Catch-22 by Joseph Heller “The only freedom we really have is the freedom to say no.”

1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller“The only freedom we really have is the freedom to say no.”

2. Style & Structure • “My objective is not merely to tell the reader a story but to make him a participant—to have him experience the book rather than read it.”

3. Style & Structure • Spiraling/Unfolding/Repetition > plane circling before landing; trauma of memory, psychological reality • Disjointed Time, Flashbacks – Non-Linear Narrative

4. Style & Structure • Allusions (biblical, mythological, literary, historical) & Archetypal Situations (forest, beach…) > Shakespeare: “Some men are born to greatness”…others have it “thrust upon them.” > “Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men, have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three. ” • Wordplay – Esp. Names: Nately (new-born, innocent), Wintergreen (survivor), Major Major (IBM w/sense of humor), Lt. Scheisskopf

5. Style & Structure • Satire > critical of many societal institutions, including medicine, business, organized religion, government, and the military. Definable object of attack: ruthless capitalism, bureaucracy, “insane” destructive elements of modern civilization which thrive at the expense of humanity and compassion • Humor though exaggeration, distortion > nightmare quality of the surreal • the fantastic (nightmarish), the absurd, the grotesque

6. Corruption within the middle-class ethic itself • “Appleby was a fair-haired boy from Iowa who believed in God, Motherhood and the American Way of Life, without ever thinking about any of them” (18).

7. Corruption within the middle-class ethic itself • The Texan: “….people of means—decent folk—should be given more votes than drifters, whores, criminals, degenerates, atheists and indecent folk—people without means" (9)

8. Corruption within the middle-class ethic itself • Major Major’s father: a "long-limbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism" (82)

9. Corruption within the middle-class ethic itself • Major Major: "He never once took the name of the Lord his God in vain, committed adultery or coveted his neighbor’s ass. In fact, he loved his neighbor and never even bore false witness against him. Major Major’s elders disliked him because he was such a flagrant nonconformist" (84)

10. Catch-22 • “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 [Yossarian’s tent-mate and a pilot who kept crashing] 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.” (46).

11. Catch-22 • Yossarian strode away, “cursing Catch-22 vehemently as he descended the stairs, even though he knew there was no such thing. Catch-22 did not exist, he was positive of that, but it made no difference. What did matter was that everyone thought it existed, and that was much worse, for there was no object or text to ridicule or refute, to accuse, criticize, attack, amend, hate, revile, spit at, rip to shreds, trample upon or burn up” (400).

12. What is insane and what is sane? • “Insanity is contagious. This is the only sane ward in the whole hospital. Everybody is crazy but us. This is probably the only sane ward in the whole world, for that matter” (14)

13. What is sane and what is insane? "The trouble with you is that you think you’re too good for all the conventions of society. . . . You have a morbid aversion to dying.. .. You have deep-seated survival anxieties. And you don’t like bigots, bullies, snobs or hypocrites. . . . You’re antagonistic to the idea of being robbed, exploited, degraded, humiliated or deceived. Misery depresses you. Ignorance depresses you. Persecution depresses you. Violence depresses you. Slums depress you. Greed depresses you. Crime depresses you. Corruption depresses you. You know, it wouldn’t surprise me if you’re a manic-depressive!" (297–98) Is this the description of an insane man?

14. What is sane and what is insane? • “Havermeyer was a lead bombardier who never missed. Yossarian was a lead bombardier who had been demoted because he no longer gave a damn whether he missed or not. He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt, and his only mission each time he went up was to come down alive.”

15. Catch-22 examines hypocrisy and the perverse inversion of values: • “What a lousy earth! ...How many winners were losers, successes failures, rich men poor men? How many wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to blackguards for petty cash, how many had never had souls? How many straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many best families were worst families and how many good people were bad people? When you added them all up and then subtracted, you might be left with only the children, and perhaps with Albert Einstein and an old violinist or sculptor somewhere” (403).

16. Hypocrisy and the perverse inversion of values • Conflict: hope and decency versus despair and cynicism. • The ability to survive within the system requires the betrayal of decent values - the requirement that one sell one’s soul to survive.