Leimotivs Associated With Catch-22

            In Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, numerous ideas and symbols exist to slant the novel one way or satirize one aspect of the book. The recurrent repetition of a word, phrase, situation or idea, such as tends to unify a work through its power to recall earlier occurrences defines the leitmotiv.  During this time, everything is a matter of life and death:  one misstep will mean certain death, and someone must pay the ultimate price with his life. Events that transpire throughout the novel will result in not only the loss of life and limb, but also the ensuing flashbacks and realizing one way or another no one really wins in this game.

            The first key motif is Snowden’s untimely death over Avignon. The main character, Captain Joseph Yossarian, witnessed Snowden’s final moments of life from a hospital bed and tries to find syringes to keep the dying man from feeling too cold. Eventually he had to amputate a leg, but by then it is too little, too late. The way Snowden dies – Dobbs went crazy in mid-air and seized the controls away from Hulpe (Heller 44) – is eerily similar to the future deaths of several men in Yossarian’s battalion, particularly his roommate. This gives rise to the French phrase “Ou sont les Neigedens d’antan?” which translates to “Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?” in reference to his fallen comrade.

Second is the phrase catch-22. After all, the book is aptly titled since no matter what the potential successes, failure always seemed to abound. Upon completing the necessary number of flights to return home, Captain Halfoat (who is also a half-wit) raises the number ten to keep Yossarian from a)going home, and b)placing a small amount of guilt upon the so-called “respectable” people. Everyone has committed a petty crime, even the chaplain, who was accused of being an atheist and stealing plum tomatoes which Coloniel Cathcoat clearly gave him. Therefore,  no one wins for losing during wartime.

            Milo proves that the nation does not value human life as much as it can make a profit with the war. He sells services, secrets, etc. to not only his countrymen but also to his enemy. His reasoning:  if the war continues, the nation will need his services by placing women and children in the workforce thereby continuing increasing his desire for more capital. Whether or not someone’s life hung by a thread mattered little to him, instead the dollar bill drove him. The government does not disagree with him, as the coloniels and generals are only concerned with promotions and fancy parades in their honor; therefore by raising the magic number they can continue what seems to be a futile effort – or otherwise, kill time in a war already won.

            Survival is of the essence; no one, sane or insane, wants to die in a foreign environment. Everyone seems apathetic in the camp and at the hospital, particular one Doc Daneeka. He intentionally misdiagnoses Yossarian with liver disease in an attempt to send him home; instead Yossarian ends up editing mail incoming and outboard. Daneeka also fails to care foe his patients. As a result, Snowden is among the casualties, as is the soldier in white (who is later revealed as Snowden). In addition, corpses mean nothing:  Daneeka’s wife proves this by collecting his death benefits and leaving to never return, proving the widow is equally insensitive as her late husband.

            The predominant motif here is catch-22 itself. More than a situation, it lends itself to a constant state of emergency which no winners are really declared. For instance, no one really knows what to do with the soldier in white, much less who he was. Was he a black man that mistakenly brought in or someone else? Another authentic aspect of Catch-22 is Yossarian’s constant flashback of Snowden’s death, of which he wishes that he could have done more to enhance survival. The Snowdens of yesteryear are frozen in time, forever crystallized by the graphic reality of war and death.

Source

Heller, Joseph. Catch-22. New York:  Scribner Paperback Company, 1955.