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Terror In Joseph Heller's Catch-22

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Catch 22 is written by Joseph Heller and is a Historical fiction novel about World War II. Heller creates his novel from many sources of inspiration, one of which was the military’s idea that a man could only be taken off a bombing mission if he was declared crazy. However, a man could not be asked to be taken off a bombing mission because a man who wanted to avoid a bombing mission was obviously not crazy. Catch-22 represents Heller knowing about the inevitability of death, how Heller made World War II seem humorous and sarcastic, and how Heller’s own experiences helped him write the novel.
Joseph Heller was born on May 01, 1923 in Brooklyn, New York, United States. Joseph Heller was born by Russian Jewish immigrants, Isaac Heller, a truck …show more content…

Yossarian's friends die in unspeakable ways. This puts a terror in Yossarian that some might consider ridiculous, but we think his fear of death is justified. “an unreasonable belief that everybody around him was crazy, a homicidal impulse to machine-gun strangers, retrospective falsification, an unfounded suspicion that people hated him and were conspiring to kill him” (Heller 29) Heller describes a death scene by slowing down time to make it more dramatic. It's a story that takes place in the middle of a war which means it will address death and Heller certainly doesn't hold back. “That's just what I mean,' Dr. Stubbs answered.' That crazy bastard may be the only sane one left.” (Heller 144)This shows that Yossarian being irrational about death is good because he’s the only sane one left. One of the critics says that Heller made Yossarian like this because the novel is “esteem and seriousness” (Wilson Quarterly).This means that the novel is serious and there are many values and principles. Heller is a World War II pilot also. He uses past experience’s while he writes the novel. Since Heller makes Yossarian irrational, it gives readers the feeling that the novel is serious. This is true because Yossarian’s paranoia and irrational behavior gives the readers a sense of

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