Catch22 :: Essays Papers

Catch22In Catch-22, Joseph Heller reveals the perversions of the human character and confederacy. Using various piece of musics and a unparalleled style and structure, Heller satirizes war and its values as well as using the war setting to satirize society at large. By manipulating the classic war setting and language of the raw Heller is up to(p) 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 uneasiness to show the mess of war, the victimization of the conscripts, and the monstrous egotism of the top brass.Catch-22 shows how the someone soldier loses his uniqueness non as much from the battlefield comparable other novels set during a war, but from the bureaucratic mentality. An example of this Lt. Scheisskopfs regression with parades that he sees the men more as puppets than as human beings. At one point in the novel, he even wants to wire them in concert so their movements will be perfectly precise-- unspoilt 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 just 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 image 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 Air event itself as a mad military bureaucracy. The humor in the novel along with descriptive styles such asDoc Daneeka , roosted dolorously like a shivering turkey buzzard the mountains, blanketed in a mesmerizing quiet, Yossarian, mischievous with the feeling of warm slime, lavender gloom clouding the entrance of the operations tentThese descriptive styles help depart from pure realism--they serve to reach physical reality by making sensations metaphors for states of mind and by attributing uncommon qualities to objects, making the reader take a second look at familiar objects and feelings.