Literary Analysis Essay On Catch 22
318 Words2 Pages
“Looking back at Catch-22”
In Catch-22, Heller portrays all soldiers as hesitant to serve and brutalized and degraded through war, depicting no moral right or patriotism among its characters. Many view this skewed portrayal of war as the novel’s greatest weakness. Heller was inspired to become a writer after reading Homer’s Iliad as a boy. The ancient story’s depiction of battle’s horrors and the triviality of human issues greatly shaped how Heller would write; he mentions little of valor, integrity, or other virtues except when to be mocked.
Upon its release, many viewed the gloomy depiction of WWII with apprehension. Initial reviews skirted around attacking the novel’s ideology and instead opted to criticize the book’s muddled plot