son" (17 September 1999). Comedy in the book and comedy in the movie however, differ. The movie is primarily funny, with the plot being told, but not as well as in the book. In the book, the dramatic theme slowly evolves into something that the reader suddenly notices to be tragic. On the surface however, the theme does not at all seem tragic. "Humor is used to permanently capture the reader's attention at the beginning so that he can be 'force-fed' the theme later on" (Pennarum). This evolution follows through the entire novel. Things become, almost unnoticeably, more and more grave. Robert Merril says "Heller has in fact divided Catch-22 into three parts." The first sixteen chapters are full of comedy, humor and simple absurdities. Most all of the events taking place, such as the tragedy of the soldier in white, or the carefree promoting of officers, are presented lightheartedly. Even those events that are gruesome or depressing such as Snowden's death have a slight comic characteristic to them. As the book progresses however, the comedy and theme swap places, bringing the theme to the front while sending the comedy to a hiding place.
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