Catch 22 Comparison
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel Tender is the Night and Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 may have been written approximately thirty years apart, but the two novels are similar in ways more than just a century of publishing. Tender is the Night and Catch-22 have a common theme of war throughout their stories. While Catch-22 takes place during World War II, Tender is the Night takes place after World War I and has allusions to other wars in America’s history via the character of Dick Diver. These two novels contain a theme of war throughout their plots, but the story of Catch-22 more directly confronts war than Tender is the Night. In Tender is the Night, the theme of war and its references is used to add depth to characters like Abe North and establish
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air raids during World War II and a bureaucracy that is absurd and foolish to the main character, Yossarian. This context for the theme of war serves as a method of commentary for Heller, but nonetheless, he does not spare imagery of the war in the midst of the satire and humor. One such example of the gruesome effect of war is the death of Snowden in his self-titled chapter. The scene moves from satire about Hungry Joe dying with a cat on his face to the recollection of Snowden’s death in the side gunport (Heller 436). The narrator informs the reader through detail that Yossarian remembers the scene as if it was yesterday: Snowden was lying on his back on the floor with his legs stretched out…[with a wound] in the outside of [his] thigh, as large and deep as a football…It was impossible to tell where the shreds of his saturated overalls ended and the ragged flesh began…” and all Snowden could say was, “I’m cold” in a “frail, childlike voice” (Heller 436-437). According to Nibir Ghosh, with scenes such as this of Snowden’s death, the novel “demonstrates the impersonality and callous inhumanity of modern warfare” and allows the reality of war to be exposed in the midst of the novel’s humor and irony (52). The novel also intermingles with the absurdity and gruesomeness of war through satirical conversations where characters repeat each other to scenes such as the death of Snowden. Through this duality, Heller offers his comments on the war as if the mode of Catch-22 acts as a shadow over the exposure of war’s
air raids during World War II and a bureaucracy that is absurd and foolish to the main character, Yossarian. This context for the theme of war serves as a method of commentary for Heller, but nonetheless, he does not spare imagery of the war in the midst of the satire and humor. One such example of the gruesome effect of war is the death of Snowden in his self-titled chapter. The scene moves from satire about Hungry Joe dying with a cat on his face to the recollection of Snowden’s death in the side gunport (Heller 436). The narrator informs the reader through detail that Yossarian remembers the scene as if it was yesterday: Snowden was lying on his back on the floor with his legs stretched out…[with a wound] in the outside of [his] thigh, as large and deep as a football…It was impossible to tell where the shreds of his saturated overalls ended and the ragged flesh began…” and all Snowden could say was, “I’m cold” in a “frail, childlike voice” (Heller 436-437). According to Nibir Ghosh, with scenes such as this of Snowden’s death, the novel “demonstrates the impersonality and callous inhumanity of modern warfare” and allows the reality of war to be exposed in the midst of the novel’s humor and irony (52). The novel also intermingles with the absurdity and gruesomeness of war through satirical conversations where characters repeat each other to scenes such as the death of Snowden. Through this duality, Heller offers his comments on the war as if the mode of Catch-22 acts as a shadow over the exposure of war’s