The Home Stretch -- Chapters 32-42

I am not entirely sure what makes a novel AP worthy.  At first thought, I can come up with a few requirements: some symbolism, character development, discussion of important issues.  The cynic in me added “long” and “old” to the list, then deleted the entire list and replaced it with “any book the teacher says is AP worthy is AP worthy.”  After a long, hard-fought battle, however, I have knocked my cynic out, and while he’s recovering in the hospital, I want to write about why though I am not sure exactly what makes a book AP worthy, Catch-22 certainly is.

Heller’s writing style is unlike any I have seen.  The way he can blend humor with sincere regret and mourning for the horrors and victims of war is incredible.  Though I can understand how some could find the constant wordplay, switches in perspective, and jumps in time annoying, I enjoyed every pun immensely.  World War II, though it ended 70 years ago, is still a major topic in society today, and it changed America greatly and the rest of the world even more.  The fact that Heller could write a book about World War II with a character named “Major Major Major Major” and that it could still have parts that are very meaningful alone makes this book, to me, AP worthy.

I wonder what kind of a man could come up with some of these characters: Chief White Halfoat, who dreams of dying of pneumonia; the aforementioned Major Major, who discovered that he could sign “Wahsington Irving” to official papers and it would cut down on his already light workload; Colonel Cathcart, who constantly makes charts comparing the amount of “black eyes” he has suffered to the number of “feathers in his cap;” but, most of all, Yossarian.

Yossarain and Colonel Cathcart are, I believe, embodiments of the establishment and disobedient citizens.  Colonel Cathcart’s only concern is his image, as he volunteers his men for every mission possible.  He gets most of his ideas from advisors, and constantly schemes to get into the Saturday Evening Post, as he once saw another colonel do.  He raises mission requirements constantly, without any regard for his troops or their morale.  However, he is afraid of Yossarian, and is even convinced by the end of the book that there are multiple Yossarians, “probably three, but possibly two,” under his command.  Yossarian commits treason on multiple occasions, poisoning the troops to avoid a mission and conspiring to kill Colonel Cathcart, before finally deserting.  These actions in real life would be immediately condemned by everyone, but Heller makes a convincing argument for how Yossarian is actually fighting his enemy—Colonel Cathcart.  Even in a war that nearly everyone believes was just, Yossarian’s point about how he knows that people have to die, but he doesn’t, does seem to carry weight.  Let those who are willing to die die, and let those who are unwilling live.  In the end, I think that this commentary on the justice of war itself is the biggest reason the Catch-22 is AP worthy.