Conflict In Catch 22

The fight between the individual and the collective has been a pivotal point in the development of human history. In the political (through the development of minority rights), the cultural (through the rise of counterculture and rebelliousness) and practically every other facet of human society, the main conflict that has occurred has been between the individual’s attempts at self-preservation and the collective’s plight for development. The book Catch-22 is a perfect example of this conflict between the individual and the collective. Based on the absurd airbase of the island of Pianosa, where dozens of pilots are stranded throughout the war with no reinforcements and a constantly increasing amount of missions making it impossible for the …show more content…
His behaviour as commanding pilot is stellar, striking with precision and even returning to the target when it wasn’t sure whether his team had hit the place. In fact, the behaviour Yossarian exhibits at every moment in the story up until siege at Ferrara is far more like that of Havermeyer in the later parts of the storyline (far bolder) than his own. It’s not until tragedy at Ferrara strikes that this changes. With his life placed on the line, and especially after the death of Kraft (caused by his direct actions, and “punished” by his superiors who give him a medal), Yossarian’s mind snaps. The absurd result that results from Kraft’s death, in which Yossarian manages to be both chastised because of the death of a member of his crew but also commended with a medal for this same event leads to Yossarian (and the audience) noticing how ridiculous the military’s system of command really is. It is a system that decides that the answer to the Ferrara debacle is “to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of” (Heller 106). At this point, faced with an unknown number of possible future missions which seem to be always increasing without any possible respite, and with no way out