2. Summary
Catch-22 is a satirical novel by the American author Joseph Heller. He began writing it in 1953; the novel was first published in It is set during World War II from 1942 to It is frequently cited as one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century.

3. The novel follows Captain John Yossarian, a U. S
The novel follows Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier. Most of the events in the book occur while the fictional 256th Squadron is based on the island of Pianosa, in the Mediterranean Sea, west of Italy. The novel looks into the experiences of Yossarian and the other airmen in the camp. It focuses on their attempts to keep their sanity in order to fulfill their service requirements so that they may return home.

4. The development of the novel can be split into segments.
The first (chapters 1–11) broadly follows the story fragmented between characters, but in a single chronological time in 1943.
The second (chapters 12–20) flashes back to focus primarily on the "Great Big Siege of Bologna" before once again jumping to the chronological "present" of 1943 in the third part (chapter 21–25).

5. The fourth (chapters 26–28) flashes back to the origins and growth of Milo's syndicate, with the fifth part (chapter 28–32) returning again to the narrative "present" but keeping to the same tone of the previous four.
In the sixth and final part (chapter 32 on) while remaining in the "present" time the novel takes a much darker turn and spends the remaining chapters focusing on the serious and brutal nature of war and life in general.

6. While the first five parts "sections" develop the novel in the present and through use of flash-backs, the novel significantly darkens in chapters 32–41.
Previously the reader had been cushioned from experiencing the full horror of events, but now the events are laid bare, allowing the full effect to take place. The horror begins with the attack on the undefended Italian mountain village, with the following chapters involving despair (Doc Daneeka and the Chaplain), disappearance in combat (Orr and Clevinger), disappearance caused by the army (Dunbar) or death of most of Yossarian's friends (Nately, McWatt, Mudd, Kid Sampson, Dobbs, Chief White Halfoat and Hungry Joe), culminating in the unspeakable horrors of Chapter 39, in particular the rape and murder of Michaela, who represents pure innocence. In Chapter 41, the full details of the gruesome death of Snowden are finally revealed.
Despite this, the novel ends on an upbeat note

7. The book is not chronological
A structure of free association, ideas run into one another through seemingly random connections.

8. Catch-22 is a black comedy novel about death, about what people do when faced with the daily likelihood of annihilation. For the most part what they do is try to survive in any way they can.
The book begins, ‘The island of Pianosa lies in the Mediterranean Sea eight miles south of Elba.’ That is the geographical location of the action.
Much of the emotional plot of the book turns on the question of who’s crazy
What people do in these circumstances is to erect individual and institutional defenses against the psychotic anxieties engendered by unconscious phantasies of the threat of annihilation. These defenses are extreme, utterly selfish and survivalist.

9. M.A.S.H.
Set during the Korean War – the television show echoes much of the ludicrous tonality of Catch-22
Like the novel – the 4077th has not asked to be there and they face horrors everyday but must come up with some way to mentally deal with them.
The show aired for 11 years – from

10. I will show you two episodes of this program because I think it helps to understand the atmosphere of Catch-22
I have also provided you with three articles and we will listen to an NPR podcast that analyzes the novel as it hit its 50th anniversary.

11. Heller uses
Nonsense
Satire
Non-Sequitors
Slap-stick
Farce

12. Paradox
In attempting to codify the novel – there is a lot of complexity due to the fact that it is
A comedy of horror
Black humor
Angry humor

13. While reading ask yourself
What is funny about it?
What the implications of such humor are?
What generic associations are implicit in its form?

14. Satire First and foremost Catch-22 is satire
As such it contains the harsh derision and social attack that satire contains
Unlike comedy, which depicts failures or excesses of basic human nature, The satire of Heller’s novel is selective, hitting against definable groups within American society and creating a unified front against a corrupt and ridiculous enemy.

15. Satire is based on virtue and intelligence
Satire enters when the few convict the many of stupidity

16. Satire requires two elements
1 – humor – resulting from the portrayal of fantasy, the grotesque, or the absurd
2 – a definable object of attack

17. Object of attack
In Catch-22 the attack centers upon aggressive capitalism, bureaucracy, and certain insane and destructive elements of modern civilization which endure at the expense of humanity and compassion

18. Military Officer’s
Heller’s officers are reductive and distorted projections of human personality types
Each character becomes associated with an aspect of civilization under attack – embracing a wide range of social levels and attitudes

19. Monomania Self-involved, self-seeking to an obsessive degree
Milo Minderbender – profiteer – able to justify his profiteering in business terms, to the point where at one instance he even offers Piltdown Man for sale
One Lieuntenant wants to become a general and figures he will if his parades are good enough but he wants to wire or nail the men together into a more perfect formation – his decision to not do so is not out of compassion but because he can’t procure the correct wire

20. Men are symbols of social attitudes, traditions, and patterns of behavior

21. Satiric Plots Episodic
Conventional plots for satire is that the pattern of action intensifies rather than resolves

22. Satiric setting Chaotic
Always crowded and filled with images of corruption and decay

23. Ethical conflict
Heller’s humor is an uneasy one since how normal people are expected to behave must first be agreed upon and Heller’s is so radical
He doesn’t use the norms of society as a point of reference, he calls into question the prevailing ethical structure of society

24. Catch-22 allows its readers to celebrate their ethical superiority over and distance from the military machine and bureaucratic structure which are made to look ridiculous and insane in the novel but seem unassailable and incorrigible in reality

25. The novel is meant to point out and embody weaknesses in American middle-class morality
The Texan who thinks people of means should have more votes
The soldier who loves everything American and questions nothing

26. Every facet of American life is made laughable through either diminution or hyperbole

27. Insanity Madness is a consistent motif in satire
The typical satirist believes there is no pattern of reason left in the world
The logical order of daily existence has somehow gone awry leaving the satirist alone in the lunatic world to stay its progressive degeneration
The satirist becomes the only champion of virtue who dares to speak the truth in a world where the false insolently maintains itself as the real.

28. Modern angry humor
From the beginning of Catch-22 it is clear that Yossarian’s mind is not in harmony with the established thinking around him.
Either he is maladjusted or the world is insane – it is the latter and the novel moves from comic to tragic satire quickly and accompanied by several deaths.

29. Yossarian is told by a psychiatrist
“The trouble with you is that you think you’re too good fro all the conventions of society…You have a morbid aversion to dying…You have deep-seated survival anxieties. And you don’t like bigots, bullies, snobs, or hypocrites…You’re antagonistic to the idea of being robbed, exploited, degraded, humiliated, or deceived. Misery depresses you. Ignorance depresses you. Slums depress you. Crime depresses you. Corruption depresses you. You know it wouldn’t surprise me if you’re a manic depressive!”

30. Doc Daneeka’s assurance
Later, when Yossarian seeks assurance from Doc Daneeka that “they’re not going to send a crazy man out to be killed, are they?” Daneeka responds, “Who else will go?”

31. The basic assumptions and organization of American society are effectively satirized through juxtaposition with idealistic norms, and are shown to be wanting in fundamental humanity.