Catch-22

Catch-22 By: Joseph Heller​ Bobby Sorenson 6/9/2010 Hour 3 Independent Reading Project

1. Author Biography

Joseph Heller was born to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York in 1923. He wrote many novels until he died in 1999. Heller Joined the Air Force in 1941, and this experiance helped inspire him to write Catch-22. He was stationed on Corsica, and flew 60 missions during World War II. He then became a teacher at Pennsylvania State from 1950-1952, then became a copywriter for //Time//, and //Life// Magazines. Heller began //Catch-22// in 1953, but it was, for the most part, unnoticed. Heller's health started to decline in the 80's, when he was diagnosed with Guillian-Barre Syndrome that caused him to be paralyzed for several months. Suprisingly Heller recovered from Guillian-Barre, produced more works, but died of a heart attack in 1999.

2. Criticism

Thrughout this book, many parts were extrodinarily funny, but others were slow and repetetive. This book also required a fair amount of thought, some chapters on the first read through didn't make any sense at all, which confused me and as I was told "A confused reader is an aggrivated reader", and so some parts of this book just didn't work for me as a 10th grade reader. However when I was forced to set down the book beecause I couldn't see due to laughter I realize that Heller really knew what he was doing. And if you really read the book through to the end it all made sense, and for these reasons i would recommend this book to others.

3. Literary Information

This was a Historical Fiction book about World War II. Heller used humor and logic to tell about the insanity of war, and the crippling power of laws used to "help pepole" get out of war and stay safe, which was the origin of the title Catvh-22. The increasing number of missions put on people represents a method that people back home didn't know about that kept people going in the war symbolises how little people back in the U.S. didn't understand how others helped in the war. This book made comeedic cuts to war, and how the superior officers in the army handled things. If this book hadn't been comedic enough it wouldn't hold up with the content it had, so Heller knew how to balance style, tone, and content well enough to produce a book that will stand the test of time.

4. Plot Synopsis

The government created a catch-22 by saying that in essence a pilot had to request permission to be grounded, but if a pilot asks to be grounded he must be sane because only an insane person wouldn't try to get out of flying missions. Another catch-22 is the Air Force saysthat only 40 missions needed to be flown in order to be relieved from the Tour of Duty, however it also says that you need to listen to your commanding officers, who keep raising the number of missiosn. Yossarin, however, tries to keep himself grounded with fake illnesses to keep him in the hospital, it starts off with "liver pain" witch shifts to "abdominal pain" and then he "sees everything twice". Throughout the course of the book the number of bombing missions is reaised from 40 to 80, which is double what the Air Force requires to be relieved. This book is all about Captain Yossarain's efforts to be relieved and his efforts to be grounded, how his friends either were relieved or died.

Works Cited Joseph Heller (1923-1999) 6/9/2010, //Books and Writers// - [] Joseph Heller (picture) 6/9/2010 [] Joseph Heller Biography, 6/9/2010, //World Encyclopedia of Biography// [] Corsica Picture 6/9/2010 //PicsDigger//, []