Catch-22 (book review)

I chose to read the novel Catch-22 for this project that we are doing. I chose this book because all of the summaries I read on it made it look interesting. This book is about an Airforce bombardier during the second half of World War II. The main characater, Yossarian is stationed on the island of Pianosa, near Italy in the Mediterrean Sea.

Yossarian's goal in life is just to stay alive. He lives in constant fear of death even though he knows that one day he is going to fail. Yossarian's life is defined by his unreasonable bureaucratic officers. These officers tell their men that they have to fly dangerous missions that have no purpose in them whatsoever. They do not care about the these men and are only sending them on these missions to gain personal recongintion. The superior officers make up absurd rules with catch-22s. Yossarian who spends most of his time trying to be excuesed from war, can't be diagnosed as insane because if he says he is too insane to fly this proves that he is sane and therefore must fly because only an insane person would fly those missions. The bureacratic officers have made it impossible for any soldier to get out of combat. One of Yossarian's best friends, Nately, is killed in the war and this pushes Yossarian over the edge. The next time he goes to Rome he deserts and wanders the streets. Whis wandering the streets he experiances many horrors of life including rape, diesease, and murder. He is eventually found and arrested by his officers. They leave him with two choices; he can be court martialed, or he can be honorably discharged if he agrees to the officers making his comrades fly 80 missions more missions which is a riduculous amount. To see which one Yossarian chooses you have to read the book to find out, it might suprise you which one he chooses.

I though this was a pretty good book. I did think it was a very unusual combination of humor and war but the author kept me reading because I couldn't wait to see what kind of hilarious scenario Yossarian would find himself in next. I would recommend this book to some who like Animal Farm and is interested in World War II.