Catch-22
Rationale: A logical basis or reason for something. War: Armed conflict or struggle between nations. War appears to have a rational basis and be logical in its reasons. But war is not, it is crazy and irrational, and leads people to be the same. So is the story of Catch-22. It follows the story of the men of an air force camp in Italy during WWII. The premises of the story are that War causes people to do the most irrational things and they are sometimes the right things to do. But this story is told with humor, using comedy as a much needed and part of the story. What people do under an irrational circumstance, such as war, causes them to also be irrational.Life for the men in this outfit consisted of coping with the fact that every day they lived may very well be there last. Death was a constant in which they all had to live with. A few complained and other found their own way of dealing with the inevitable. They stood on the brink of their demises and were forced to face it time and time again taunting it to get them. They are all are force to accept the illogical and deal with the wrong perpetrated against them. The wrong perpetrated against these men are not only done by unscrupulous, ignorant, and p
Yossarian is a prime example. He believes that everyone is trying to kill him. Of course they are it is war. But he cares nothing for the plight of the other men, just his own life and how the war has affected it. He thinks that hiding in the hospital will solve a problem and when Catch-22 is explained to his he just accepts it and walk on. Although he complains he lets himself be put in danger like all the rest. The only point of sanity in this book, from Heller's point of view, is Nately's Old Man (Young). He represents the sane ideal of a man who cares not about the war but the consequences of war and its affect on him. He appears to be more sane than the men who are willing to die for Cathcart or a better bomb pattern (Young). To be crazy enough not to die for a principle is the moral thing to do in some cases (Young). When this is sanity everything has gone crazy. War is crazy and everything it touches is sometimes forced to become irrational to survive under these kinds of circumstances. The men of Catch-22 just believe what others tell them with no reason or basis at all. They have no reason to take anyone word as truth yet they all do. They believe a man is dead because it is on paper even if they see the man every day. They have no reason to keep belief yet they do. It is a completely insane point of view but yet each man has his own version of it. Everyman believes another is insane and all of them are correct. The have been driven to it by war. The higher officers care only about their status and style of life. The men flying the mission only want to get out alive. The conflict of interest here is enormous. Nothing makes sense at all. That is why there is humor throughout this book. The things they do to deal with some of the situation are amusing in how crazy they actually are. The book flaunt in bitterness the desperate flag of resistance to the wrong of the life these men are forced to live (Pearson, 266) The other men are just as irrational. Chief White Halfoat is purposely tryi
Some common words found in the essay are:
White Halfoat, Deity Hasley, Catch-22 Women, Captain Black, Italy WWII, Doc Daneeka, War Armed, Hungry Joe, AWOL Rome, Catch-22 Rationale, pearson 266, completely insane, chief white halfoat, people believe, people irrational, wrong perpetrated, die pneumonia, makes sense, war causes, catch-22 catch-22, war crazy,
Approximate Word count = 1375
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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