When one begins Joseph Heller’s novel, Catch-22, you are tossed into the world and mindset of an unlikely hero. John Yossarian is our main character is as odd as his last name. We are immediately given the impression that Yossarian is a homosexual by the way he describes his fellow soldiers while in the hospital ward. The first lines read, “It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him.” Now this statement startled me immediately. We step up to the plate of novel and immediately the author tosses a curve ball at us. I was caught completely off guard by this statement. First, I assumed that it was a girl he was talking about, but then upon mentioning the idea that he was a chaplain scared we, but from then on I was hooked. As the reader you couldn’t believe what you were hearing and you had to read on. You immediately draw the conclusion that he is delirious, then you question his sexuality, and finally you wonder what may have drove him to this? Was it the war, a broken heart in the past or perhaps the affects of a hallucinogenic of some type? I know that personally I began to question the morals of this charac

Heller drops us into this novel near the end of World War II. The setting is an Air Force base in Pianosa. Yossarian is a bombardier surrounded my war- driven crazy when who uses insanity as an escape from the cruel reality of the fighting. After reading half the novel I discovered why exactly Yossarian is chosen as the main character. He is a hero not of Bravery, Courage, or Loyalty, but one who is fond mainly of his own self- perseverance. He looks out for himself in a war where you always look twice over your shoulder.

Two passages made me look twice in this novel. The first is Chapter eighteen-titled “The Soldier who saw Everything Twice”. Here Yossarian is continually looking for excuses to prolong his stay in the hospital. So, he tells the doctors he sees everything twice. He had heard a fellow patient claim to have this ailment so he did too. The doctors evaluated him and allow him to stay because they are dumb-founded with what to do. A few days later the man who claimed to see twice previously dies mysteriously. Yossarian hears of this and then realizes that the doctors will assume that he will die also as a result of seeing twice. Yossarian panics and is suddenly cured! The doctors are astonished and now Yossarian must find a new ailment to keep him in the hospital.

ter and how long he would last in today’s society if he had made a comment like that aloud. He would no doubt be meet by fear and hatred, especially in the military. But he was in a different setting where lunacy is quite frequent.

Another passage that I enjoyed was Chapter 31, “Mrs. Daneeka.” Doc Daneeka had

Some topics in this essay:
Doc Daneeka, John Yossarian, Twice” Yossarian, Pianosa Yossarian, Courage Loyalty, Joseph Heller’s, Catching Ideas, Air Force, War II, main character, “on paper”, flight plan,