Catch 22
Soldiers serving during World War II faced hard times while fighting for their country. They were separated from their families and the traditional lives that they knew, and were suddenly thrown into a life of hardships and absurdities. As a result, they became alienated from the rest of the world and began to look at their lives in a pessimistic view. Heller portrays this separation from the traditional views through characters like Yossarian, Major Major, and the Chaplain throughout Catch 22. These characters play a major part in the story line as well as the themes presented in the novel such as absurdity of the war. Absurdity is used throughout the book and can be viewed as the illogical and pointless actions of the troops in combat and the officers controlling them. The absurdities that the characters had to face changed their views from positive to depressing feelings and alienated them from everyone else who was oblivious to the war. Specifically, Heller uses the alienation of Yossarian, Major Major, and the Chaplain to bring forth the issues of absurdity and hopelessness in World War II. Heller uses the actions and thoughts of Yossarian to convey his existentialistic message of war and the uselessness of the men fightin
The squadron commander does not actually have any more responsibility, but all the other troops hate him for it anyway. Heller truly reveals the hopelessness of this novel through Yossarian, Major Major, and the Chaplain. "He would rather die that be killed in combat" (113). When Colonel Cathcart asks him to say a prayer for the soldiers, Cathcart says he wants the Chaplain "to keep away from the subject of religion altogether" in the prayer (202). The characters in Catch 22 basically just see the downside of everything and they consider the life around them to be pointless. Existentialism is the pessimistic view of life and all the absurdities with it. Heller's main points of the novel are to bring the horrors and preposterousness of the war to light. Yossarian, on the other hand, protests against them. Yossarian's alienation clearly demonstrates the hopelessness of the war he is forced to fight. With their alienation, Heller successfully brings the absurdities of the war to life. The Chaplain is trying to be a religious man and instill some religion among the rest of the soldiers but no one else seems to care. He begins to ask himself about life and why he is living.
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Acceptance Essays
