Literature Analysis #1

1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
----Rising Action----
The plot begins with a man named Yossarian, who has fled WWII by staying in a hospital. The doctors are unsure whether his illness is legitimate or not.  After patient admittance and discharge, Yossarian also leaving the hospital. He feels solo in his opinion that the war is nonsense and many men die. Doc Daneeka has trouble in the medical field due to the war and etc. Catch-22 is a "grounded" facility that holds the insane. This place is unattainable since those who ask to go must be sane, and therefore are not in need of help. It is a loose/loose situation Yossarian seems to want to go there, since he is terrified in his bombing position in planes.
----Climax----
Yossarian is shaken by the deaths of Nately and Dobbs. After that event at La Spezia, he openly rejects attending any more missions. His brutal and defeating position finally pushes him to the brink. Yossarian declares open rebellion against the officers that command him.
----Resolution----
Yossarian hears news of hope from his location in Sweden. Orr had escaped, which inspired him to work towards that as well. He finally deserts and moves on with his life. This decision signifies his freedom and sanity. It also proves his bravery.
"Catch-22 is a satirical, historical novel by the American author Joseph Heller, first published in 1961. The novel, set during the later stages of World War II from 1944 onwards, is frequently cited as one of the great literary works of the twentieth century. It has a distinctive non-chronological style where events are described from different characters' points of view and out of sequence so that the time line develops along with the plot.The novel follows Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier, and a number of other characters."-anonymous

2. The two most striking themes: The inevitability of death and the loss of language.
After Snowden's death, Yossarian sees the brutality of man. He also seems that humans will all eventually die one day, just as everything turns to trash. *This period of literature embodies a lack of hope and a loss of a sense of reality... Both present in the character of Yossarian.* Yossarian is in constant disbelief at the varied ways a man can exist no further. The second theme is portrayed in the first chapter of the novel, with the invariability of his letters. His most shocking time was when he tried to comfort Snowden, but knew that his words meant nothing to the dying man. He had lost hope in the meaning of his words.

3. The author indicates a tone of sorrow and gloom, but twists this in a combination with humor and satire. This is exemplified in a quote in which the author writes "Gee I guess he really is dead,' grieved one of his enlisted men in a low, respectful voice." He is attempting to enlighten the sadness in the death of war, by saying something satirical. Although this will obviously not cause someone to physically laugh, it is intended to relieve the audience. The tone can also be expressed as very serious. This is reflected by the time period and the seriousness of war. Soldiers are attempting to remain positive, but the saddened approach is an essential emotion to the plot.

4.

1)Motif
"I don't want to fly milk runs" (p.103)

2)Repetition "Help him, help him" (p.50)

3)Allusion
"John Milton is a sadist" (p.97)

4) Paradox
"If he flew [planes] he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. " (p.46)

5) Alliteration
"If the colonel says we have to fly fifty-five missions, we have to fly them" (p. 65)

6) Situational Irony
" Clevinger was a genius... a Harvard undergraduate... [going] far in the academic world... In short, he was a dope" (p. 68)

7) Dramatic Irony
"Yossarian was in the hospital with a pain in his liver that fell just short of being jaundice. The doctors were puzzled by the fact that it wasn't quite jaundice" (p. 7)

8) Verbal Irony
"I don't have nightmares" (p. 54)

9) Foreshadowing
"Do you remember... that time in Rome when that girl who can't stand you kept hitting me over and over the head with the heel of her shoe? Do you want to know why she was hitting me?" (p. 25)

10) Symbolism
"He never sends anyone home, anyway. He just keeps them waiting around waiting for rotation orders until he doesn't haven enough men left for the crews, and then raises the number of missions and throws them all back on combat status. He's been doing that ever since he got here" (p.102)

CHARACTERIZATION
1. Direct- "There were many principles in which Clevinger believed passionately. He was crazy."
Indirect- Milo"I just can't sit here and watch while those mess halls let my syndicate die."
Direct characterization is a statement of someone's personality or appearance, while indirect characterization tells something of a character by their actions. The quotes above signify both direct and indirect characterization.

2. Characters in this novel are often spoken of differently than the tone and horror surrounding them. The characters are specific and contain their own qualities that can often differ from the environment around them. The aurora of the novel contained dread and discontentment, but some of the characters proved to enlighten this time with didactic statements and techniques that sometimes altered tone. The qualities of satire seemed to illuminate the war. It was slight, but it made some impact.

3. Yossarian is the protagonist of the novel. He hates war and eventually comes to the conclusion that everyone is attempting to kill him. He eventually leaves in open rebellion to the extensive missions and the fact that he felt that he could almost never leave. Instead of trying to temporarily avoid war, he decides to take it to the next level and desert Sweden.

4. After the novel, I felt that I had simply read about a character. Due to the fact that I never connected with the plot and often became bored, it sometimes felt more like history than a story line. For this reason it never seemed that I had even met Yossarian or any of the other characters.