Literature Analysis #1 - Catch-22

1. The story is about a World War II bombardier, Yossarian, stationed on an island and in a squadron hospital. He claims to be sick, but they can't find anything wrong with him. He decides to stay in the hospital, avoiding the madness going on with the war, where he befriends and makes enemies with other "insane" people.

2. The theme of the novel is that everybody's crazy. You're crazy for thinking you're crazy, you're crazy for thinking you're not crazy. In the book, Doc Daneeka explains to Yossarian that a Catch-22 is a concern for one's own safety in the face of danger is the sign of a rational mind. If a man was crazy he could be grounded and not go to war, all he had to do was ask. But by asking, the man would be showing he is, indeed sane. He'd then be forced to fly out to more missions, even if he knows he's insane.

3. Joseph Heller doesn't have a morning routine because he's dead. But based on the tone of the book, I think his morning routines went a little like this:
He'd wake up pretty early in the morning, go to a little coffee table with sunshine shining on it and have breakfast. He'd have a nice hot cup of caffeinated coffee, fried eggs with bacon, maybe a whole grain muffin, and maybe a small bowl of fruit (despite him describing the men's food as fresh meat, chilled fruit juice and chocolate milk). Because Yossarian likes playing with words and is clever with them, I think the author does crossword puzzles in the morning and then goes to visit old friends from time to time. He's generally a happy, sarcastic, humorous guy. He constantly makes his friends laugh, even when his tone isn't cheerful. In the novel, Heller continuously makes conversations between the characters that seem very repetitive and make the characters annoyed, but the readers laugh.