Catch-22

Catch-22 Individuality As A Way To Survive As society advances through modernization, aspects of humanity have been lost. A steady decline in individuality, decay of human ethics, and a loss of awareness of personal action has erupted within the persons of the society. In his novel, Catch-22, Joseph Heller critiques and criticizes using the ridiculousness of war to show how misguided much of modern society has become, in spite of our so-called civilized advancement. Heller begins by accentuating individuality as a way to survive, emphasizing the capability of society to asphyxiate and dominate one’s principles, morals, beliefs, and opinions. Catch-22 places a particular strain on the importance on individuality, and the danger of losing that individualism during war. Although the book begins with a variety of characters that take part in different activities that enrich their community, it also shows a pattern of slowly diminishing individuality among them. This trend become more apparent as the book progresses, and eventually fosters situations that can be characterized as simply farce. One such incident is clearly portrayed in Scheisskopf’s parade strategies. At first strict, wanting all soldiers to march in formation, he later wishes to string together all participants to create a perfect march. “Lieutenant Scheisskopf’s individuality, soldiers, society, scheisskopf’s, characters, been, towards, name, heller, even, clearly, certain, catch-22, book, yossarian, within, wire, way, war, trend, told, throughout, thought, ten, soldier, situations, shown, preposterous, personal, people, part, out, novel, missions, men, march