Related Titles and Adaptations
In 1967 Heller wrote a two-act play entitled We Bombed in New Haven that shares the antiwar stance of Catch-22 and, like the novel, reflects the author’s own military experiences. Surrealistic in...
View ArticleIdeas for Reports and Papers
1. Research the philosophical terms “existentialism” and “nihilism” and show how they apply to the Themes in Catch-22. 2. Read the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, or...
View ArticleTopics for Discussion
1. Catch-22 is an allegory; that is, each character represents some human quality. List the major Characters and their allegorical characteristics. 2. Yossarian’s nickname is Yo-Yo. He marches...
View ArticleSocial Sensitivity
Readers desensitized to the indifference and brutality of society as chronicled every evening on television may not find Catch-22 as horrifying as did readers in 1961. The novel’s presentation of...
View ArticleLiterary Qualities
Catch-22 both absorbs and parodies a variety of literary genres. Given the book’s fragmented chronology, episodic structure, and caricatured characterizations, some critics have objected to labeling it...
View ArticleThemes and Characters
The protagonist of Catch-22, Captain John Yossarian, is motivated by two closely related impulses: to subvert the repressive military establishment and to survive. His desperate attempts to escape...
View ArticleSetting
The novel’s Setting is the mythical island of Pianosa, modeled closely on Corsica and located off the coast of Rome, eight miles south of Elba. The year is 1944, and as World War II draws to a close,...
View ArticleOverview
Catch-22 is a product of intense private and public concerns. Heller based the novel’s plot on his memories of World War II bombing missions; he derived its ironic tone and thematic substance from...
View ArticleAbout the Author
Joseph Heller was born on May 1, 1923, in New York City, and grew up near the Coney Island amusement park. His parents, recent Russian immigrants, spoke little English, and his father died when Joseph...
View ArticleJoseph Heller Biography Books Facts
Heller, Joseph (1923-1999), American novelist, whose comic absurdist novel Catch-22 (1961) is a leading example of the black-humor movement in American fiction. The book served as an antiwar rallying...
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