Catch-22

To preface: I have an in-class essay in English tomorrow.

Catch-22 is disjointed in plot. The story skips from time to time nonlinearly - sometimes even within chapters. The most reliable way to gauge time, within the story, is to track the ever-increasing demands placed on the characters as a sort of insane clock. And perhaps that's part of the point. Because the author thinks that war is insane.

There's little overt madness. Even hospital scenes tend to be subdued; lying in bed, waiting, watching the IV feeds trickle into paralyzed patients. (Though there are exceptions to this.) Instead, the madness is inherent in the situation. The characters of the novel are soldiers, thrust into a war of scope that they cannot really comprehend - and it shows. Their officers are incompetents, battling and bickering for control of their units. The soldiers themselves are caught within a web of contradictions created by the bureacracy for the purpose of immobilizing them. Catch-22: As soon as the pilots fly the required number of missions, they'll be allowed to go home; but as soon as they fly as many missions as are required, the requirement is increased. Catch-22: Major Major Major Major (title, first name, middle name, last name) will allow you to meet him in his office - as long as he's not in his office at the time. Catch-22: You can be sent home if you're insane - but anyone who wants to be sent home is clearly sane. Catch-22 means whatever those controlling it want it to mean - those few outside the control of the mechanism, such as the mail clerk who redirects or censors mail at whim, or the MP who don't care.

And the soldiers obey.

There was going to be some talk of 100 Years of Solitude and maybe Wuthering Heights, but I'm not quite certain what I would say. Maybe later.