Criticism In Catch-22
Without struggle, life is pointless. The men in Joseph Heller's novel “Catch-22” are extremely familiar with the concept of struggle. No matter how hard they work, there is always a set-back. No matter how good it seems to be going for the men, the bad is soon to catch up with them. This novel follows the course of several men in the United States Air Force that are stationed in Italy during World War II. The vast majority of war stories rely heavily on emotion in order to convey the intended message. To look at a war story with the guidelines of New Criticism calls for the removal of any emotional attachment to the novel and purely focus on the text itself. There is no need to incorporate any background on the author or include personal reactions.
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Throughout this work Heller relies heavily on the use of juxtapositions. A prime example of this is the way Colonel Cathcart feels about his rank as a colonel; he, “…was conceited because he was a full colonel with a combat command at the age of only thirty-six; and Colonel Cathcart was dejected because although he was already thirty-six he was still only a full colonel,” (Heller 192). His emotions about his age and rank are complete opposites. He is happy that he is young and ranked highly, but unhappy that he is young and ranked lower than younger men. There were even juxtapositions within character descriptions as Cathcart is described as, “…dashing and dejected, poised and chagrined,” (Heller 191). Heller uses completely contrasting adjectives in order to describe the colonel. For every good trait he possesses there is a bad one to even it out. These types of juxtapositions can even be found in descriptions of characters that are not even involved with the war. For example, “Nately’s mother, a descendant of the New England Thortons, was a Daughter of the Revolution. His father was a Son of a Bitch, (Heller 255). Nately’s mother is a well-respected member of society. In direct contrast to her good qualities, is his father, who possesses the poor qualities. The fact that they are married shows union. One represents good and one represents bad and they are married together. There is no way to obtain the good without the bad and that is the
Throughout this work Heller relies heavily on the use of juxtapositions. A prime example of this is the way Colonel Cathcart feels about his rank as a colonel; he, “…was conceited because he was a full colonel with a combat command at the age of only thirty-six; and Colonel Cathcart was dejected because although he was already thirty-six he was still only a full colonel,” (Heller 192). His emotions about his age and rank are complete opposites. He is happy that he is young and ranked highly, but unhappy that he is young and ranked lower than younger men. There were even juxtapositions within character descriptions as Cathcart is described as, “…dashing and dejected, poised and chagrined,” (Heller 191). Heller uses completely contrasting adjectives in order to describe the colonel. For every good trait he possesses there is a bad one to even it out. These types of juxtapositions can even be found in descriptions of characters that are not even involved with the war. For example, “Nately’s mother, a descendant of the New England Thortons, was a Daughter of the Revolution. His father was a Son of a Bitch, (Heller 255). Nately’s mother is a well-respected member of society. In direct contrast to her good qualities, is his father, who possesses the poor qualities. The fact that they are married shows union. One represents good and one represents bad and they are married together. There is no way to obtain the good without the bad and that is the