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Catch-22

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This article is about the Joseph Heller novel. For other uses, see Catch-22 (disambiguation).
Catch-22
Catch-22
1st edition
AuthorJoseph Heller
Cover artistPaul Bacon [1]
Language English
GenreSatire
PublisherSimon & Schuster
Publication date
1961
Publication placeUSA
Media typePrint
Pages443 (1st edition hardback)
ISBNISBN 0-684-83339-5 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
Followed by Closing Time 

Catch-22 is a novel by the American author Joseph Heller.

Plot introduction

The novel follows Captain John Yossarian, a fictional U.S. Army Air Forces [[B-25 Mitchell|B-25]] bombardier, and a number of other characters during World War II. Most events in the book occur while the airmen of the Fighting 256th (or "two to the fighting eighth power") Squadron are based on the island of Pianosa, west of Italy. Many events in the book are described repeatedly from differing points of view, so that the reader learns more about the event with each iteration. The pacing of Catch-22 is frenetic, its tenor is intellectual, and its humor is largely absurd, but with grisly moments of realism interspersed.

Explanation of the novel's title

A magazine excerpt from the novel was originally published as Catch-18, but Heller's publisher requested that he change the title of the novel so it wouldn't be confused with another recently published World War II novel, Leon Uris's Mila 18. The number 18 has special meaning in Judaism and was relevant to early drafts of the novel which had a somewhat greater Jewish emphasis.[1]

There was a suggestion for the title ‘’Catch-11’’, with the duplicated 1 in parallel to the repetition found in a number of character exchanges in the novel, but due to the release of the original movie Ocean's Eleven this was also rejected. ‘’Catch-14’’ was also rejected apparently because the publisher did not feel that 14 was a ‘’funny number’’. So eventually the title came to be ‘’Catch-22’’, which like 11 has a duplicated digit with the 2 also referring to a number déjà vu like events common in the novel.[1]

The concept

Template:Spoiler

Main article: Catch-22 (logic)

Catch-22 is, among other things, a general critique of bureaucratic operation and reasoning. As a result of its specific use in the book, the phrase "Catch-22" has come into common use to mean a no-win situation or a double bind of any type. Within the book, "Catch-22" is introduced as a military rule, the self-contradictory circular logic of which, for example, prevents anyone from avoiding combat missions. In Heller's own words:

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which

specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he [Yossarian] observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

Much of Heller's prose in Catch-22 is circular and repetitive, exemplifying in its form the structure of a Catch-22. Heller revels in the use of paradox. For example, The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likeable. In three days no one could stand him, and The case against Clevinger was open and shut. The only thing missing was something to charge him with. This constantly undermines the reader's understanding of the milieu of the characters, and is key to understanding the book. An atmosphere of logical irrationality pervades the whole description of Yossarian's life in the armed forces, and indeed the entire book.

Other forms of Catch-22 are invoked at other points in the novel to justify various bureaucratic actions. At one point, victims of harassment by military agents quote the agents as having explained one of Catch-22's provisions in this fashion: Catch-22 states that agents enforcing Catch-22 need not prove that Catch-22 actually contains whatever provision the accused violator is accused of violating. An old woman explains: Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can’t stop them from doing. Yossarian comes to realize that Catch-22 doesn't actually exist, but that because the powers that be claim it does and the world believes that it does, it nevertheless has potent effects. Indeed, because it does not really exist there is no way it can be repealed, undone, overthrown, or denounced. The combination of brute force with specious legalistic justification is one of the book's primary motifs.

Major themes

The book sets out the absurdity of living by the rules of others, be they friends, family, governments, systems, religions or philosophies. The world itself is portrayed as insane, so the only practical survival strategy is to be oneself insane. Another theme is the folly of patriotism and honour, which leads most of the airmen to accept Catch-22 and the abusive lies of bureaucrats, but which Yossarian never accepts as a legitimate answer to his complaints. While the (official) enemy are the Germans, no German ever actually appears in the story. As the narrative progresses, Yossarian comes to fear American bureaucrats more than he fears the Germans attempting to shoot down his bomber.

Characters in Catch-22

Below is a list of all the major characters in the book; there is a separate page for a complete list of characters.

Template:Endspoiler

Influences

Czech writer Arnošt Lustig recounts in his book 3x18[2], that Joseph Heller personally told him that he would never have written Catch-22 had he not first read The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek.

Allusions/references to other works

There are very few references to other works, but one of note is when the Chaplain shows concern about his belief in the Bible:

So many things were testing his faith. There was the Bible, of course, but the Bible was a book, and so were Bleak House, Treasure Island, Ethan Frome and The Last of the Mohicans. Did is then seem probable, as he had once overheard Dunbar ask, that the answers to riddles of creation would be supplied by people too ignorant to understand the mechanics of rainfall? Had Almighty God, in all His infinite wisdom, really been afraid that men six thousand years ago would succeed in building a tower to heaven?

Other works mentioned in the novel include Moby Dick.

Literary significance & criticism

As commented on by Joseph Heller himself in the preface to Catch-22 from 1994 onwards , the novel raised very polarised views on its first publication in the United States.

Reviews in a publications ranged from the very positive; The Nation ("was the best novel to come out in years"), the New York Herald Tribune ("A wild, moving, shocking, hilarious, raging, exhilarating, giant roller-coaster of a book")[3] and the New York Times ("A dazzling performance that will outrage nearly as many readers as it delights") to the highly negative; The New Yorker ("doesn't even seem to be written; instead, it gives the impression of having being shouted onto to paper", "what remains is a debris of sour jokes") and from another critic of the New York Times ("is repetitive and monotonous. Or one can say that it is too short because none of its many interesting characters and actions is given enough play to become a controlling interest")[4]

Allusions/references from other works

Awards and nominations

Film adaptations

'’Catch-22’’ was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 1970, directed by Mike Nichols.

Trivia

Release details

Sources, references, external links, quotations

Wikiquote has quotations related to Catch-22.
  1. ^ a b N James. The Early Composition History of Catch-22. In Biographies of Books: The Compositional Histories of Notable American Writings, J Barbour, T Quirk (edi.) pp. 262-90. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996.


Rankings

The Modern Library ranked Catch-22 as number 7 on its list of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

See also

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