Catch-22 was published in 1961. Heller’s protagonist, Yosarrian, realizes that only an insane person would want to fly on any more missions. When he tells his superiors this, they say that the fact that he wants to be grounded proves his sanity, so he must keep flying. The popularity of Heller’s novel led to the use of “catch-22” in common conversation to describe any impossible event. Today, Catch-22 is recognized as a tale of the insanity of war, one that foreshadowed the anti-war protests during the Vietnam
