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the story of Orr. His name itself makes him the symbol of some alternative and is also a pun on "oar" — the point being that Orr was not "up a creek without a paddle." |
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Orr and his "miracle" now replace Snowden and his death as the model for and influence on Yossarian's thinking. The miracle shows Yossarian what tremendous potential men have for "intelligence," "endurance,'' and "perseverance.'' The immediate consequence of this newfound hope, this faith in man, is that Yossarian now sees the concreteness of the dignity of man which Danby had mentioned. This frees Yossarian from sentimentality about ''people cashing in on every decent impulse and every human tragedy." Possessed by a belief in human possibility, Yossarian can forget about the men who obscure the ideas; "Let the bastards thrive . . . since I can't do a thing to stop them . . . I've got responsibilities of my own." |
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And this new belief is not the moral idealism of Danby's either. Yossarian knows well enough how easily human nature can mask "saving oneself" as the "sensible move." And so he says of his conscience, "God bless it . . . I wouldn't want to live without strong misgivings." And, as Yossarian jumps away from Nately's whore, from his own sense of guilt, he runs with hope and courage to his responsibilities. |
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This example rejuvenates the chaplain, too. But note that rejuvenation and hope do not dictate "going to Sweden." For the chaplain it means, "I'll stay here and persevere." In other words, we end with the idea that the chaplain expressed earlier, "you must do whatever you think is right." Now, however, the emphasis is on the "must do" rather than on "whatever you think," as it was earlier. And with this new emphasis, whether it means staying or leaving, Catch-22 is defeated. |
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The Novel and its Traditions |
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By one means or another a serious writer associates his work with certain literary traditions which have spoken eloquently to the issues and ideas which he tries to portray. This is certainly true of Catch-22, where explicit allusions and adoptions of particular genres make it clear that Heller has certain traditions and perspectives in mind. But these traditions are manifold and bear drawing out. |
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The first of these, or the most obvious, is the tradition of satire. (Satire is a step-son of tragedy, the difference between the two being that tragedy deals with a fall from moral dignity while satire deals with a departure from moral rules. The former is subjective; the latter, objective and "codifiable.") In this vein, the novel takes hypocrisy, bureaucracy, and the "sins of wealth" to task. But satire must always imply a standard which is upheld by the depiction of its being forsaken. And here the standard seems to be |
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