the Texan turns out to be the force the drives the men to leave the hospital and face the war once again.
Milo Minderbinder: The mess officer of Yossarian’s squadron, and a successful war profiteer. He uses his skills in business to run the “syndicate” in which everyone has a share. His syndicate is an international trading organization known as M&M Enterprises, through which he trades a wide variety of goods with great success. His only failure came when he cornered the market on Egyptian cotton and was unable to sell it. He then attempted to pass it off to his men by covering it with chocolate, to no avail. Milo represents capitalism and greed, and how, to Heller, capitalists are strongly swayed by money. This is shown by the fact that Milo contracts German bombers to bomb his own squadron, and when he is court-martialed for it, he exonerates himself by disclosing to the officials how much profit he made. Milo is another example of how bureaucracy controls the lives of the soldiers, and how they are (often unknowingly) a part of the system, and how they have no control over it.
Lieutenant Scheisskopf (Minor Character)
His name literally translates to “Sh*thead” in German. He is also Yossarian’s and Clevinger’s training commander, although he dislikes Clevinger. He loves parades and is constantly thinking of new ways to win the parade. Although fairly irrelevant in war, Scheisskopf’s dedication to parades earns him many future promotions.
The significant of Major Major in Catch 22 is one in which involves the true cruelty of life and how some people simply have the most unfortunate of circumstances to deal with. Being named Major Major seems more or less like a minor problem at first and is quite humorous actually but the when we learn about his back story it is quite tragic and symbolic of a cruel father and fate in the the world. Major Major becoming a Major due to an error in the system and losing all of his friends on the basketball court is sad as well and points to another idea that authority may come at a price and the lack of trust people have in figures of authority in general. Overall, Major Major Major Major plays a small but important role in making some points by the author and just how unfair and cruel life can be.
The chaplain is one of the few purely good characters in the novel mainly due to his compassion for the soldiers. He is a timid, innocent, faith abiding man whose actions are guided by God and religion. Witnessing the gruesomeness of the war, the chaplain struggles to maintain his faith and innocence. He lies about having a disease called Wisconsin Shingles in order to be admitted to the hospital, and realizes that he enjoys sinning now that he can justify it. Some time later, the chaplain is dragged into the cellar and falsely accused and found guilty of many crimes. After this he truly understands how corrupt the bureaucracy is and that religion is useless in war, thus transforming him into an assertive, confident man whose guiding force is Yossarian and the other men. He chooses responsibility to others instead of continuing to follow the unjust system, which is an important theme throughout all of Catch-22. The chaplain is one of the few purely good characters in the novel mainly due to his compassion for the soldiers. He is a timid, innocent, faith abiding man whose actions are guided by God and religion. Witnessing the gruesomeness of the war, the chaplain struggles to maintain his faith and innocence. He lies about having a disease called Wisconsin Shingles in order to be admitted to the hospital, and realizes that he enjoys sinning now that he can justify it. Some time later, the chaplain is dragged into the cellar and falsely accused and found guilty of many crimes. After this he truly understands how corrupt the bureaucracy is and that religion is useless in war, thus transforming him into an assertive, confident man whose guiding force is Yossarian and the other men. He chooses responsibility to others instead of continuing to follow the unjust system, which is an important theme throughout all of Catch-22.
Orr may seem like an innocent weird guy with chestnut-filled cheeks, however he is more than that. He is known as a bomber pilot who is continually shot down and crash lands into the ocean. Described to have a cherub-like appearance, "a warm-hearted, simple minded gnome" no one questions as to why he is always crashing. In the book, Orr is the only character to be considered "crazier" than Yossarian. However Orr is not crazy at all, he had a plan to escape, he knows how to escape Catch-22 and the bureaucracy. At the end of the book Orr oars away to Sweden where peace can be found, coincidently having practiced this before with a crew after having crashed another plane. Orr also relates to the books idea of responsibility, he is responsible for Yossarian, fixing his stove because he knows he'll be cold during winter. In the end Yossarian takes Orr's plan and rows towards freedom.