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Catch-22 Part 3: Paradoxes 3283 Views


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Transcript

00:01

We speak student!

00:04

Catch-22

00:06

a la Shmoop

00:07

So let's get into the book and let's talk about specifically

00:10

the characters in the book.

00:13

They all have positions or attributes or characteristics

00:15

that should benefit them,

00:16

but instead, these are the exact characteristics that

00:20

crush them or at least make them struggle.

00:22

Can you give us a few examples?

00:25

How and why do these good things turn so sour

00:28

for the poor cast of the novel?

00:29

One of the first examples comes right at the beginning of the novel.

00:31

There's this character, he's a Texan man from Texas,

00:34

and he's described as good-natured and lovable.

00:39

And then Heller says, "In three days, no one could stand him."

00:43

So that kind of sets the tone

00:44

of the nicest, best person here

00:48

is just gonna get treated like crap and no one likes him.

00:51

So that sets the tone for us.

00:53

But then we get more essential characters

00:56

having the same issue where

00:57

something that should be good for them --

00:59

For example, Major Major

01:01

is a Major and he keeps getting promoted.

01:04

And he really doesn't want to be promoted.

01:07

He doesn't want power,

01:08

but he keeps getting promoted.

01:09

So this power ends up being

01:11

bad for him.

01:12

Sometimes he's promoted because people wanna get rid of him,

01:14

sometimes it's like hilarious errors made by machines.

01:18

[ mechanical voice ] You've been promoted.

01:19

But his status as Major Major Major Major in the end,

01:23

really isolates him,

01:25

and all he wants to do is be one of the men

01:27

in the Air Force.

01:28

But his status really isolates him.

01:30

And the purpose of all this is

01:32

that we see, again,

01:35

coming back to the title, the catch-22, we see

01:38

the paradoxical nature and the

01:41

just complete lack of logic, the total nonsense of war.

01:45

What should be good is bad,

01:47

what should be bad is good.

01:49

What should be sane is insane,

01:50

what should be insane is sane.

01:51

And this is a thread that just runs throughout the entire book.

01:55

And this is one way of looking at it.

01:57

Got it. Okay. Makes sense.

01:58

[ ding ]

02:00

How does Heller use paradoxes in Catch-22

02:03

to provide a political point?

02:07

[ vocalization ]

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