The impact of Heller’s choice of a satiric writing style has on the novel Catch 22. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller () explores the use of satiric style of writing. Satire is known for criticising a certain situation or a person () . This essay will firstly discuss why satire is used in novels; secondly, it will discuss examples of satire such as the title of the book; medical institutions; Yossaian being naked at the funeral; Snowden being injured; the interrogation of the chaplain; Captain Aardvark raping a maid; and lastly it will discuss how the novel would have turned out if it was written in a serious manner. The overall aim of this essay is to prove that Heller succeeded in using satire as form of writing in this novel. Firstly, the title of the novel …show more content…
In the interrogation, the officers accuse the chaplain of crimes that they themselves do not know about as yet (Heller, 1994: ) at this point they even ask the chaplain of whether he is guilty or not. We find this interrogation funny because the officers themselves do not know the accusation they are making yet they are asking the chaplain to tell if he is innocent or not. There is also no logic in this situation, although interrogations and crimes were a serious matter during World War II, Heller makes them look and sound funny to us readers. The last sensitive and heart-breaking issue that we come across is the story of a fictional character from the novel, Captain Aardvark, who rapes and kills a maid in Rome. When he tells the story to Yossarian, he makes it sounds as though it was a right thing to do. Without guilt, he says “boy, we used to have fun in that fraternity house” (Heller, 1994: 478). Though what he did sounds horrible, Heller’s tone of writing makes it as if it was not that bad, and we get that from the Aardvark’s confidence when he speaks. This issue reinforces how Heller uses sensitive things as a form of