Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Summary: The Novel Catch- 22 I set during the second quarter of World War II following a man, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier, named John Yossarian. He along with his fellow Air Force company where stationed on a little island called Pianosa near the coast of the Mediterranean sea. Throughout the novel, Yossarian as well as his fellow soldiers are faced with nightmarish tasks in order to fulfill their service requirements. However, when the men’s Air Force colonels keep raising the number of missions they are required to go on before they can return home, Yossarian realizes that these aren’t in fact missions at all but a full out war. Soon Yossarian is consumed with the fact that millions of people are trying to kill him and is trying every excuse he can to get out of harms way. Yossarian begins to take the war personally instead of thinking about the nation or any other point of view and becomes furious, but desperate to save his own life. As a result Yossarian fakes injuries and illness to keep himself from the brutality of the outside world. However, Yossarian is placed in tragic circumstances when his Squadron is receiving fire from his own officers in combat. Although it is honorable for men to fight for their country, most of the squadron refuses to proceed and is marked as “crazy”, which to the men is the sanest position for them to take.
Analysis of Major Characters:
John Yossarian is an U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier who is fighting in mist of World War II. He is both a member of his Air Force squadron’s community and alienated by the men in it when he thinks that he is the only person being attacked in a full out war. Although he goes to combat and rightfully lives with all the men in his squadron, he is marked as an outsider because of the fact that many of the men in the squadron think he is insane due to the fact he believes he is the only one being attacked. Throughout the story Yossarian is faced with attacks against his squadron and initially can’t take it anymore. He starts to pretend like he is sick or ill and spends most of his time in war, in the hospital.
Milo Minderbinder is a negative man, he is the world of capitalism rolled into an entire person. Although Milo is a very talented businessman, he seems to abuse his talent by letting his ignorance and greed trump everything. In the beginning we honored Milo for making money for himself in the black- market, encouraging him to make a profit, feeling it was honest. Milo started off as honest, and honorable, however, he starts to turn on his fellow army members by attacking his own company, joining the German army, raising food prices, and serving his men inedible and horrific food. Like Yossarian, he breaks the rules, however, in ways he seems logical in his actions, trying to make something of himself while men with unreasonable request are controlling him. Even though Milo does wrong, he is liked upon all the men. He is a even flown place like Egypt so that he can buy and sell goods for some profits.
The Chaplain is one of the only good characters among these groups of men. He is a man of his world and is also true to his religion however, he is very timid and shy, which often allows Chaplain to be bullied around by higher authority, figures in his squadron. Although he has doubts about exceling in the war, he seeks to his religious ways to conquer through it. The war seems to take a very big toll on Chaplain, he often is haunted by nightmares of himself dying in horrific and tragic ways, which seems to stem off of his love for his family members that are back home. Chaplain often helps Yossarian, and even asks one of the officers to lighten to work load that Yossarian has to accomplish. However, with Chaplains good intensions come his lack of self-confidence. Because Chaplain can’t stand up for himself he has chosen to live alone in the woods about four miles outside of base.
Setting: The setting of Catch-22 is mostly set on the island of Pianosa, a tiny island east of Corsica, which is a few miles south of Elba on the coast of Italy towards the very end of World War II. The island of Pianosa was in close relation to that of Corsica, which in fact was what the author had in mind when talking about the Pianos Island. The positioning of this book is due to the United States entering World War II in December of 1941, due to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii. However, the author even confesses that the island is far too little to accommodate all that action that has gone on in the book as well as all the characters that are in the book. Therefor, a huge chunk of the story is centered around or in the air considering that they are flying airplanes. Throughout the book allies are still conducting round the clock bombing sprees from the island to the coast of Europe, the book becomes a story of mostly mass murder. Even though most of the story has to do with being in the air, as well as, the island on the coast of Italy another large chunk of the stories is at the headquarters of the base. The men as well as the officers would go around in the planes and initially go chill out there with the rest of the men when times got hard or when they needed a break.
Types of Conflicts: The conflicts that we see are mostly man V. man, we see this because throughout the story the men are put in horrible situations and in fact are fighting a war, making it literally man v. man. Another conflict is that of man V. self, this is
because we see soldiers go back in forth of their religious beliefs due to what others have said to them, as well as, they often don’t think they believe in their religion because god shouldn’t have put them in such a horrible situation.
Major Themes:
One of the most relevant themes in Catch-22 is the absolute power of bureaucracy. Throughout the novel, the men often risk their lives for reasons they don’t understand. The Bureaucrats never fully listen to what the soldiers have to say, when they try to reason with them they have no sense of logic.
Another relevant theme in the novel is the loss of religious faith. Some of the soldiers believe in God and rely solely on their religion to make it through the day. However, the countless missions that Colonel Cathcart’s pushes them too starts to waver the men’s opinion on whether God is truly looking out for them, or if they are being punished.
Another theme in the novel is isolation. We see isolation considering the war isn’t really pulling people together. For example, Chaplain even lives out in the woods to escape the cruelty of the other men, leaving him isolated and alone with nobody to help him. We also see Yossarian being isolated for his fear of threats.
Major Symbols:
A symbol we see is Milo’s Chocolate-Covered Cotton. Milo, in order to make money, has the idea to sell chocolate-covered cotton to the officers and government after he discovers the enormous amounts of cotton in the market. Milo’s “chocolate-covered cotton” has enticing exterior but inside has a lack of any kind of substance rather than cotton. Milo’s “treats’ show initially the bureaucracy can be fooled only by its appearances. We also see the soldier in white as being another symbol to the book. a bandage-wrapped, faceless, nameless body that lies in the hospital in the first chapter of the novel, represents the way the army treats men as interchangeable objects. When, months after his death, he is replaced by another, identical soldier in white, everyone assumes it is the same person.
Aerial Photographs are somewhat beautiful, however, the photographs taken during their bombing missions seem to show the dehumanization that the men go through due to the war. The bombing missions that they go on show beautiful color after a picture is taken.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcmwPYCUysw
Citations:
"Catch-22." SparkNotes.
SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.
< http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catch22/themes.html>.
J9ROBINSON.
"The Catch-22 of College Admissions Essays." Essay Hell. N.p., 9
Sept. 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.
< http://www.essayhell.com/2010/09/the-catch-22-of-college-admissions-essays.html>.
Shmoop
Editorial Team. "Captain John Yossarian in Catch-22" Shmoop.com.
Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.
"Catch-22
(6/10) Movie CLIP - Bomb the Ocean (1970) HD." YouTube. YouTube, 23
Nov. 2011. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcmwPYCUysw>.
"Catch-22." Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Jan. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22>.
"Marathon Reading of Catch-22." LAUS Announcements Blog. N.p., n.d. Web.
01 Apr. 2013.
<http://blogs.la.psu.edu/laus-announcements/2012/08/marathon-reading-of-catch-22.html>.
"Catch-22 (6/10) Movie CLIP - Bomb the Ocean (1970) HD." YouTube.
YouTube, 23 Nov. 2011. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcmwPYCUysw
Analysis of Major Characters:
John Yossarian is an U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier who is fighting in mist of World War II. He is both a member of his Air Force squadron’s community and alienated by the men in it when he thinks that he is the only person being attacked in a full out war. Although he goes to combat and rightfully lives with all the men in his squadron, he is marked as an outsider because of the fact that many of the men in the squadron think he is insane due to the fact he believes he is the only one being attacked. Throughout the story Yossarian is faced with attacks against his squadron and initially can’t take it anymore. He starts to pretend like he is sick or ill and spends most of his time in war, in the hospital.
Milo Minderbinder is a negative man, he is the world of capitalism rolled into an entire person. Although Milo is a very talented businessman, he seems to abuse his talent by letting his ignorance and greed trump everything. In the beginning we honored Milo for making money for himself in the black- market, encouraging him to make a profit, feeling it was honest. Milo started off as honest, and honorable, however, he starts to turn on his fellow army members by attacking his own company, joining the German army, raising food prices, and serving his men inedible and horrific food. Like Yossarian, he breaks the rules, however, in ways he seems logical in his actions, trying to make something of himself while men with unreasonable request are controlling him. Even though Milo does wrong, he is liked upon all the men. He is a even flown place like Egypt so that he can buy and sell goods for some profits.
The Chaplain is one of the only good characters among these groups of men. He is a man of his world and is also true to his religion however, he is very timid and shy, which often allows Chaplain to be bullied around by higher authority, figures in his squadron. Although he has doubts about exceling in the war, he seeks to his religious ways to conquer through it. The war seems to take a very big toll on Chaplain, he often is haunted by nightmares of himself dying in horrific and tragic ways, which seems to stem off of his love for his family members that are back home. Chaplain often helps Yossarian, and even asks one of the officers to lighten to work load that Yossarian has to accomplish. However, with Chaplains good intensions come his lack of self-confidence. Because Chaplain can’t stand up for himself he has chosen to live alone in the woods about four miles outside of base.
Setting: The setting of Catch-22 is mostly set on the island of Pianosa, a tiny island east of Corsica, which is a few miles south of Elba on the coast of Italy towards the very end of World War II. The island of Pianosa was in close relation to that of Corsica, which in fact was what the author had in mind when talking about the Pianos Island. The positioning of this book is due to the United States entering World War II in December of 1941, due to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii. However, the author even confesses that the island is far too little to accommodate all that action that has gone on in the book as well as all the characters that are in the book. Therefor, a huge chunk of the story is centered around or in the air considering that they are flying airplanes. Throughout the book allies are still conducting round the clock bombing sprees from the island to the coast of Europe, the book becomes a story of mostly mass murder. Even though most of the story has to do with being in the air, as well as, the island on the coast of Italy another large chunk of the stories is at the headquarters of the base. The men as well as the officers would go around in the planes and initially go chill out there with the rest of the men when times got hard or when they needed a break.
Types of Conflicts: The conflicts that we see are mostly man V. man, we see this because throughout the story the men are put in horrible situations and in fact are fighting a war, making it literally man v. man. Another conflict is that of man V. self, this is
because we see soldiers go back in forth of their religious beliefs due to what others have said to them, as well as, they often don’t think they believe in their religion because god shouldn’t have put them in such a horrible situation.
Major Themes:
One of the most relevant themes in Catch-22 is the absolute power of bureaucracy. Throughout the novel, the men often risk their lives for reasons they don’t understand. The Bureaucrats never fully listen to what the soldiers have to say, when they try to reason with them they have no sense of logic.
Another relevant theme in the novel is the loss of religious faith. Some of the soldiers believe in God and rely solely on their religion to make it through the day. However, the countless missions that Colonel Cathcart’s pushes them too starts to waver the men’s opinion on whether God is truly looking out for them, or if they are being punished.
Another theme in the novel is isolation. We see isolation considering the war isn’t really pulling people together. For example, Chaplain even lives out in the woods to escape the cruelty of the other men, leaving him isolated and alone with nobody to help him. We also see Yossarian being isolated for his fear of threats.
Major Symbols:
A symbol we see is Milo’s Chocolate-Covered Cotton. Milo, in order to make money, has the idea to sell chocolate-covered cotton to the officers and government after he discovers the enormous amounts of cotton in the market. Milo’s “chocolate-covered cotton” has enticing exterior but inside has a lack of any kind of substance rather than cotton. Milo’s “treats’ show initially the bureaucracy can be fooled only by its appearances. We also see the soldier in white as being another symbol to the book. a bandage-wrapped, faceless, nameless body that lies in the hospital in the first chapter of the novel, represents the way the army treats men as interchangeable objects. When, months after his death, he is replaced by another, identical soldier in white, everyone assumes it is the same person.
Aerial Photographs are somewhat beautiful, however, the photographs taken during their bombing missions seem to show the dehumanization that the men go through due to the war. The bombing missions that they go on show beautiful color after a picture is taken.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcmwPYCUysw
Citations:
"Catch-22." SparkNotes.
SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.
< http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catch22/themes.html>.
J9ROBINSON.
"The Catch-22 of College Admissions Essays." Essay Hell. N.p., 9
Sept. 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.
< http://www.essayhell.com/2010/09/the-catch-22-of-college-admissions-essays.html>.
Shmoop
Editorial Team. "Captain John Yossarian in Catch-22" Shmoop.com.
Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.
"Catch-22
(6/10) Movie CLIP - Bomb the Ocean (1970) HD." YouTube. YouTube, 23
Nov. 2011. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcmwPYCUysw>.
"Catch-22." Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Jan. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22>.
"Marathon Reading of Catch-22." LAUS Announcements Blog. N.p., n.d. Web.
01 Apr. 2013.
<http://blogs.la.psu.edu/laus-announcements/2012/08/marathon-reading-of-catch-22.html>.
"Catch-22 (6/10) Movie CLIP - Bomb the Ocean (1970) HD." YouTube.
YouTube, 23 Nov. 2011. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcmwPYCUysw