Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn in 1923. Died of a heart attack in December 1999.He served as an Air Force bombardier in World War II and enjoyed a long career as a writer and a teacher. his first novel, Catch-22, remains his most famous and acclaimed work. Catch 22 is about a guy not wanting to face the violence of World War II, Yossarian, an American soldier, has gone to an Italian military hospital claiming to have a pain in his liver. The doctors seem unable to prove that he is well, so they let him stay. Once he leaves the hospital along with others, he realizes that he is the only human being that cares about this senseless war that is killing millions of men everyday. Later on throughout the book Yossarian thinks that someone is trying to kill him and Clevinger argues that no one is trying to kill him personally. Yossarian rejects Clevingers claims because of the simple fact that someone kept shooting at him.
Yossarian sees his roomate Orr and is told that Clevinger has been missing and announces to everyone in the meeting that he is Superhuman because no one has killed him yet. Which could ultimately cause someone to want to kill him more. But at the same time it made Yossarian more cautious about the people around him because now he knows for sure that someone is trying to kill him. As the story goes on General P.P. Peckem hopes to take over the command of Yossarian’s unit from General Dreedle. But, everyone knows that General Peckem is a trouble maker. By the end of this chapter Yossarian feels sick but Doc.Daneeka refuses to ground him.
Questions: Do you feel its ironic that Yossarian has not been killed but other's have ? Is there a reason for this one person to never die when it comes to the books purpose ?
I feel that it is ironic because he doesn't want to be part of the war, yet he's surviving. I believe this is the catch because he doesn't want to be part of the war but he stays alive while in the war.
ReplyDeleteThe purppose is would have to be that he would not die because he is the main character of the story.He could also be know as a tragic hero due the fact bad things do happen to him,like he starts to lose his many and etc.
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