Catch 22 Linearity
Catch 22 - LinearityWhat life can be lead in linearity?
Time: defined as a precise instant, minute, hour, day, year, or as every moment there has ever been or ever will be. Time is linear, one minute right after the other, not in any other order but as it falls. A journey is something that happens over a certain amount of time, with generally quite a distance traveled. Yet, in Heller’s novel, Catch-22, we see a man’s journey jump through time, into the past, into other’s experiences, and it all ties to his own victorious completion. Several characters in Yossarian’s life help him to be a hero. The message that Snowden conveys to Yossarian is one that inspires his transformation; one that will start him out on his journey throughout a non-linear world.
Yossarian first exclaims his vision when he is having a conversation with his friend Clevinger who swears Yossarian is crazy. “‘They are trying to kill me,’ Yossarian told him… ‘No one’s trying to kill you,’ Clevinger cried. ‘Then why are they all shooting at me?’”(11) Clevinger has rationalized the war which makes it possible for him to go out when called to fight and kill, but Yossarian has clarity, he knows that the enemy is trying to kill him. True, the enemy is trying to kill everyone else; the fact that it is his life makes it more personal.
This first step of Yossarian’s initiates the beginning of his journey. Now he is able to see what has happened and what is going to happen and evaluate it with a full understanding. This clarity helps him to escape the great enigmatic shadow that dwells over him. Remembering what has happened and seeing it in a clear light is Yossarian’s greatest tool to solve his riddle.
Along with vision, Yossarian also recognizes that he has a persona, a mask. During Snowden’s burial, he is up in a chestnut tree naked, striped of his shell. Now because he is rid of the society built mask, he is able to recognize the tree as both the “Tree of Life,” and as the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Much like the story in Genesis, the naked man is soon visited by a serpent carrying the “fruit.” The serpent is in the shape of Milo Minderbinder, one of Yossarian’s friends, and the “fruit” is a chocolate covered cotton ball. His knowledge tells him that the fruit will make him sick, and when he asks Milo if he got sick when he ate the fruit, his intuition is confirmed.
Yossarian recognizes the “fruit” for what it really is. He sees that it is like war; covered in sweet delicious glorified goop, yet when it is devoured it is disgusting and deadly. It is a protective rationalization, an argument to protect...
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