Joseph Heller, Catch-22, And War

In his book Catch-22, Joseph Heller used his experiences to satirize many of the things Americans at the time valued, and he used a war Americans viewed as highly justified and extremely successful to do so.

He wrote the book at the end of the Eisenhower Era. Eisenhower, who had successfully mounted the D-Day attack that led to the liberation of Europe and the huge Allied victory that followed, was nearly revered by most Americans. He was seen as a great President and brilliant general. If Heller had chosen a more ambiguous war, for example World War I, his book might have been more accepted. Instead, critics called it "repetitious and monotonous" and an "emotional hodgepodge."

Heller used World War II as an allegory for not only the Cold War but the post-World War II materialism that had emerged in America. TV shows like "Leave it to Beaver" put the American Dream up in a visual way, with the successful father, beautiful house, and mother who vacuumed wearing high heels and stockings.

Today we have more realistic perceptions of both war and of materialistic life styles, seeing both as open to serious criticism. It seems likely that if Heller had written his book today, the critics would see the importance of challenging the status quo. When the book came out, however, that status quo was too new and too precious for people to welcome a writer who dismantled it piece by piece like the little boy who shouted "There's nothing there!"

The message of the book, that all wars, including World War II, were surrealistic abominations, threatened what Americans thought was best about them at the time, their willingness to wade into war and do what had to be done for the good of the world. In the aftermath, they felt they had earned the big house, the good job, the materialistic lifestyle. Early reviewers panned Catch-22 because it gored too many cherished oxen.