"Catch-22"

Analytical Essay # 26215

English > Analysis
History > U.S. Baby Boom Years 1945-1965
History > U.S. World Wars

"Catch-22"

Examines Joseph Heller's moral vision of America in his novel "Catch-22".

1,414 words () | 1 source | 2002 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper shows that in the moral vision of his novel, "Catch-22", Joseph Heller attacks war, bureaucracy and capitalism as the ills of America. The paper also shows that Heller's model for morality is found within the character of Yossarian, who struggles against these systems, dehumanization and death with logic and individualism.

From the Paper:

"The bureaucratic war machine of Catch-22 exemplifies the work of bureaucracy in society. Those high in the chain of command give orders arbitrarily. Rules have no meaningful relation to each other. Catch-22 is found in every report, counter-report, and rule book. Generals and Colonels strive to gain attention in magazines rather than running an efficient war, glorifying themselves, destroying each other in a game for higher rank. Nothing is won except a more deeply embedded illusion of immortality, another step away from the battlefield, where the mortality of man as a reality is in full view. So separated from this reality an agent of bureaucracy dispenses life without a thought of death. As in American society, systems of government and corporation are run bureaucratically. They have no relation to the people they affect. Heller portrays the negative in these affects; war is the outcome, created by men that don't fight wars but let other fight them instead. As in the social reality of big business in America, control, self-interest, and profit are first in line for executives."