At first glance, Joseph Heller's well-known Novel, Catch-22, is just another novel about war. In the years following World War I and World War II, many well respected authors published war tales, many of which romanticized the call of duty and the sacrifices that were made for the good of the nation. Heller's novel differs in that Catch-22 does not paint a rosy picture of war. Instead, the novel focuses on the meaninglessness of war: the meaningless deaths, the meaningless missions and the meaningless decisions handed down by leaders with little investment in the people who are fighting the war. Catch-22 also challenges the idea of nationalism, the idea that someone's country is an important part of their identity and that a country is worth fighting over. Heller steers away from heavy arguments against war and instead uses comedy to illustrate the strange and gruesome facets of war. Heller's style of writing influenced many of the war novels that were published from the Vietnam war onwards.
Throughout the novel, the number of missions that Captain Yossarian needs to complete in order to be discharged, or the number of missions that Colonel Cathcat must complete before he can become general are increased just as the characters are about to reach their goal, making it so that they are tied to their current roles in the military. Nately flies seventy missions and when he is done, he either has to agree to fly another ten missions or leave his lover behind and be discharged from the war, which persuades him to stick around and fly a particulars dangerous mission which ended up killing him. While other war authors romanticized war by talking about the importance of serving the nation or the thrill of war, Heller creates characters that are more believable. They are in the war because they have to be and all in all, they just want to complete their missions so that they can leave the war behind. However, the military needs their service and the commanders do whatever it takes to keep the men in service for as long as possible.
Patriotism was a common theme among other war novels, but Catch-22 shies away from blindly accepting a country as something worth dying for and challenges the idea that winning a war is a surefire way to keep a country safe. As Nately talks to the old man that lives in the same building as his Italian lover, he discusses and is challenged by the older man's views on war. The older man suggests that winning a war does not mean a country is going to be prosperous forever, by arguing that, “Italy has been losing wars for centuries and look how splendidly we've done. France wins wars and is in a continual state of crisis. Germany loses and prospersVictory gave us such insane delusions of grandeur that we started a world war that we hadn't a chance of winning” (Heller 251). Although Nately was confused by the old man's logic, this quote helps to illustrate Heller's overall feelings about war. Although winning a war is the desired outcome, it does not set a country up for prosperity. Following the United States' success in World War I, the country fell into an economic depression. Following World War II, the United States continued to be in conflict with various nations including Korea, Vietnam and Cuba. War did not solve the country's issues as promised, it just created more issues.
Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22 is an interesting read due to its vastly different take on the idea of war. While most war novels at the time romanticized war and the idea of dying for ones country, Catch-22 explored the triviality of war and how easy it is to exploit the soldiers and general public based on the idea that war requires sacrifice and those who are not willing to sacrifice are not patriotic and therefore part of the enemy. This book, although controversial, influenced many great writers with its original views and comedic writing style.
Works Cited
Heller, Joseph. Catch-22. New York: Dell, 1955. Print.
