Catch - 22 : Ch1-11

So far Catch-22 has been quite an interesting book to read as it is full of paradoxes and irony, with the most notable being that of the Catch-22 clause that prohibits Yossarian from being grounded from the war. Being a war novel, I was surprised as I often found myself laughing quite often at the dialogue and events that occur throughout these first couple of chapters. The book can be confusing as the reader may find some of the things that characters do and say don’t make sense at times, but I think that’s why this story does make sense. Instead of taking a straightforward approach to speaking about war, it displays it in a satirical way where I believe it is saying that war is senseless act, and in a sense a vicious cycle that can be difficult to escape from. This can be seen with Yossarian, who wants to be grounded, but in order to do so he must prove himself insane or fly fifty missions. But by asking to be grounded, it shows that he is sane since he cares about his safety, and cannot be grounded without asking. He could also try flying the fifty missions, except the number keeps getting bumped up by his commanding officer, who he cannot disobey, and thus he cannot get out of war.