Joseph Heller's novel, "Catch 22" is a sarcastic novel of struggle and absurdity. Examples of absurdity inside the novel "Catch 22 are abundant. We can find examples of absurdity in our own lives too.
Absurdity of Monetary Selfishness in Catch 22
A passage in chapter four, the conversation between Doc Daneeka and Yossarian, is important because it brings to the surface and later questions the much practiced idea of exchanging favors with one another. This practice is summed up with the last question in that chapter, "What else is there?" In other words, one who exchanges favors with somebody else is only acting in their own self interest, and as this novel eventually shows, there is much more than that; there is also love, the only true motivation for ethics. One character which acts as though there is nothing but the self is Havermeyer, who in chapter 38 reveals what his motivation in life and for connexion the militia is money. The fugitive satisfaction, which Havermeyer obtains from money connects Daneeka and Yossarian's conversation into the novel as a whole. With the risk of death, it can be said that Havermeyer's medium of exchange motivation for connexion the military is also absurd.
Absurd Rationalization in "Catch 22"
Another example of absurdity in "Catch 22" is in the last paragraph in chapter 17 (The Soldier in White). It discusses how every day that Yossarian featured was another dangerous mission against ethics. He had been extant these missions for twenty-eight years -- despite the fact there were catastrophes lurking everywhere. What is important in that passage is its correspondence to the ever-increasing number of missions requisite to be flown. It is rationalization which justifies the increase in required missions; likewise there is rationalization when one commits an immoral act. This episode points out the effect of such rationalizations or Catch 22s in life; they can cause one to simply give abreast ethics because he or she may think that it is hopeless to be moral in a word with such evil in it. The reference to Yosarrian's miraculously extant these missions against ethics fits into the book as a whole because it alludes to one of the main system debates bestowed in the book: How does one account for a enamored God when there is evil in the world?
Absurdity in Our Own Lives
As an example of absurdity in our own lives, consider that it is outlaw to speed, but it is not outlaw to use microwave radar detectors. One commercial for microwave radar detectors, which I detected on the radio, went as follows: "Drive responsibly and defend your self from hundred bank bill rushing tickets." This relates to the ideas about absurdity as we discussed them in class because these two ideas are inconsistent; one cannot at the same time be a responsible driver and speed.
Absurdity in the Fine Print
A second way of thinking of absurdity in Catch 22 is that of "advantageous print." In the novel, the characters have been subjected to contradictory advantageous print contracts. In present instances, there are comparable actual life examples. Consider that bank card companies ship affords for bank card game that states that in case you chosen to get coverage defensive the cardboard that so as to be accepted for the cardboard you must signal your identify. In advantageous print it was said that by sign language your identify for the cardboard you habitually agreed to the larceny coverage! towards larceny, there can be a further annual price. There have been even two all different containers on this type, one to test in case you requisite the coverage and one to test in case you did not need it.
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