Catch 22 Yossarian Character Analysis

Catch-22

By Joseph Heller

When a character in a novel is deemed insane or mad, the reader instantly makes an assumption about that character. If the reader can relate to the character’s reasoning, thoughts or actions, then that character instantly becomes more important. In Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22, Yossarian is the main character. He is also seen as the most mad soldier of them all, in a realistic way.

A mad person is seen as different than his or her peers. They are seen as an outsider. Yossarian belongs to the squadron, but his peers see him as the outsider. The other men think he is insane. A majority of the men in his squadron think this way of him, but not all of them. The chaplin and Doc Daneeka reason with Yossarian and do not judge him to be mad. He also shows the men that he encounters a valuable lesson.

The men that encounter Yossarian learn that what they say and do has a minute effect on their consequences. All they can do is learn how to live with and move around their government, using its illogical ways to their benefit. The deaths in the novel are due to the soldiers own decisions and the orders of their government. Their government is

Doc Daneeka says, “There was only one catch and that was a Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind” (Heller 46). The soldiers in the squadron know that what they are doing is insane and that their government does not care much about their lives being lost. Yet if they tell Doc that they want to be grounded, they are sane. If they wish to fly more missions, they are considered insane. “All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and could be grounded” (46). The government has these soldiers doing missions for their pleasure and needs, not for the sake of winning the