Compare and Contrast Catch 22 and All Quiet on the Western Front

Compare and Contrast Catch 22 and All Quiet on the Western Front

Joseph Heller and Enrich Remarque have employed different measures in a very attracting manner in their novels for their readers, in order to be able to communicate their messages to their readers. The focus of both the author is towards highlighting the effect of war on the individual and society and the theme of the corrupt nature of bureaucracy. By doing so, both the authors wanted their readers to be aware of the severe negative consequences that war can have on the society, as a whole, because of the very fact that the advancement in todays modern technologies meant that consequences of war in todays world can be even severe. This paper focuses on comparison of the writings that both the writers have presented, along with the techniques they have employed in their writings.

Catch 22, published in 1961 represented a fierce criticism of the war by telling the misadventures of a group of U.S. airmen belonging to a flock of bombers operating in Italy during the Second World War. The novel is considered the starting point, in the United States, the postmodern literature. The book has also named the so-called paradox of Catch-22. In 1970 the novel was made into a film directed by Mike Nichols, Catch-22 (Catch 22), produced by Filmways Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures, which, despite an outstanding cast has not been very successful. The novel is based on personal experiences of the same Heller, aviator in 'USAF during World War II is set in Italy, a context that Heller had the opportunity to meet during the conflict. At the center of the story is a department of aviators (based on the island of Pianosa) running dangerous bombing missions aboard B-25 Mitchell (the same type of airplane on which he flew Heller) (Heller, 1961). Obviously, the higher the number of sorties flew, the more likely are they to be injured or killed and the greater is the psychological stress undergone by the members of the department. The more stressed is undoubtedly Captain Yossarian, who is terrified that the number of missions that every airman must be carried out before the leave continue to increase. Fears of Yossarian are not entirely unfounded: the number of missions increased several times in the course of the novel, because of ambition and cynicism of the wing commander, Colonel Cathcart (Heller, 1961). Around Yossarian, who begins to do strange things in the hope of being diagnosed with crazy and therefore unfit for flight, other characters revolve more or less weird: Aarfy, Major Major, Dunbar, Milo Minderbinder, Pastor Shipman, and others. The interaction of these individuals is born an endless series of gags and surreal scenes and irresistibly comic, all based on the absurdity of war seen through the eyes of the troops, the cannon fodder. The story unfolds, however, in order not chronological: the chapters are arranged disorderly, and involve ...