Catch-2

By its very nature Catch-22 is an utterly confusing novel. Joseph Heller goes to extraordinary lengths to ensure that his reader is always in a state of confusion. One of the main ways he achieves this is through plot structure. The book is broken up into chapters and for the first half of the book each chapter is a different character. Heller relates many different events from the perspective of the different characters, sometimes the same event through different characters eyes. The element of confusion comes in with the order these stories are presented in. For example, Heller will show both Yossarian and Dunbar's point of view on events in the war but more than ten chapters apart. This makes it difficult to decipher the text many times and adds to the uncertainty that one always feels when reading Catch-22.The meat of the stories in themselves also add to the confusion and all of the elements added together create a story that one simply cannot get through without accepting the fact that it is impossible to follow every detail and one must accept confusion and double-thinks in order to press on with the plot. Heller uses confusion to force the reader to realize all of the confusion and ___ that goes along with war. Yossarian's character is revealed in bits and peaces throughout the book. In the beginning he seems crazy but once Heller divulges more information, though never in the order that these events occurred, the saner Yossarian becomes. Quotes like "He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt, and his only mission each time he went up was to come down alive again." become perfectly sane representations of a man fighting for survival not a crazy man fighting the conventions of the army. (Heller, 38)  One of the themes of the book is the confusion of war and the assumptions that are generally assumed and that encompass two completely contradictory beliefs. This theme of confusion carries over into every element of the story and the plot structure is one of the more prominent ones.