Catch-22

A detailed Summary of Catch-22

Joseph Heller lived a long and prosperous life, throughout his 76 years he divided his time as a writer, teacher, and air force bombardier in World War II. He wrote a lot of books including some of his most famous; Something Happened, Good as Gold, Picture This, and Closing Time. His first, most remembered, and popular novel was Catch-22. Catch-22 is closely related to his experiences in the Air Force during the Second World War.

Catch-22 is a war novel that is grotesque, cynical, and funny all at once. The story is based around the main characters events and feelings during the Second World War. The main character is a soldier named Yosarian who hates the war. He has a desire to live and be free, but is unable to do so because of the constraints that bureaucracy places on him. The war is no place for him and he feels like everyone is trying to kill him. Yosarrian just wants to go home, but he is constantly being thrown into brutal combat missions, where his safety is of no concern. His colonels are also continually raising the amount of missions that the members of the squadron are required to fly before given a dispatch home. Yosarian is forced into this brutal war and fights to stay alive and one day

be free. The Story forms around Yosarian and the reader sees the gruesome war through his eyes. For example you see that Yosarian's view towards war was obviously changed because of the death of his friend Snowden, who died in his arms on one of his missions. This haunts him and is part of the reason Yosarian lost all desire to participate in the war.

Yosarian is forced to stay in Europe and continue the war, and no matter how hard he tries there is no way out. He encounters a lot of events during the war, which show the both grotesque, and humorous parts of war. Yossarian is placed in ridiculous and extremely dangerous missions. He sees friends die and disappear. He experiences the corruptness of his higher ranks of when his officer Milo Minderbinder controls an international Black-market that is present in all corners of the world, in, which he bombs his squadron's mess Hall to make good with the Germans. He also experience the death of another friend of his named Natley, and when he reports the news to his wife, she blames him for his death and tries to stab him every time she sees him.

Yosarian tries to get out of war in many ways. He spent a lot of time in the hospital faking illnesses and injury. For example in the opening chapter of the story Yosarian is in a Italian hospital pretending that something is wrong with his liver. Yosarian also pleas insanity, when he comes across a military law known as Catch-22. Catch-22 can make it possible for any soldier to be discharged from military service because of insanity. Yossarian jumped on this opportunity and immediately claimed insanity. Him claiming insanity only proved that he was perfectly healthy, and that he only made this claim to get out of flying missions and the war.

This was enough for Yosarian and he refused to fly any more missions for the Air Force. He aimlessly wanders the streets of Rome and is arrested for not having a pass in an enemy's

Some common words found in the essay are:
Air Force, World War, War II, Catch-22 Catch-22, Vietnam War, Hall Germans, War Catch-22, Joseph Heller, Yosarian Italian, Milo Minderbinder, world war, world war ii, brutal war, war ii, air force, war book, death friend, war yosarian, catch-22 catch-22, live free, dangerous missions,

Approximate Word count = 1314
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History