Patriotism In Catch 22

Catch-22 does not present a strong sense of patriotism during the film, America is rarely mentioned and represents more a lack of fighting to the main character than anything else. The film almost seems to mock the patriotism that drives young men to enlist for war. They go to war and die, Yossarian himself is forever worrying about the people trying to kill him and at one point he says “why are they shooting at me?” and Clevinger responds “They're shooting at everyone”. Viewing every attack as a personal attack where the patriotic line is to see it is an attack on America. At the end of the film, they take it one step further and Yossarian is arrested for going AWOL, in their minds a worse crime than the murder and rape Aarfy committed. After

Starting first with the differences, in the movies M*A*S*H and Catch-22 there is very few differences between the two movie’s attitudes but the major difference stems from the level of effort the characters put into leaving. On M*A*S*H’s side, while the characters do not want to be there they seem to act under the ideology that they will serve their country if they must but they will not be happy about it. The attitude of America at the time was significantly less pro-war than they were decades before, while still maintaining a dedication to one’s country. Catch-22 on the other side actively tried to find ways to leave. They would try anything if only they didn’t have to fight anymore. In one instance, they went so far as to bomb their own base and every pilots’ greatest wish was to never run another mission again. This difference may stem from the fact that in one movie they were actual soldiers while in the other they patched up the soldiers that were injured. I believe it is a mix of both reasons, and perhaps the longer bloodier war created a greater want to escape. While the differences were sparse between the two films, the similarities were abundant. Both films negatively portray the bureaucracy of the army and look at America’s disillusionment of their own military. War no longer was a defence of one’s home, of one’s country but simply a fight with death aplenty, yours just one of many. The