The Struggle In Joseph Heller's Catch-22

Along with all the death that war has brought, the dilemma of how carelessly lives are thrown away is also raised. In Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, he satirizes the struggles of wartime for a combat pilot Yossarian that finds himself unable to escape the “Catch 22” system. Forced to fly seemingly endless missions alongside high death probabilities, Yossarian finds that the enemies are all around him from his own living cells to his commanding officer. The novel follows him and his companion’s journey on an attempt to survive everyday struggles and their attempts at saving their own lives. Through the perspective of Yossarian and his comrades, Heller demonstrates the conflict people have of doing their duty while staying true to oneself.
As Yossarian …show more content…
Descriptions like “worried and bit their nails” and “grotesque” paints a picture of almost deteriorated human forms that have nothing to look forward to except despair. This effect has grown over time as they have learned this from “bitter experience” that soon takes on the form of a panic attack scenario. Shortly after, the phrase “Catch 22” is brought up that sheds light on their dismal situation. “There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specific that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind” (Heller 46). With the appearance of the book’s title, it captures the attention of the reader that allows them to understand the paradoxical situation of the pilots. It also paints a cruel picture of the military institutions as once in, there appears to be no way out. Derek Maus sums this idea up with “Catch-22 combines black humour with the quintessentially dystopian theme of a repressive society's victory over the individual. Everything that Yossarian believes should create a positive effect instead results in a negative one, and vice versa” (Maus). With options like that, it is easy for one to