Literary Analysis Essay On Catch 22

Joel Barnett

Mrs. Price

English 11, period 6

28 February 2018 Catch-22: The Horrors of War “There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind”(Heller 1). In Catch-22, Joseph Heller articulates a story of gripping realism of the wartime atmosphere and how it psychologically affects all of the men as they deal with the inevitability of death, the decay of morality as well as individualism, and loss of faith. The story follows John Yossarian, the leader of his squadron of pilots, as he does everything in his power to live or die trying. Heller portrays the inevitability of death in an unorthodox way throughout

He never flew again just like

Yossarians true death would be him losing his morality to the officers he hated and becoming one of them. Or becoming a hypocrite

Yossarian does have a strong moral compass as he wants to help save the life of others in his group even though it means that it will decrease his chance of survival. He knows that keeping them alive is the only thing keeping him from being like one of the evil generals

This war changes the generals from being fiery about war to manipulating it to help their cause.

This is also true for Milo as he uses war to run an

The chaplin is an important religious character in the novel to persuade people in the army to become more religious but the only thing it does is persuade them otherwise

The chaplin is the only inherently good character

Most of the people in the army are surprisingly atheist as they can’t believe in a God who would have something like this happen with war and death and