An analysis of Joseph Heller 's classic by Curtis Chin
Table of Contents
3 – The Author 4 – Catch-22 6 – Ideas 12 – Critiques 14 – Significance 15 – Works Cited
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The Author
Joseph Heller was a famous and well-renowned author in the United States, often remembered for his most famous book Catch-22. Heller was born on May 1, 1999 in Brooklyn, New York to first generation Russian-Jewish immigrants. When he was five, his father died due to an unsuccessful surgery, and his mother and siblings struggled to survive in the carnival-like atmosphere in Coney Island; some scholars hypothesize that this environment was a major source of Heller 's wry humor and irony that eventually made him famous. Though it is largely unconfirmed if Heller was an aspiring author during his childhood, many people credit The Illiad as a notable book that was influential to him in his youth.
A year after Heller graduated from high school, he enlisted in the Army Air Corp, and by 1944 Heller flew 60 combat missions for the Allied forces in World War II. He was awarded an Air Medal and a Presidential Unit Citation. After the war, Heller married Shirley Held in 1945 and they had two children. Heller also took advantage of the G.I. Bill which allowed him to study English at the University of South Carolina and New York University. By 1949, Heller had received an M.A. from Columbia University as well. He spent some time as a instructor at Penn State University and also at Yale University before working as a copywriter, most notably for Time Magazine.
Heller 's most celebrated book is Catch-22. Published in 1961, it is a novel about a World War II pilot who tries desperately
Cited: Aldridge, John W. "The Loony Horror Of It All - 'Catch-22 ' Turns 25." Nytimes.com. New York Times, 26 Oct. 1986. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/15/home/heller-loony.html>. Brustein, Robert. "The Logic of Survival in a Lunatic World." Rev. of Catch-22. New Republic [Washington, D.C.] 22 Oct. 1961: n. pag. Powells.com. Web. <http://www.powells.com/review/2001_05_31>. Heller, Joseph. Catch-22, a Novel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Print. Young, Robert M. "Deadly Unconscious Logics In Joseph Heller 's Catch-22." Human-nature.com. N.p., 28 May 2005. Web. 24 June 2013. <http://www.human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/heller.html>