Examples Of Existentialism In Catch 22

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War, What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing
In his novel Catch-22, Joseph Heller gives us a grim portrait of war and the terrible effects on the individuals who must play a role in that war. There are several themes that help Heller to accomplish this. One way he accomplishes this is through the use of characters who have a small or no appearances at all and are only alluded to by other characters. Just as Heller illustrates that a character does not need a large role to have an impact, so too does he illuminate that power is a substantial aspect of war. The text thus becomes a comment on Heller’s endeavors to bear witness by analyzing the actions of a wartime society and examining the themes of blind patriotism, abuse of power, existentialism, …show more content…

Through out the book existentialism goes hand in hand with loss of faith. Many of the soldiers not only lose the hope and joy as they enter. These men are also at a great risk of losing their faith. Because of the horror they see and the destruction and death they are forced to engage in, they question their belief in religion and good. “The sense that bearing witness to something of such unimaginable horror as the holocaust puts the act of witnessing itself under extreme pressure”(War). The horrors these men see can be so traumatic and it causes them to doubt everything: How can an all loving God allow this to happen? The Chaplain is the best example of how this loss of faith is portrayed in the novel. The Chaplain, a man of deep faith, is forced to question some of his beliefs. The suffering he sees all around him appears to be senseless. “Doubts of such kind gnawed at the chaplain 's lean, suffering frame insatiably. Was there a single true faith, or a life after death?”(268) The character in Catch-22 who most illustrates the theme of existentialism is the cynical Yossarian. He constantly questions the point of anything he does. Even an act that one might see virtue in, Yossarian questions: “I used to get a big kick out of saving people’s lives. Now I wonder what the hell’s the point, since they all have to die

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