War is a literary theme on the grand scale. Writers accordingly have portrayed the soldier as an image of man in society. In particular, American novelists and poets, over the last sixty years or so, have come to understand their own country, its social character, institutions and relations with the world, through metaphors of battle. Traditionally war-as-subject has been used by the artist as a framework, much like any other, for the examination of individual consciousness both in terms of environment and in relation to other individuals.
War may be defined as an attempt to resort to force for the settlement of disputes. It is a political act usually undertaken when it appears that all the other alternatives have failed. The analysis of war is philosophical, political, economic, technological, social and psychological. These analyses are mixed, since war is an extremely complex social phenomenon that cannot be explained through a single …show more content…
Catch-22, published in 1961, is probably the best-known and most widely read novel of World War II. It examines the social relationships and pressures of the contemporary society. A darkly comic novel, it centers on the antihero Yossarian and draws upon Heller’s own experience as a bomber pilot stationed on Corsica, an island off the west coast of Italy, with the Army Air Forces in 1944 during World War II to provide a black humourish look at war, bureaucracy and the maddening logic. In the novel, Yossarian's squadron is on Pianosa, a real but tiny island east of Corsica and a few miles south of Elba. Through a brief study of conceptual limitations within Heller’s characters it demonstrates that they exist within a totally self-enclosed system divorced from reality but supported by complex justifications. Within this social matrix is seen the heroic strivings of Yossarian to save a world he believes to have gone
War may be defined as an attempt to resort to force for the settlement of disputes. It is a political act usually undertaken when it appears that all the other alternatives have failed. The analysis of war is philosophical, political, economic, technological, social and psychological. These analyses are mixed, since war is an extremely complex social phenomenon that cannot be explained through a single …show more content…
Catch-22, published in 1961, is probably the best-known and most widely read novel of World War II. It examines the social relationships and pressures of the contemporary society. A darkly comic novel, it centers on the antihero Yossarian and draws upon Heller’s own experience as a bomber pilot stationed on Corsica, an island off the west coast of Italy, with the Army Air Forces in 1944 during World War II to provide a black humourish look at war, bureaucracy and the maddening logic. In the novel, Yossarian's squadron is on Pianosa, a real but tiny island east of Corsica and a few miles south of Elba. Through a brief study of conceptual limitations within Heller’s characters it demonstrates that they exist within a totally self-enclosed system divorced from reality but supported by complex justifications. Within this social matrix is seen the heroic strivings of Yossarian to save a world he believes to have gone