The Meaninglessness Of War In Joseph Heller's Catch-22

What exactly is war? Is it the ability to prove how heroic you are? Is it terrorism or fear? Could it be both? To these questions there are no answers. War is simply catastrophic, the ideal absence of common sense. In order to show this point, many authors have written books trying to describe war in a sensible way. This includes the novel Catch-22 in which according to Harold follows the biological perspective that “Heller’s writing was partly based by his own experience as a bombardier during World War II, and his own deeply held moral convictions. So in Catch-22 we have a novel with moral ideas at its center, but which employs non-realistic techniques of different kinds to reach and engage readers” (147). The original purpose of this …show more content…
Even though they are very diverse in both cases, each character’s outer shell shows entirely what the author has intended for the viewer. In the story Catch-22, a character can be seen in Yossarian, the death-fearing antagonist of the novel. Throughout the book, the reader is given minimal, incoherent pieces that can explain the death of Snowden, a young bomber in Yossarian’s plane. According to Thegze, “And it is this event- the reality of Snowden’s death- which is to change Yossarian and shock him out of the numbing insanity of normal life on Pianosa. This event is always in the back of his mind; it is what one might call his touchstone of sanity” (12). We do not witness the whole incidence until the end of the book, so Snowden’s funeral takes place, before his death is fully described to us. While the funeral is happening, Yossarian spectates from a distance, in a chestnut tree, while sitting nude. When asked on whether he would ever put his clothes back on, Yossarian says abruptly: “I don’t think so” (Heller 272). It is most certainly clear from this that Yossarian is not an ideal soldier. Heller uses a war zone setting, to ridicule society at large. He is able to compare the commanding officers to dumbfounded businessmen. “Don’t mumble, and mumble, when you do, and don’t interrupt, and say what you do”. Craving promotion over everything and anything, Colonel Cathcart keeps increasing the number of tasks the men of his squad are forced to pilot. Although the army claims they need fly only forty, an organizational ambush called “Catch-22” states they are no longer allowed to go home at forty because they must conform to their commanding officers. Just like the work place, the men are forced to go through countless amounts of red tape, which barely gives them any kind of progression. While that happens, Yossarian tries to pretend he is insane,