Catch 22 Satire

Satire is a form of comedy that is characterized as mocking or targeting a specific social injustice, society or group in the most crude and uncomfortable way possible. Many different authors use this form of comedy to try and get the audience they are targeting to think about the injustice being discussed. Author Joseph Heller was born May 1, 1923 in Brooklyn New York City. After he had graduated high school in the year 1941 he worked in an insurance office, and in the year 1942 he enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II. While enlisted in the Air Corps he flew sixty combat missions in Corsica as a bombardier, but later on in life, he became an anti-war activist (“Joseph Heller Biography”). In 1945 Heller left the military and …show more content…
His novels are usually set around “aggressive capitalism, bureaucracy, and certain “insane” and destructive elements of modern civilization which endure at the expense of humanity and compassion…in Catch-22 what seems to be advocated is a movement forward toward some ill-defined yet positive and brave new world” (Nagel 100-102). His first two novels are both satirical, and while they are both about different topics they still manage to have one target in common, which is modern society. Both of them mock some part of society or human nature in some way and “both books are full of excellent jokes, but neither one is funny. Taken together, they tell a different tale of pain and disappointments experienced by mediocre men of good will” but most people in society would not be able to take away this same observation, resulting in them not even realizing that they were being mocked as a whole (Vonnegut). His novels are sometimes labelled as “immoral because it follows a fashion in spitting indiscriminately at business and the professions, at respectability, at ideals, at all visible tokens of superiority” which is what he wants to do since he is satirizing the society that is around him (Daedalus 164). The society that he grew up in, though it was a big influence on his works, was not the only influence. Heller’s life experiences helped …show more content…
Nagel describes Heller’s novel Catch-22 as being satirical when he says:
Madness and blindness are…the emblems of vice and folly, evil and good are clearly distinguishable, criminals and fools are invariably responsible (therefore censurable), and standards of judgment and indubitable. (103)
This gives a better description of what Heller tries to write about and how satire is present within his novels. Nagel also describes that Heller is able to write in such a way that:
American society are effectively satirized and, through juxtaposition with idealistic norms, are shown to be wanting in fundamental humanity. It is in this dimension, as social commentary, that Heller’s satire develops its most profound themes, themes which emerge with clarity and force from depth of its angry humor.
His novels are able to come across as satirical because he tries to get the point across by satirizing society so much that it is blatantly obvious how he feels about

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