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1、IntroductionCatch-22 is the first important novel of Joseph Heller. It was published in 1961 in America. It has always been an important part of modern literature since its occurrence. It seems never out of date even after so many years. Contrarily, it attracted the attention of all over the world b

2、ecause of its thoughts, writing style and the value of the world.In China more and more scholars are writing books and essay to explain the different aspects of this novel. After detailed research, it was found that at least 120 academic essays talk about Catch-22. In these papers, 48 of them are ma

3、inly talking about its writer and theme and 66 of them mention the writing skills. The rest mainly study its absurdity and other features.This paper simply examines the relationship between black humor and the novel, analyzes its main characters, theme, structure and language to show its adoption of

4、 black humor so that the readers may understand it better with the help of this thesis.Chapter One General Explanation of Black Humor and Paradox1.1 Black HumorBlack humor is originated from the Anthology of Black Humor which is a 1939 French anthology of 45 writers edited by Andre Breton. (Harris 1

5、5 In America, black humor is very popular as a literature style between 1950s and 1960s. Black humor was usually shown in literature, opera and movie. It is a kind of strange occurrence. The aim of the black humor is to depict the absurdity, paradox and the cruelty of the modern world. Common situat

6、ions are usually exaggerated a lot so as to overstep the range of ordinary satire or limit of irony. The situation of using of black humor is always connected with tragedy or equated with tragic condition. There are a lot of themes in dramas, like nightmare, disease, crime, racism, insanity, domesti

7、c, violence, terminal illness, drug abuse, murder, suicide, war, barbarism, disability. After that, some comedians and jokers would like to use it to explore the vulgar problems as a kind of tool to make people think it seriously and entertain them.The writer of this article holds an opinion that th

8、ere must be an origin to support and develop black humor. When we look back the history of America, its very easy to find out two important conditions or reasons of producing the black humor. Firstly, the bad influence and social disturbance of the Second World War made people feel the sense of worl

9、ds ending. In 1960s, the Second World War was just over, but its influences remained for many years. All facts in America have exposed past lies of so-called justice and patriotism, and resulted in shaking peoples belief in God, humanitarianism and reason. Secondly, the unbalanced development of tec

10、hnology and fortune increased the loss of personality and humanity. More and more people were nervous about the materiality and spirit. In this situation, black humor was born and became a very important method to express peoples inner feelings. 1.2 ParadoxIn Catch-22, there is an interesting and st

11、range matter that must be mentioned and explainedin this paper. Only lunatics can be permitted to avoid flying tasks, but an application must be submitted. Once you submit the application, it can prove you are healthy in mind. On the other hand, it stipulates that, if you finish the mission for 25 t

12、imes, you can return to home. But it also tells us you must follow the order, and you are not allowed to return to home if you disobey the order. This is a paradox that influences the book all the time. The paradox is a kind of statement that we can get a conclusion or result based on some condition

13、s, but the conclusion and result can be proved false from another direction. (Wikipedia Mar10th There are three kinds of structure of it. The first one is, it looks wrong but its true. The second one is, is looks true, but its wrong. The last one is, some ratiocination can be proved right, but it ca

14、used antilogy in logic. For example, “the sentence that I am speaking is wrong.” As the most remarkable feature in this book, this paradox makes the whole book become a work of black humor. It influences the whole passage and it plays a very important role in the whole book.Chapter Two Brief Introdu

15、ction to Joseph Heller2.1 Hellers LifeJoseph Heller (1923-1999 was born in New York, Coney Island of Brooklyn on May 1st, in 1923. His parents are poor Jewish from Russia. And he died of heart diseases when he was 76 at his home in east Hampton, on Long Island, in 1999.He loves to write very much ev

16、en when he was just a kid. When he became a teenager, he wrote an article about the Russian invasion of Finland. And he sent it to New York Daily News, but they rejected it. His first publishment was in 1948, that Atlantic adopted his short stories. His first story almost won the Atlantic First. In

17、1961, he began to write the Catch-22 and published it. Soon later Heller thought of an idea for his next novel, and this would be the Something Happened. After that novel Heller became a professional writer and continued to write until he finished his last novel, named Portrait of an Artist as an Ol

18、d Man. Literature is based on the reality and developed from it. There is no doubt that his life experience influenced his writing career. He was born in a Jewish family. His family totally moved to America in 1913 because of the racial persecution in Russia. His family was very poor when he was a y

19、oung child. And he joined the U.S. Army Air Crops when he was 19 years old. And then, he was sent to the front line in Italian fighting as a bombardier. The main character in the Catch22 Yossarian is similar to him very much in many ways and conditions. After the Word War II, he went to the Universi

20、ty of Southern California and New York University to have a study of English. During that time, he started to write some small stories. He suffered from a kind of disease. His illness and the process of recovering were mentioned in his autobiographical No Laughing Matter (1986 with a long paragraph.

21、 In 1998, he came out a memoir, Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here. In that book, he told readers the stories about himself as the son of a deliveryman and with some detailed information about his conceiving of the novel Catch-22.2.2 Hellers Works and Writing StyleJoseph Heller started his care

22、er as a professional author of small stories. And he immediately became famous and popular with his Catch-22 (1961; film, 1970. As a novel, it strengthened black humor. Catch-22 criticized the horrors of war and the government of the modern society, especially the bureaucratic system that was destro

23、ying the spirit of people. Hellers second novel, Something Happened (1974, describes the phenomenon that business world damage the personal thought and soul. It is a tragic article about the influences of flourish on the humanity situation. “We Bombed in New Haven”, a play produced on Broadway in 19

24、67, is a tragicomedy similar in thoughts and writing style to Catch-22. Good as Gold (1979 gave us a humorous image of Jewish family life and satire of the national politics, including attacks on real people such as Henry Kissinger. God Knows (1984 is a very humorous retelling and analysis of the bi

25、blical account of King David. After those, his later works are the novels Poetics (1987, Picture This (1988, Closing Time (1994, Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man (2000. No Laughing Matter (1986 is a chronicle of Heller's recovery from Guillain-Barre syndrome, which contains alternating chapt

26、ers by Heller and his good friend Speed Vogel. The book mentioned the help and company Heller got during this period from a number of his outstanding friendsMel Brooks, Mario Puzo, Dustin Hoffman and George Mandel among them”.The character of Hellers works is an ironic sense of the ridiculous, and s

27、peaking out against the military-industrial complex and those organized institutions that controlled the lives of people with a fake and sham face in the name of reason and humanity. The writer of this passage just regards Hellers Catch-22 and Something Wrong as examples.In Catch-22, Heller did not

28、use the traditional way of realism. And there is not a completed plot development clue and any prominent character image. Instead, it was in an atmosphere of disorder, noisy and crazy. But the authors also pointed out a “serious absurd”, describing the society of the USA from its disadvantage in sid

29、e, corruption, and fall, especially those bureaucrats. Something Wrong, the second novel of Heller, written in 1974, described a company staffs mental anguish. It clearly shows the psychological situation of American middle class. It paid attention to write external forces causing the persons oppres

30、sion and corrosion. But Catch-22 mainly talked about the inner world of character. The author used his unique way to tell us the society was in trouble. He also satirized the real life and the state of politics by ridiculous and changeable words.2.3 Hellers Catch-222.3.1 The Background of Catch-22Af

31、ter the Second World War, America has experienced an outstanding period of rapid economic development. In 1950s, America became the leader of the western world. And then, the cold war has begun between America and Soviet Union. With the development of Soviet Union, more and more people began to be s

32、cared of communism. They thought America was being threatened by the Soviet Union. The republican from Wisconsin Joseph R McCarthy spread out the fear of the Soviet Union. McCarthyism made the young angry and disgusted with it. This behavior limited the development of American literature. Besides, u

33、sing up all fuel to build up American supper power stimulated the thoughts of against the policy of war. Under such political situation, Catch-22 was born to express the writers ideas to a confused American people.There are also some social reasons for Catch-22. Though the World War Two was over in

34、1945, it is very difficult to forget the fear and unsafe situation caused by the war. Nightmare is always there for people. And the crime of Nazi and the use of atomic bomb gave people a very deep impression on how fragile people lives were. Because of the technology of atomic bomb, people always ha

35、d doubts about the view that science can make human live better. And then, the experiment of super weapon and artificial satellite in 1950s and the world pollution made people feel confused about former thoughts.The desire for democracy and the demand of individuals are disappearing. In the modern s

36、ociety, traditional moral belief is losing its work. Without these, people will feel more and more lonely and scary.2.3.2 Gist of the NovelCatch-22 is a famous, meaningful novel of Joseph Heller. It was regarded as one of the greatest works of 20th century. It has a special way to describe every eve

37、nt from each ones view. It also interrupts the order of time. There is not any complete plot in this novel of Heller. 42 chapters are included and each of them tells us a different ones story. The novel is always kept up with Yossarian-a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier and other characters. And

38、 the pilots of the fictional 256th squadron are based on the island of Pianosa, in the Mediterranean Sea west of Italy. During the WW2, the main character Yossarian lived in a strange situation and different world. Everyone was put in the center of the war. He devoted himself for justice as a bombar

39、dier of an U.S. Army Air Forces. He was promoted to captain, because of his outstanding achievement. But he has seen many fake hypocritical, absurd, crazy and cruel phenomena. He became cynical and antipathetic to war. He just wanted to go home instead of promotion and making achievement and avoided

40、 to be killed like his friends. Therefore he made many strategies to avoid the battle mission. But his commanding officer can always use catch-22 to let him continue his mission. Constantly, Yossarian begun to realize that catch-22 did not actually exist, because the leaders and authority admitted i

41、t, and the all of the people from the whole world believes it does. Finally, he chose to escape to Sweden.The writer of this paper thinks that it is from different points of view, though many events in the books are repeatedly described. They can tell us different things. In this situation, readers

42、will understand more things about every event from each ones sight with the new ideas and get a joke. The orders of the events in the novel are not mentioned, but if readers are familiar with those events, they can finally organize a time table of those events.Chapter Three Black Humor in Catch-223.

43、1 The Characters in this NovelThe author of the book directly describes the real situation of American bureaucracy society after the WW2 by giving us images of those people one by one of all kind. As the representative of the literature about black humor, the book includes exaggerate way of speaking

44、 and many different kinds of people around the catch-22. As a typical anti-heroic character of black humor, Yossarian had a lot of characteristics of a hero, for example, he was so clever and he understood the world very well. So, he was not like Hency who had too much fancy. In the training of the

45、Air Force, Clevinger had an opinion that Scheisskoph really need advices when he asked for help, while Yossarian knew that was fake. And Yossarian was praised and respected by others. The plan of Dobb to assassinate Colonel Cathcart would be failed without his support. Otherwise, the capitalists Mil

46、o liked and believed Yossarian very much, for instance, “he always asked Yossarian for advices to run his business”.But most of his behaviors seemed immoral and timid. For instance, when his friend was killed he was afraid and he pretended to be ill. Every time, he was sent to the hospital. He had t

47、ried many methods to prove himself maniac, so he would have right to quit any flying mission.But in other ways, he can be thought to have a moral life. He refused to become a hero, when he knew it was a deal designed by the bureaucrat Colonel Cathcart to cover his illegal behaviors. And he would not

48、 have abnormal relationship with women that he did not love. In a word, Yossarian can be regarded as a hero in some ways. He disagreed with the corruption among soldiers. Even today, few people can do that. Yossarians refusal to accept catch-22 did not prove his cowardice, but revealed the truth of

49、being a hero. In a word, Yossarian is a typical symbol of common people in the society, whose fates are controlled by others. The different point is that Yossarian cant stand his fate under the control of others. Every character in this novel is very typical. They can represent the thoughts and atti

50、tude of the society. The canteen Minder Milo is a smart businessman. He symbolized the international business power. He was busy in small game of economic in the process of buying the food for the army. He even had an international company in this way. He transported goods by aircraft and even hired

51、 the enemys planes to transport. What was funnier is he bombed his own air base when the enemy gave him a little money. For cost reduction, he made the solider have chocolates with advertisement in it.” Though he did not care about the lives of soldiers, he became a famous, international and popular

52、 person. He even became a star in many European cities and the vice governor of Malta. Colonel Cathcart and Scheisskoph can be regarded as the bureaucratic group. Colonel Cathcart is always increasing the amount of mission. And he was cold and ambitious commander. Just because wanted to be promoted

53、to general and appreciated by the senior officer. He ignores the lives of soldiers and increases the number of mission. At last he wanted to make a deal with Yossarian to cover the truth of his crime. The second lieutenant Scheisskoph graduated from the reserve force. He was very happy for the war b

54、ecause that made him have the chance to wear the army uniform everyday and give the word of command with dignified and clear voice to those soldiers who are going to die. Because of his poor sight and fistula, he was not required to risk his life to participate in the war. In this novel, he likes ch

55、ecking troops. He was committed to training the soldiers with their own personalities into monotonous robot. He loved to do that in order to be promoted and praised by his senior officers. He was praised as “military genius” and promoted to be a general. It is obvious that the authority wanted to de

56、stroy humans thoughts, humanity and sprit. Under this condition, they can control the power and the world for ever. “The soldier in white” was the most tragic role in this article. He was covered by medical treatment. His legs and arms are injured seriously. Sewn into the bandages over the insides o

57、f both elbows was zippered lip through which he was fed clear fluid from a jar. A silent zinc pipe rose from the cement on his groin and was coupled to a slim rubber hose that carried waste from his kidneys and dripped efficiently into a clear, stopped jar on the floor. When the jar on the floor was

58、 full, the jar feeding his elbow was empty and the two switched so that the staff could drip back to him. (Heller 88All others ever really saw of “the soldier in white” was a frayed black hole over his mouth. Only one person talked to him, he is Texan. “The soldier in white” represents those people

59、whose soul and heart have been destroyed by persons who control them. The other pitiable man was Doc.Daneeka. He was always afraid of being sent to pacific. Because he was still regarded as dead in a plane accident though tell others he was alive. He became a dead -alive person. Even his families for the sake of money thought that he was killed in the accident without any evidence.”There are also a lot of other special roles. For instance, “the boring Texan” who is the unique person speaking