I read a good portion of Catch-22 while sitting on a train in New Jersey. It was quite lovely, zipping past huge flowering trees and fields of grass while reading a classic American novel. How romantic. I will admit I was constantly forced to refocus my attention on Catch-22 and away from the flora of the American Northeast.
But anyway, I’ve found that Catch-22 discuses how the experience of war alters our perception of sanity. Heller uses the words “crazy” and “insane” many times throughout the text, especially in the dialogue between the characters. Clevinger yells, “You must be crazy!” (20, Nately asks Yossarian, “are you crazy?” (125), and Havermeyer additionally tells Yossarian, “you must be crazy” (47). Even a light bulb is described as “swinging crazily on its loose wire” (130). Heller’s constant repetition of this idea signifies the importance of insanity in the text.
Although the other characters in the novel view Yossarian as being mad, his is the most appropriate response to war. A captain whose goal is to avoid flying the ever-changing number of required missions, he is one of the few characters who seems to understand the realities of war. He says, “They’re trying to kill me” (16), and argues that even though everyone is being shot at, people whom he does not even know are trying to kill him. He is one of the only characters who questions the arbitrary decisions of the military bureaucracy, saying of Colonel Catchcart, “He never sends anyone home, anyway. He just keeps them around waiting for rotation orders until he doesn’t have enough men left for the crews, and then raises the number of missions and throws them all back on combat status.” (102).
Similarly, the characters who are in positions of power are the ones who are the most out of their minds. Captain Black’s Glorious Loyaty Oath Crusade is excessive to say the least (112), and the only time Major Major feels good about his decisions is when he has lied (97). When Clevinger is put on trial, Major Metcalf and Lieutenant Scheisskopf (I looked up the meaning of his name—a comment on military administration in itself) make little sense and treat Clevinger completely unfairly (75).
The crazy, backwards logic of “Catch-22” itself is a testament to the mixed-up nature of war. According to Catch-22, insanity constitutes grounds upon which a soldier can be discharged, but he must ask to be released; however, as soon as he asks, he is proven to be sane. Thus, the army is full of crazy people like Hungry Joe who probably should not be handling planes or guns.
Through Catch-22, Heller is able to comment on the insanity of both the administration in war and the effect combat has on the soldiers. By portraying the characters that are the most “crazy” as the ones whose responses are the most appropriate, he paints a chaotic picture that reveals much about the nature of war.
P.S. Mr Coon: I am currently out of town and am having trouble accessing JStor. As such, I will have my sources up on my next blog. Thanks, Lauren.
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Lolo--I read somewhere long ago (graduate school, perhaps?) that irony and satire depend on the author's ability to establish some sort of moral inversion in the fictional world he creates. In other words, some basic fundamental idea of relaity or of right and wrong or of proportion or value must be stood on its head so that the writer can illustrate the extent to which the fictional world he's portraying has gone horribly wrong from what it should be.
I hope what I just wrote makes sense, because I think that's what you're describing in Catch-22, a world in which sane and insane have traded places, with many sad, funny, absurd, and even tragic implications.
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