Catch 22
and Paradox
By Neeraj Sharma,
Don L. F. Nilsen,
and Alleen Pace Nilsen
A BOOK- A CLASSIC

One of the most
influential books in
modern literature

Huge impact on
popular culture and
literary circles
A BOOK- A CLASSIC

It introduced the
post-war world to
the concept of
‘Black Humor’
 This book also gives
us the first true
‘anti-hero’
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOSEPH HELLER
(1923-1999)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn,
New York, as the son of poor Jewish
parents.
 After graduating high school in 1941,
Heller joined the Twelfth Air Force
where he flew 60 combat missions as a
B-25 bombardier.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In the early 1950s he started working on
Catch-22.
 The novel went largely unnoticed until
1962, when its English publication
received critical praise.

THE CATCH



CATCH-22 is a paradoxical term. The expression is
so intriguing that the book’s title is now in dictionaries
as the name for any tricky problem, especially one for
which the only solution is denied by a circumstance
inherent in the problem.
In Heller’s book, the character Yossarian would be
excused from flying bombing missions if he were
declared insane. However, the fact that he is trying
to get out of flying bombing missions proves his
sanity; he therefore has to keep flying.
The catch is used by the superior powers to uphold
and increase their power. It creates situations where,
when you think everything is perfect, CATCH-22
pops up and makes your plans impossible.
THE CATCH

Another paradox in the novel CATCH22 is that the pilots can go home as
soon as they have flown a certain
number of missions, but the number of
missions keeps being increased.

This actually happened to Joseph Heller
when he was a pilot in World War II.
OTHER PARADOXES

People who can’t get a job until they have experience and
who can’t get experience until they have a job are in a
Catch-22.

So are authors who can’t get their manuscripts published
until they have an agent but can’t get an agent until they
have been published.

A newspaper story under the headline “Texas in Catch22” told about a Texas state law forbidding the execution
of anyone insane. A prisoner on death row refused to take
the medication that would keep him sane.

This is the kind of irony illustrated by many urban legends
and contemporary novels, films, and plays.
THE TERMINATOR EFFECT

The “grandfather paradox” in science fiction is
a variation on the plot technique in which a
time-traveler goes back and murders his own
grandfather before the time-traveler’s parent
was born.

This is a brain teaser because if the
grandfather were prematurely killed then the
grandchild couldn’t have been born and
wouldn’t have been able to go back and
commit the murder.
M.C. ESCHER
M.C. ESCHER
M.C. ESCHER
THE SETTING
World War II. Americans in Italy wait every day for the
next mission. Some people are just crazy about it;
others detest the entire business. And for those who
detest it, there are only two ways of getting rid of it:
1) you get killed, or
2) you get grounded.
So, the system works in a way that makes the incharge-of-grounding-people people ground every
man who's physically damaged or mentally crazy.
Therefore, in order to be grounded, all you have to do
is to be, or pretend to be, crazy. There is only one
catch. Catch-22.
THE CHARACTERS
Yossarian
 Colonel Cathcart
 Orr
 Dunbar
 Nately
 Chaplain Tappman
 Milo Minderbinder
 Major Major
 Snowden
