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#1 | |||
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Elite Fan
 
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 41,496
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Catch 22
***I don't think this is a thread...but if it is feel free to close.***
I had to read Catch 22 for summer reading and I'm a little confused. It was hard for me to grasp alot of what was actually going on and I need some help. I'm supposed to be able to identify a character in the book who "conforms outwardly while questioning inwardly". I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to really do about that, when I am barely grasping the novel itself.  Any help would be appreciated.__________________
Practice safe lunch. Use a condiment.  Are you a poor pirate? Because you have a small chest. I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I. I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I. I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I. I.I. |
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#2 | |||
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Master Fan
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 16,923
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aww Jess
 I'm sorry it has been such a long time since I read this book I don't know how to help you out. I added this thread to the list of threads  Hopefully someone will be able to help. Also, for those of you who have read please feel free to discuss in general __________________
"I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now, and live in it forever." - Catching Fire
icon by Ann - Shadowhunter |
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#3 | |||
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Passionate Fan
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 3,412
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Well, I'm not sure how much of a help I'll be, but I just read that book a couple months ago for the second time. I had to get my best friend to explain a lot of it to me because he's a genius.
 But I understand most of it, so if I can be of any service, I'll do my best. __________________
STEWART/COLBERT 2008
"The Church says women can't be priests because priests have to be like the apostles. And the apostles were all male, non-gay, spoke Aramaic, and lived in first-century Judea. If you're not all of those things, you're out." |
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#4 | |||
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Part-Time Fan
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 393
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I must admit that I wasn't so keen on the book. It kinda annoyed me how everything was a catch-22. Yes, I get the point. My memory of it is kinda vague but I'll help any way I can. Which bits are you struggling with?
__________________
~ To love yourself is the beginning of a lifelong affair. - Oscar Wilde
~If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you. Winnie-the-Pooh |
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#5 | |||
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Elite Fan
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 41,496
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Aww you guys rock but I think I wrote a damn good essay considering I was lost lol. If you guys would like to read it for your enjoyment lmao. I shall copy it haha. It's pretty awesome bullshiot.
__________________
Practice safe lunch. Use a condiment. Are you a poor pirate? Because you have a small chest. I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I. I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I. I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I. I.I. |
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#6 | |||
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Addicted Fan
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 4,979
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Read it a couple of years ago. Speaking personally, it was sort of an eye-opener...especially for a then 15 (16?) year old. It did take a while to get through, but I did think it was a clever book with its dark-humour and satirical nature...especially towards bureaucracy, the army...and well, people. Seems like a book that needs more than one reading...I'll probably get more out of it when I'm older.
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#7 | |||
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Elite Fan
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 41,496
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Yeah it was horrible to get through but looking back it was well written and the themes were well concieved as were the characters and symbolism. So not as horrible as previously thought.
 __________________
Practice safe lunch. Use a condiment. Are you a poor pirate? Because you have a small chest. I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I. I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I. I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I. I.I. |
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#8 | |||
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Master Fan
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 21,439
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I remember reading it for AP English Lit and hating it. I just didn't get why it was such a "fabulous" book and why everyone else in my class thought it was so funny and awesome. I'm glad you got through it and hopefully you'll get a good grade on your essay!
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#9 | |||
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Master Fan
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 21,907
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"Yossarian Lives"
OMG!! This book is a classic! I remember that I hated having to read it but once I got the grasp of it all....just so well done! I love it!!! |
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#10 | |||
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Addicted Fan
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 4,430
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What is the book about?
Angie __________________
Buffy/Angel, Pacey/Joey, Max/Liz, Brian/Justin, Charlie/Claire, Nancy/Hartigan, Wolverine/Rogue, Erik/Christine, Jack/Elizabeth, Mason/George, Mal/Kaylee Chiana/John, Peter/Claire, Daniel/Betty, Doctor/Rose, Bill/Sookie, Riddick/Jack, House/Cameron, Belle/Rumpelstiltskin |
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#11 | |||
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Elite Fan
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 41,496
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Quote:
And for you my love: During the second half of World War II, a soldier named Yossarian is stationed with his Air Force squadron on the island of Pianosa, near the Italian coast in the Mediterranean Sea. Yossarian and his friends endure a nightmarish, absurd existence defined by bureaucracy and violence: they are inhuman resources in the eyes of their blindly ambitious superior officers. The squadron is thrown thoughtlessly into brutal combat situations and bombing runs in which it is more important for the squadron members to capture good aerial photographs of explosions than to destroy their targets. Their colonels continually raise the number of missions that they are required to fly before being sent home, so that no one is ever sent home. Still, no one but Yossarian seems to realize that there is a war going on; everyone thinks he is crazy when he insists that millions of people are trying to kill him. Yossarian’s story forms the core of the novel, so most events are refracted through his point of view. Yossarian takes the whole war personally: unswayed by national ideals or abstract principles, Yossarian is furious that his life is in constant danger through no fault of his own. He has a strong desire to live and is determined to be immortal or die trying. As a result, he spends a great deal of his time in the hospital, faking various illnesses in order to avoid the war. As the novel progresses through its loosely connected series of recurring stories and anecdotes, Yossarian is continually troubled by his memory of Snowden, a soldier who died in his arms on a mission when Yossarian lost all desire to participate in the war. Yossarian is placed in ridiculous, absurd, desperate, and tragic circumstances—he sees friends die and disappear, his squadron get bombed by its own mess officer, and colonels and generals volunteer their men for the most perilous battle in order to enhance their own reputations. Catch-22 is a law defined in various ways throughout the novel. First, Yossarian discovers that it is possible to be discharged from military service because of insanity. Always looking for a way out, Yossarian claims that he is insane, only to find out that by claiming that he is insane he has proved that he is obviously sane—since any sane person would claim that he or she is insane in order to avoid flying bombing missions. Elsewhere, Catch-22 is defined as a law that is illegal to read. Ironically, the place where it is written that it is illegal is in Catch-22 itself. It is yet again defined as the law that the enemy is allowed to do anything that one can’t keep him from doing. In short, then, Catch-22 is any paradoxical, circular reasoning that catches its victim in its illogic and serves those who have made the law. Catch-22 can be found in the novel not only where it is explicitly defined but also throughout the characters’ stories, which are full of catches and instances of circular reasoning that trap unwitting bystanders in their snares—for instance, the ability of the powerful officer Milo Minderbinder to make great sums of money by trading among the companies that he himself owns. As Yossarian struggles to stay alive, a number of secondary stories unfold around him. His friend Nately falls in love with a whore from Rome and woos her constantly, despite her continued indifference and the fact that her kid sister constantly interferes with their romantic rendezvous. Finally, she falls in love with Nately, but he is killed on his very next mission. When Yossarian brings her the bad news, she blames him for Nately’s death and tries to stab him every time she sees him thereafter. Another subplot follows the rise of the black-market empire of Milo Minderbinder, the squadron’s mess hall officer. Milo runs a syndicate in which he borrows military planes and pilots to transport food between various points in Europe, making a massive profit from his sales. Although he claims that “everyone has a share” in the syndicate, this promise is later proven false. Milo’s enterprise flourishes nonetheless, and he is revered almost religiously by communities all over Europe. The novel draws to a close as Yossarian, troubled by Nately’s death, refuses to fly any more missions. He wanders the streets of Rome, encountering every kind of human horror—rape, disease, murder. He is eventually arrested for being in Rome without a pass, and his superior officers, Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn, offer him a choice. He can either face a court-martial or be released and sent home with an honorable discharge. There is only one condition: in order to be released, he must approve of Cathcart and Korn and state his support for their policy, which requires all the men in the squadron to fly eighty missions. Although he is tempted by the offer, Yossarian realizes that to comply would be to endanger the lives of other innocent men. He chooses another way out, deciding to desert the army and flee to neutral Sweden. In doing so, he turns his back on the dehumanizing machinery of the military, rejects the rule of Catch-22, and strives to gain control of his own life. __________________
Practice safe lunch. Use a condiment. Are you a poor pirate? Because you have a small chest. I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I. I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I. I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I.I. I.I. |
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#12 | |||
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Elite Fan
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 45,667
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I bought the book the other day, I'm going to read it ASAP.
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