Criticism of Bureaucratic Reasoning in Catch 22 Essay

The novel Catch 22, by Joseph Heller takes you on a war time experience, focusing on Yossarian, the main character. There are specific themes, styles, and a purpose involved in the novel. The themes that can be found throughout the story are, for the most part different, than the usual themes found in other novels. The repetitive style of writing used by Heller helps to bring up past events and to add reassurance to the novel. The novels main purpose is the criticism of bureaucratic reasoning.

There are many themes in the novel. One theme that can be found in Catch 22 is the fact that soldiers are treated like pawns on a chessboard. The soldiers are namelessly interchanged through the battlegrounds and hospitals. Bureaucracy simply gives out orders to fight a war that is, for the most part, over. These orders are blindly followed by the men in the war. Another theme in the novel is censorship. Yossarians job is to censor the letters the soldiers write. He signs off under the name Washington Irving, or Irving Washington. This theme adds to the idea that the soldiers are just pawns, whos words are completely meaningless. Also the fact that bureaucrats are being dealt with by a man who does not even exist, which is the perfect combat to the bureaucracys meaningless mission. Another theme, which can be one of the most important, are the missions. Soldiers are required to fly a certain amount of missions, but whenever the criteria is just about met, more missions are added. Even if the colonel were disobeying a Twenty-seventh Air Force order by making you fly more missions, you'd still have to fly them, or you'd be guilty of disobeying an order of his. This quote is evidence of the theme of flying endless missions, and yet another catch. Loss of faith can also be considered a theme in Catch 22. Yossarian does not believe in a god simply because if there were a god, there would be no painful death, and no suffering. The world would be a tranquil place, with no problems. Yossarian would not be in the torturous situation, completing endless missions, left without any options, or way of escape.

Catch 22 is written in a specific style. The main style used by Heller, is repetition. Repetition is maintained throughout the story. The use of repetition throughout Catch 22 helps you to recall specific events that have occurred previously. There is, also the fact that the novel does not follow a chronological structure. A repetitive style helps you to further understand the hard to follow chronology with ease. Chapters are often based on certain characters. This adds to the writing style because what you may not have known about a certain event, you will find out later in the book, through another characters experience. The story is told, for the most part, out of order jumping back and forth between a timeline that you must put together yourself. This writing style is unique and can make you feel more involved throughout the whole novel.

The purpose of Catch 22, is too mainly criticize the bureaucratic ways of reasoning, in a humorous matter. Heller brings out the corruption of bureaucrats, emphasizing on how the lives of the soldiers lie in their hands. Bureaucrats treat them as if they were robots, and soldiers blindly follow their orders. Missions are endlessly added onto the soldiers back, simply because Colonel Cathcart is looking for a promotion. This is an example of corruption in people of superiority. Catch 22 is a form of logic. No matter what happens, these soldiers are stuck in war, simply being used by bureaucracy.

Joseph Heller does a great job of capturing the lives of soldiers at war, and displaying the crude actions of bureaucracy. The themes and purpose of the novel are very important. The non chronological writing style can make the story hard to follow, but at the same time brings you deeper into the novel, getting to know each character one by one. In conclusion, Catch 22 contains many themes and serves an excellent purpose.