The Moral and Intellectual Disintegration of Modern Society in "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Modern society, particularly American society, in the mid-20th century faced challenges that contested the principles of freedom and free will of human society, staunchly advocated for by the United States. In this period, the world have witnessed a "contest" between two dominant 'markets of ideas': democracy and communism. Resulting to the Cold War, this conflict between Communist and Democratic ideals became the road towards social disintegration rather than progress for most Americans.This is the reality projected in the novel "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller. The novel is a political satire on the American government's actions and responses to the threat that Communism presented to democratic societies and cultures. It is important to note that this conflict, while thought to have been beneficial to the development of modern society towards post-modernism, actually triggered a series of events reflecting the moral and intellectual disintegration of humanity, as societies tried to preserve their ideologies and principles, which they felt strongly for."Catch-22" is a reflection of people's disillusionment during this crucial period in history, a period wherein Americans' feelings of disillusionment and hopelessness were mirro
Stuck in a generally mad situation wherein the military wanted to win the war at all costs, he was forced to conform to people's insanity; otherwise, he will not be able to escape his mad reality. It was only by claiming themselves insane that the soldiers were able to survive and be able to live military life under Catch-22. In a world that has developed technology and complex social, political, and economic institutions and organizations, humanity was left with no other function but to become mere dummies of the very institutions and organizations that it established. It claims that a man is insane when he willingly engages himself in numerous flying missions, while a sane man would not want to go on missions. The objective behind the depiction of Yossarian and other soldier characters in "Catch-22" was to reflect the real social situation Heller finds himself in as American society embarks toward yet another century of materialistic development and moral degeneration. The Texan wanted everybody in the ward to be happy but Yossarian and Dunbar. For the author, there are no right or wrong principles, only relative rights and wrongs. However, it was noticeable that almost all of the soldiers in the novel responded to this symbol of irrationality through another form of irrationality: insanity. Dying for an idea is different from dying for other people" (34). Cochran (2000) noted how the 'individual in modern life has become insignificant,' and this was perhaps the most comic issue that black humorists like Heller wanted to focus on (166). Humans in the modern life have become victims of their own creations. ' The rule of Catch-22 itself is the symbol of irrationality, and interestingly, there is no way to get around this rule. The developed selfishness in their psyche contributed to this attitude; for them, everyone lives for himself/herself alone, everyone has his/her own island, and should live on it alone.
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