Catch 22

Place on List:

II. Literary Genre: The Novel

4. How do elements of irony work in the novel?

Joseph Heller. *Catch 22. (1961, United States)

Key Terms (tags): novel, irony, satire

Supporting References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22

2. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catch22/
3. NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/15/home/heller.html
4. http://www2.webster.edu/~barrettb/heller.htm
5. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/04/joseph-heller-catch-22-50th-anniversary-how-the-novel-changed-america.html
6. Slate review: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_spectator/2011/08/seeing_catch22_twice.html
7. About.com:

http://classiclit.about.com/od/catch22/fr/aa_catch22.htm

8. 
   

9. Hart, James D., and Phillip W. Leininger. "Catch-22." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. : Oxford University Press, 1995. Oxford Reference. 2004. Date Accessed 29 Aug. 2013 .

“Catch-22, novel by Joseph Heller, published in 1961. On the Mediterranean island of Pianosa during the last months of World War II, Captain John Yossarian of the U.S. air force attempts to avoid further combat after having experienced grisly events and observing his fellow officers being ridiculous in their lust for promotion. Trying to be grounded as insane, he turns up naked at the ceremony in which General Dreedle is to award him a DFC. But fantastic bureaucratic rulings, extending to a Catch-22, prevent him from achieving his objective, and he deserts to seek a saner world in neutral Sweden. His commander, Captain Cathcart, drives his men to more and more combat, so that he may look impressive, and General Peckham makes them fly in formations that will make his aerial photos look good, while Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder ignores the whole matter of war and enemy forces as he goes about making a fortune and gaining power in black-market schemes.”

10. Hart, James D., and Phillip W. Leininger. "Heller, Joseph." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. : Oxford University Press, 1995. Oxford Reference. 2004. Date Accessed 16 Aug. 2013 .

The article offers an overview of Heller and less a discussion on the above-cited text.

“Heller, Joseph (1923–1999), New York author who served in the air force in World War II. Later he received an A.B. from New York University, an M.A. from Columbia, studied at Oxford, and taught briefly before writing Catch-22 (1961). This grotesquely comic tale of a madcap bombardier's resistance to his fanatic commander's ambition for promotion at the expense of his American squadron on a Mediterranean island satirizes military illogicality and glorification. It became enormously popular, particularly among younger readers during the Vietnam era, and its title became a catch phrase. Heller's next novel, Something Happened (1974), is a dark view of the life of a business executive, disgusted with what he does and is. Good as Gold (1979) is a long novel more in the comic vein of his first in its farcical treatment of Jewish family life and of the Washington political scene. God Knows (1984) is a lively first-person novel of the Biblical David. Picture This (1988) is a novel treating Rembrandt's painting of Aristotle contemplating the bust of Homer that contrasts two eras. In 1994 appeared Closing Time, a sequel to Catch-22, with Yossarian, twice divorced, living alone in Manhattan with the knowledge that this time he can in no way outwit death. The novel's main character, however, is one Sammy Singer, whose life affirms marriage as the best of all possible worlds. He collaborated with Speed Vogel on No Laughing Matter (1986), a serious treatment, though sometimes humorous, of Heller's sudden paralytic sickness. Much earlier he wrote two plays, We Bombed in New Haven (1968) and Clevinger's Trial (1974).”