CATCH – 22
Catch-22 was the debut novel of Joseph Heller, released in 1961. It apparently provoked sharp reactions from most reviewers, reviews being either very positive or very negative. It is frequently counted among the greatest novels of the 20th century.
About the title: The word catch in the title is used in the manner of the phrase ‘What’s the catch?’, signifying a hidden drawback or trickery. The number 22 has no deep significance, and was chosen after several other numbers were rejected for various reasons. Catch-22 is a term first used in the book to describe a very particular kind of situation and has since then seeped into the common English language. www.thefreedictionary.net provides these definitions of catch-22:
1.
1.1. A situation in which a desired outcome or solution is impossible to attain because of a set of inherently illogical rules or conditions:
1.2. The rules or conditions that create such a situation.
2. A situation or predicament characterized by absurdity or senselessness.
3. A contradictory or self-defeating course of action.
The book is written in a manner which emphasises these characteristics (contradictory and absurdity) of the modern world.
The setting: The novel is set during the Allied invasion of Europe during the Second World War. The protagonist of the novel is Captain Yossarian, an Assyrian in the United States Air Force, who is a bombardier (his job is to aim and release the bombs during a bombing raid).
The style: The book is written in a very unique style. The different chapters in the book take place at various points in time, and we are usually not informed what time a particular chapter is set in. Events of future time-periods are referenced to before they actually occur in the book, like OHYoS and Midnight’s Children. Also, the chapters themselves are written usually in manner similar to that of “stream of consciousness”, progressing from one related event to another across time and space. The overall sense is therefore that of confusion, which is a very important theme of the book. Most of the conversation in the book is argumentative in nature, or is superfluous speech. Another important theme of the book is contradiction. For example, characters say one thing, and then immediately do the opposite.
Thus the overall message of the book seems to be that the world is an illogical, senseless and contradictory place, which is symbolised by the infamous catch-22. Catch-22 thus seems to have several characteristics of both post-modernist and modernist novels.
The story: The story is focussed on Captain Yossarian and is primarily about his wish of not dying in the war. He says that it is necessary for the war to be fought, and thus for some men to die, but which men is an open question and he plans to do everything he can to not die.
At the beginning of the book, Yossarian is in the hospital with a (fake) complaint about a liver pain. In the first chapter, we encounter several of the important themes of catch-22. The first is contradiction - “The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likable. In three days no one could stand him.” The second is Yossarian’s strange behaviours, he frequently does pointless things or says absurd things, seemingly as a way of amusing himself. (He also frequently says that everybody is crazy or that everybody is trying to kill him, which gets him labelled crazy by other people.)
Over the course of the book, we are introduced to the other characters (who are mainly Yossarian’s friends, acquaintances and superior officers), a few important(to Yossarian) events and the philosophy that Yossarian has adopted towards war and his role in it and that of others. Orr – Yossarian’s tent mate – who says that life goes slower when you are bored, so tries to have as boring experiences as possible and who subsequently disappears after his plane is shot down by Germans; Clevinger – who underwent cadet training with Yossarian – a quixotic person who keeps reprimanding Yossarian and one mission simply goes missing in a cloud; Nately who falls in love with a prostitute who does not love him back; Huple and McWatt – pilots; Doc Daneeka – the squadron’s medical man(who is announced dead in a plane crash, and is treated like a ghost by anybody who subsequently meets him) ; Milo – the squad’s mess officer who operates a syndicate and makes a profit by buying eggs for seven cents and selling them for five; ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen – stationed at group headquarters and Milo’s rival in black marketing and several of Yossarian’s commanding officers – Major Major Major Major(this is not a mistake, that’s his name and rank), Colonel Korn and Cathcart(both looking for promotions and volunteering their men for difficult missions to earn praise), Generals Peckem and Dreedle(interested in defeating each-other and assuming command over each other) and Lieutenant Schiesskopf(interested in nothing but organizing parades).
One very important series of events in the book is that people fly the requisite number of missions needed to be discharged from the war and while they are waiting for discharge orders, Colonel Cathcart raises the number of missions required to be discharged(going against his orders). The men are forced to follow his orders, even though he is violating his, because of catch-22.
There are three major missions in the book that affect Yossarian – Avignon, where Milo has been contracted to attack by the allies and to defend by the Germans, and leads to Yossarian getting injured and Snowden dying in his arms(due to Milo selling the first-aid kit), Yossarin is affected a lot by this, afterwards Yossarian starts parading naked and attends Snowden’s funeral naked too; Farrera – where Yossarian is not able to release his bombs the first time, and asks his pilot to go over the bridge again, leading to death of several men even though the bridge is destroyed, and a subsequent promotion to Captain and a medal; and Bologna – which Yossarian does his utmost to avoid(including poisoning the mess food and changing map lines), .
******** SPOILER ALERT, DON’T READ THIS IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO READ THE BOOK ******
Towards the end of the book, everything takes a much darker tone. People are shown dying for the first time, and almost all of Yossarian’s acquaintances/friends are dead/missing. Yossarian finally decides he has had enough and refuses openly to fly any more missions. All the other men secretly support him but do not want to support him openly for fear of reprisals. He is approached by his superiors with a choice of being sent home (and helping them by praising them to high heavens) or a court-martial. Yossarian agrees to go home, but is injured by Nately’s whore (who wants to kill Yossarian for telling her that Nately is dead). In the hospital, he reviews his decision to make a deal with Colonel Cathcart. He decides not to give up fighting, and thus decides to run away to Sweden, where Orr turned up after being missing for several weeks. The book ends with Yossarian running away from the hospital while being attacked by Nately’s whore.
A review of Catch-22 by Apoorv Gupta, 2007CS10160.
ReplyDeleteOne thing which I would like to add to your review is the observation of the novel being this constant “debate” in Yossarian’s mind about co-operating with the group for the greater good of everyone or thinking as an individual for his own protection. Thus, Yossarian is presented actually as an anti-hero when it comes to the usual stereotype hero who can risk all and save all. I believe it is very brave on the part of Joseph Heller to go ahead with such a protagonist. It perfectly goes with the general trend of modernist and post-modernist writers of breaking the prevailing norms in writing and exploring new grounds.
ReplyDeleteAlso one cannot help but notice the non-linear style of narration as has been seen in other modernist novels done earlier in this course. Events are described from different characters' points of view and out of sequence. As in Midnights’ Children, we are given mere glimpses of future characters but the reader has to wait until the chapter where the character fully develops. Such flash-forwards and flash backs are again a repetitive characteristic of modernist and post- modernist novels.
In the end, Catch 22 can be considered to be an open critique of war, bureaucracy and military organization.
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ReplyDeleteCatch-22 is a war novel , that is to say its focuses on the effects of war on the soldiers. Unlike the other war novels which are usually a first person narrative of an incident(s) , Catch-22 is a satire against the bureaucracy set in the time of war. The author doesn’t bore us by giving a lecture on war, but instead lets his characters do the talking.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to the writing style of the novel , I am in agreement with Apoorv. I would just like to elaborate a bit on a few things.
‘Contradictory’ situations can be found in the book in plenty. ‘Contradictory’ is the closest I can get to describing them. (without considering using ‘catch-22’ of course). But that comes as no surprise as it(catch-22) has been introduced in the dictionary after the release of this novel.
The author uses ‘catch-22’ very well (again no surprise as he was the one who introduced it) to bring out the situations the bureaucracy forces on the soldiers. He does so in a humorous manner which makes for an interesting read.
The novel is basically a satire, with the author ridiculing the various superior officers in the army. Colonel Cathcart keeps on increasing the number of missions required for a soldier to complete to go home. He does this not to help his side in war but to get a promotion. The colonels don’t care about the safety of their men but only about medals and promotions.
The other apparent feature in the novel is the timeline. The author doesn’t follow a linear timeline ,but in fact jumps back and forth to the past and future. This does complicate things for the reader, as it is very difficult to comprehend anything at all initially. I would be lying if I said I had no problems. But things keep getting clear as the novel progresses. Events which happened early on are revealed only in the end (quite similar to the movie ‘The Shutter Island’ ) , as it is only after reading the end do we understand the whole novel.
This is one of the novels where one has to literally work to understand the novel, and therefore is a welcome break from the normal novels.
Overall , I think your review is fine. But I don’t think inclusion of the ‘spoiler’ was necessary as it reveals the climax of the plot.