STUDY QUESTIONS/ESSAY TOPICS

1. How does Heller employ time as a structural as well as a thematic device in Catch-22?
   
   
2. What functions do the hospital in Pianosa and the officerÂ’s apartments in Rome serve in the novel?
   
   
3. Discuss the importance of HellerÂ’s novel as more than just an anti-war protest?
   
   
4. Describe how Heller mingles humor and terror, comedy and tragedy to produce dazzling yet realistic effects in his novel.
   
   
5. Examine, in some detail, the growth of Yossarian as a character who moves from escapism to hope, courage and a sense of responsibility?
   
   
   
6. What effect does the proliferation of Milo Minderbinder’s black- market operations have on the lives of the men in the squadron? What is Heller’s intention in depicting the Crazy undertaking of ‘M&M Enterprises’?
   
   
7. Examine how Heller satirizes both the military bureaucracy and capitalistic enterprise in Catch-22.
   
   
8. Discuss the role played by the chaplain in the novel. Can he be considered a success in his profession and as a person?
   
   
9. Explain how Heller presents different perspectives on life and death through some of the major characters he depicts in his novel.
   
   
10. Examine Yossarian as an anti-hero or victim-hero in the novel.
    
    
11. Discuss in detail the central dramatic issue in the novel- YossarianÂ’s search for a strategy for survival.
    
    
12. Explain the implications of the phrase Catch-22 and describe now it operates in the life of Yossarian.

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