Catch22 :: Essays Papers

Catch22In Catch-22, Joseph the Tempter reveals the perversions of the human character and society. Using various themes and a unique style and structure, Heller satirizes war and its value as well as using the war setting to satirize society at large. By manipulating the classic war setting and language of the unfermented Heller is able to depict society as dark and twisted. Heller demonstrates his depiction of society through the institution of war (i.e. its effects and problems during and after war). Hellers satire of war and his anti war themes evoke pleasure and disquietude to show the mess of war, the victimization of the conscripts, and the monstrous egotism of the top brass.Catch-22 shows how the person soldier loses his uniqueness not as much from the battlefield like opposite novels set during a war, but from the bureaucratic mentality. An example of this Lt. Scheisskopfs obsession with parades that he sees the men more as puppets than as human beings. At one poin t in the novel, he even wants to wire them together so their movements allow be perfectly precise--just as mindless puppets would be. This theme also appears when Colonel Cathcart keeps increasing the number of missions his squadron must fly--not for military purposes, but to solely enhance his prestige. One other example of this theme is in the novel, when Yossarian is wounded. He is told to take better care of his leg because it is government property. Soldiers, therefore, are not even people, but simply property that can be listed on an inventory. In a bureaucracy, as Heller shows, individuality does not matter.In form, Catch-22 is a social satire--it is a novel using absurd humor to discredit or ridicule aspects of our society. The target in Catch-22 is not just the self-serving attitudes of some military officers, but also the production line Force itself as a mad military bureaucracy. The humor in the novel along with descriptive styles such asDoc Daneeka, roosted do lorously like a shivering turkey buzzard the mountains, blanketed in a mesmerizing quiet, Yossarian, wet with the feeling of warm slime, lavender gloom clouding the entrance of the operations populateThese descriptive styles help depart from pure realism--they serve to transcend physical reality by making sensations metaphors for states of mind and by attributing unusual qualities to objects, making the reviewer take a second look at familiar objects and feelings.