Catch-22
(Joseph Heller)

To understand the novel, one must understand what a “Catch-22” actually is. It is essentially a paradoxically winding law that traps people inside of it. A catch-22 essentially tells a person that whatever they need to help them in their situation can only be achieved if they are not in their situation, which means what they are looking for is impossible, and they are stuck in the catch-22 with no control. The only people who truly benefit from a catch-22 are the lawmakers themselves, who often create the laws so they know the loopholes and can break them without repercussion.

“Catch-22” is a series of stories that sometimes fit together and sometimes do not that are told by the main character, Yossarian, while he is recovering from his fake illness and trying to find a way out of a war he does not wish to be fighting. Yossarian and his comrades are fighting in World War II as members of the Air Force stationed in Pianosa. They are disposable pawns in the eyes of their superiors and are put through hell on an hourly basis with lives that revolve around violence and bureaucratic ideals.

The men are promised to fly only a certain amount of missions to be sent home, but once that time comes the number is missions is upped, and they have to stay. Yossarian takes the idea of his place in the war quite personally, not seeing himself as one of many who are in the fight, but wondering why his life is in danger for something that has nothing to do with him. All he sees is death and danger for the purpose of nothing more than a popularity contest amongst the officers, competing for the most impressive reputation.

Yossarian fakes illnesses and even tries to fake insanity to get out of service but is caught in a series of catch-22’s in the process, as are the men in the stories he tells. Eventually, when one of Yossarian’s close friends, Nately, dies, it fuels his desire to be discharged even further, and he gets his opportunity, but at the cost of supporting the officers’ desires to send more men into dangerous battle, which is something Yossarian cannot stand behind so he flees to Switzerland to be free.