Catch 22 Blog Post 3

As I read Catch 22 I realized how society creates expectations that go against the most natural human instincts. This fake expectations justify many actions and behaviors that are truly cruel and absurd.

            The war is the best example of this idea. Society and governments have created ideals that hold people who are brave and willing to die as the true heroes. Yossarian demonstrates that this idea is completely unnatural, he refuses to die in the hands of strangers for a cause that he doesn’t care about. His rebelliousness and lack of discipline for the army portrays him as a coward. What is especially absurd is that society has created expectations that praise dying and killing other human beings for reason so absurd as nations and religion. Yossarian is the strange heroe, because by being a coward he is the heroe and the rebel, by being a coward he is also the bravest man in the squadron. He is so brave that he decides to be a coward when everyone around him wants him to be courageous.

He is immersed in a hostile setting that reveals the true nature of humanity, in this setting is were the irony and absurdity of the expectations created by society is most evident. To justify war and all its acts expectations are created that manage to uphold war as a morally correct thing.