The Objectification Of Women In Joseph Heller's Catch-22

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Reading literature that stigmatizes and misrepresents women is the best way someone can spend their time! Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 tells the story of Captain John Yossarian fighting in a male-dominated social structure during World War II. The regiment surviving (or not so much) the horrors of the war leads to their personalities being vulgar, which progresses throughout the book. This is expressed through their behavior towards women. While the book's theme is satirizing war and focusing on the absurdity of it, the below-par treatment of women is unironic—for example, Yossarian’s and Dunbar’s sexual assault of Nurse Druckett (Chapter 27). Yossarian describes her as a "tall, spare, mature, straight-backed woman with a prominent, well-rounded …show more content…

They are simply objects for the military men’s entertainment and pleasure. Furthermore, Heller's use of prostitution and the whorehouse as a microcosm illustrate this inequality. Milo, an entrepreneur in the war who only focuses on his self-interest, implies women are mere commodities. He states when Yossarian and him are arguing over sleeping with an eight-year-old, “The one I picked out for you was married for a short time to an elderly school teacher who slept with her only on Sundays, so she’s really almost as good as new.” (234). The Whorehouse's operations and usage are particularly sexist and widespread, which illustrates the dehumanizing effects of war. Further objectification occurs with the prostitutes in the brothel. To clarify, Dori Duz is not a key character in the book, as she is a character created and portrayed by Mrs. Scheisskopf, but her time sleeping with the men is referenced plenty. She is described as “a lively little tart of copper-green and gold who loved doing it best in toolsheds, phone booths, field houses, and bus kiosks.”(70). She is a prostitute who is only seen through a transactional perspective by the soldiers who ‘buy’ her. Dori, also known as Lieutenant Scheisskopf’s wife, is passed around from man to man, and Lieutenant Scheisskopf knows nothing of these affairs(70). The women are inferior in Heller’s eyes, therefore their main role in

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