~He decided to live forever or die in the attempt~. Review on Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

What is the logic behind action? We get up everyday and do the same mundane, yet necessary activities like spending time in the toilet, breathing, eating and sleeping etc. If a person decides to abandon the aforementioned activities, he must be insane. For they are necessary for survival. Yet, this is an absurd logic. You go to sleep daily,hoping to get up daily, in the same bed, go to the same toilet (if you have two/three, then that’s different, but I think you get my point). Wouldn’t it be nice to get up inside the vault of a bank once in a while? Wouldn’t it be nice if our hygienic standards were taken care of by some divine intervention? Or better still, Stephen Hawking finish all kids’ physics homework? You call it wishful thinking; I call it Catch – 22!An elevated absurdity governing lifestyle. What if this very ‘wishful thinking’ formed the basis or ‘logical’ reasoning? It would be a no – win situation, because if the logic behind reasoning is illogical and irrational, then the reasoning itself is absurd.

Context:

The period of the Cold War proved to be a goldmine of American writing. From the journalistically omniscient Hiroshimaby Hersey to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by LeCarre, Cold War logic and certainties were questioned with interest. From Eisenhower’s domino theory to the height of McCarthyism, the Cold War itself follows an absurd logic – a war of ideology (communism vs. capitalism). Better still, for capitalism to be ‘reincarnated’ as democracy! During the ‘Communist purge’ (we shall it call it so) when it was a big crime to even walk on the ‘left’ side of the road (if you get my drift), many writers/film-makers were persecuted worldwide for their intellectual, leftist thought. Among them, was also Joseph Heller, author of Catch – 22. This fear however, was irrational as was the domino theory and the McCarthy ‘witch hunts’. But as so happens, Fear is the father of Rationality. So Rationality mustobey what Fear commands. And Fear ordered her death! Heller’s attempt to expose this irrational fear and absurd patriotism comes alive in Catch – 22. This is his satire on bureaucracy and the absurd logic of Cold War administrative policies.

Plot:

The story follows a circular narrative, with the midpoint being the character Snowden’s death. Heller sets up Yossarian, the novel’s main character as an antagonist – a coward who values his own life more than anything else. He is in stark contrast to the image of the Cold War warrior. He is no hero, and is also devoid of any intention of heroism. Yossarian is a member of the 256th Us Army Air Forces. He is disillusioned with the machinery of bureaucracy surrounding him. He just wants to get out alive. The story is set towards the end of WWII (about 1943). Yossarian tries to find ways to avoid being sent to missions by staying in the infirmary and thus stay alive. He is biding his time (a sentiment similar to “Nothing to be done” from Waiting for Godot). The narrative arc revolves around the names of the characters, with each chapter dedicated to a character’s name. It is through each of the character’s point of view that the plot moves forward. The last chapter befittingly, is titled “Yossarian” and the reader is confronted by the solution offered by Heller and taken by Yossarian to escape the absurd situation – value your life, and value it above all! This realization comes to him after Snowden’s death, and when Yossarian sees his guts fall out - “Yossarian ripped open the snaps of Snowden’s flak suit and heard himself scream wildly as Snowden’s insides slithered down to the floor in a soggy pile and just kept dripping out”.

Yossarian witnesses the horror of war firsthand, a sentiment which he had avoided all along throughout the book. It is then that he is struck by the epiphany – “It was easy to read the message in his entrails. Man was matter, that was Snowden’s secret. Drop him out a window and he’ll fall. Set fire to him and he’ll burn. Bury him and he’ll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage”. How Yossarian turns things around and the circumstances that lead to it forms the rest of the story.

Catch 22?

Catch 22 is the way that Colonel Cathcart ensures that no soldier of his squadron leaves. The Catch is explained in relation to the character of Orr -

“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.”

Heller revels in this paradox and it comes in handy when showing the irrational hypocrisy of the situation. The Catch comes up in different forms, for example, with regard to eyesight of Appleby – “How can he see he’s got flies in his eyes if he’s got flies in eyes”. Yossarian mostly takes up the role of third person observer – one who has become disillusioned with this irrational logic and wants to escape.

CONTINUED...