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1、On Black Humor in Catch-22Class: 2010级英语本科3班Name: Student No.: Date: June 7, 2013AbstractThis paper focuses on the study of black humor in Catch-22, which is one of the typical representative books of black humor. At first, it introduces the author of Catch-22, Joseph Heller and this novel. And then
2、, it proceeds to make a general explanation of black humor. In the following sections, this paper mainly analyzes black humor in catch-22 through four aspects, including the portrayal of main characters, the arrangement of the structure, the themes of the novel and the features of language. All in a
3、ll, catch -22 is one of the most important works of black humor and this paper would be helpful for the readers to have a better understanding of the novel catch-22.Key words: black humor, Catch-22, paradoxical, absurd1. IntroductionJoseph Heller (1923-1999) is an American novelists, playwright and
4、short story writer. As one of the most prominent American contemporary novelists, his best-known novel, Catch-22, is recognized as a major work of the postwar period and remains his most famous and acclaimed work. Because his marvelous use of black humor and satire in his literary creation, Heller b
5、ecomes one of the representatives of black humor- an indispensable literary trend which thrived in the United States in 1960s. He was born in Brooklyn in 1923. In 1942, Heller enlisted in the Army Air Corps. In 1944, his cadet training completed and he was dispatched to Corsica, cohere he served as
6、a wing bombardier on sixty combat missions until he got honorably discharged. Hence, his military experiences are simultaneously reflected in Catch-22. After the withdrawal from the World War , he enjoyed a long career as a writer and a teacher. Heller wrote Catch-22 while working at a New York City
7、 marketing firm producing ad copy. Apart from Catch-22, his best-selling books include Something Happened, Good as Gold, Picture This, God knows and Closing Time.Hellers works are characterized by a satirical sense of the absurd, speaking out against the military-industrial complex and those organiz
8、ed institutions which seem to manipulate peoples lives in the name of reason or morality. But most significant is Hellers masterful employment of black humor. He is realistic about his skills: “I can be funnyfor one-half page at a timeI can be humorous in several wayswith irony, with dialogue, with
9、farcical situations, and occasionally with a lucky epigram or an aphorism.Catch-22, as Joseph Hellers masterpiece, tells the story of Captain Joseph Yossarian and his attempt to avoid serving in World Warby feigning insanity. However, Yossarian is thwarted by the doctors argument that if he were tru
10、ly mad then he would endanger his life and seek to fight more missions. On the other hand, if he were sane, then he would be capable of following orders to fight more missions. Catch-22, Hellers typical work of black humor, is an anti-war fiction setting in WW.But its real theme is to expose the deh
11、umanization of all contemporary institutions, the absurd and corrupted bureaucracy and the alienation of individuals existing in a systemized chaotic condition, such as war.2. Generation explanation of black humorBlack humor, which comes from a name of a book written by Bruce Jay Friedman, is an imp
12、ortant literary term of America in 1960s, and it refers primarily to a kind of bitter and often outrageous satire. Black humor can be defined as a combination of humor with resentment, gloom, anger and despair. It is a type of modern humor caused by anger. It combines absurdity with humor often desc
13、ribing horrible or sad events in language normally associated with pleasant or light-hearted occasions. Writers intend to provoke readers response to the blackness of modern life as laughter, or, laughing in face of a tragedy. They generally do not laugh at their characters; in fact, they take them
14、seriously. “But if they do laugh at some of them at times, it is because they feel amused at their attempt to try to create order in their disordered and absurd world.” What occurs often is a sense of grief and pain coming through the laughter, a feeling of frustration and being bottled up. Therefor
15、e, black humor can be considered as the death humor out of despair and laughter out of tears.Theoretically, black humor was chiefly influenced by French philosopher and Sartres existentialism and Freudian theory of psychology. Writers deny the possibility of positive individual action by choosing a
16、more pessimistic method in order to reflect the objectivity of life, the loss of faith and the deviation of humanity. Different from traditional literature creation, which trusts that goodness always triumphs over evilness, black humor uses a humorous tone with desperation to reveal the misery of re
17、ality. In such novels, ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire. The powerlessness of being manipulated by unjust fate makes characters laugh at themselves. Feeling “humor” from “blackness” and challenging “blackness” with “humor”, these are th
18、e essence of black humor, and how those writers treat their world of fear, neurosis and absurdity. In contemporary literary criticism, black humor is a term applies to a large group of American novels beginning in the 1950s. Although the writers of black humor did not intentionally form a school of
19、literary movement, in their novels, there is a common core which is directed against hypocrisy, racial prejudice, war, terrorism, and the dehumanization of individuals by the modern society. In conclusion, the research of black humor literature not only takes great effects on understanding Catch-22,
20、 but also has importance on literature studies and social critics.3. Analysis of black humor in Catch-223.1 The portrayal of main charactersBeing the representative of the literature of black humor, the work contains tremendous styles of utterances and behaviors of various persons which circle the p
21、rinciple of “catch-22”. Yossarian, a typical anti-heroic character of black humor, is the protagonist in Catch-22. Critics say that Yossarian is an anti-hero because he does not risk his life to save others. In a world where life is casually lost, it is more practical to redefine heroism as simple s
22、elf-protection. The proposal of self-protection brings about an intense conflict for Yossarian. Even though he is determined to survive the barbaric war at all costs, he nonetheless cares for his battle companions and is traumatized by their deaths. His constant dread at Snowdens death stems both fr
23、om his compassion for Snowden and from his frightened realization his own body will collapse at the first blow. In the end, when he was offered a choice between his own security and the security of the entire squadron, Yossarian is unable to choose himself over others. This concern about others comp
24、licates the simple logic of self-preservation, and forms its own Catch-22 that is invisible in whole story: life is devalued with a moral concern for others lives, but a moral concern for others lives endangers ones own life. Heller creates a trap of morality for Yossarian, it seems that Yossarian h
25、as no other choice but struck in desperation. Nevertheless, he ultimately escapes this conundrum by literally walking away from the wara determination that refuses both the opportunity of becoming an officer who avoid perils at the expense of his army and that of remaining a normal soldier who endan
26、gers himself for absurd reasons.Another character is indispensable to mention about is Milo Minderbinder, who is one of the most complex figures in the novel, and the syndicate he managers is one of its most elusive symbols. “He is a symbol of a system that lies at the bottom of all the absurdity: t
27、he capitalist free enterprise, portrayed as immoral and a menace to human survival.” In one way, he tempts the innocent with chocolate-covered cotton and promise of a fast wealth; in the other way, he is personification of death who should fail to offer the urgent medication when Snowden is dying. M
28、ilos hypocritical and mercenary nature is totally unveiled. Milo is a crusader against the arbitrary regulations of the military bureaucracy in one sense, while he certainly represents an individuals triumph in the face of a dehumanizing organization, even he also lacks morals and consideration for
29、others. For gaining his wealth and power, he has become like the authoritarian forces he used to defy, sacrificing real value for personal achievements.What is more, there are a lot of other distinctive characters, for instance, the “soldier in white” who was encases from head to toe in plaster and
30、gauze and the dubious Texan who is the only one talking with the “soldier in white”. Major Majormajor, whose tragedy in life is that he resembles a movie star, Henry Fonda and only allows people to visit him when he is absent there. Orr, who talks with crab apples and chestnuts in his mouth, is beat
31、en up by a whore in Rome to pretend that he is already insane. And the chaplain fakes an ailment and checks into the hospital after he was accused of unspecified crimes.3.2 The arrangement of the structure The novel was narrated in third person but most of events are reflected through Yossarians poi
32、nt of view, the whole story reads like a nightmare reminiscing about the past. The notion of time is affected by the absurdity governing characters lives. The story is told with jumbled chronology involving recollection, allusions to future, and statements whose meanings become clear only as the nov
33、el progresses. The narrative skips from scene to scene with occasional mentions of “before” and “after” but with no central “now” to give these events meaning. However, a number of clues are offered to enable readers to put events in a special order: the expansion of Milos syndicate, the ranks of ce
34、rtain officers, and the number of missions soldiers are forced to fly, etc.On the absurd, chaotic stage of war, Hellers ultimate purpose is not to describe a bloody war, but to display the ugly dislocation of American society. The characters in Catch-22 have no absolute death or live existence. Time
35、 is absent; life loses its timely order. Everything was wrapped up in chaos and readers are thrown back to the beginning of the events. Hellers formlessness is an attractive technical innovation that is observed by Harris and many other critics, “Heller writes in a way that deliberately confounds th
36、e notion of coherent time and seeks to thwart any attempt to impose a chronological order on the events of the novel.” Free out of regular chronological order, the mastery of entire organization from a higher viewpoint achieves the uniqueness of Catch-22.3.3 The themes of the novelThe main theme of
37、Catch-22 is the absolute power of bureaucracy, which is one of the most terrifying aspects of Catch-22. The lives and deaths of the men in Yossarians squadron are governed not by their own decisions concerning dangerous risks but by the decisions of an impersonal, frightening bureaucracy. And the bu
38、reaucrats are absolutely deaf to any attempts that the men make to reason with them logically; they defy logic at every turn. Doc Daneeka, for example, wont ground Yossarian for insanity because Yossarians desire to be grounded reveals that he must be sane, and the Major, will see people in his offi
39、ce only when he is not there. In these and other instances, Yossarian and his companions learn that what they do and say has very little effect on what happens to them. All they can do is learn to navigate their way through the bureaucracy, using its illogical rules to their own advantage whenever p
40、ossible.And also, there are other themes reflected in Catch-22, such as the loss of religious faith, the importance of language, the inevitability of death, and some themes in words, like confusion, greed, and guilt. For example, from the themes of confusion and greed, as well as the mens experience
41、s with the idea of catch-22, it is quite plain to see that men with power will keep power and those without power will suffer the consequences. As a familiar quote says, Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Yossarian learns the hard way that men with power have a tendency to abuse their authority.3.4
42、 The features of languageHeller abandons traditional writing method. He adopts a new way to write Catch-22. He makes the words, phrases, and even the whole sentence in disorder resulting in peoples realizing the crazy and morbidity of the whole society. This is the feature of black humor. There are
43、plenty of repeating, dubious and paradoxical words, phrases, and dialogues. E.g. Doe Daneeka was Yossarians friend and would do just about nothing in his power to help him. “My only fault”, he observed with practiced good humor watching for the effect of his words, “is that I have no faults?” (Chapt
44、er 29)Generally speaking, the traditional novelists try to make their novels clear. Dubious is not allowed; while Heller just uses such sentences to let the people know the absurdity and irrationality of the world. We feel difficult to understand the logic order of this sentence, let alone the meani
45、ng. These sentences are to explain but make us more and more confused. E.g. McWatt wore fleecy bedroom slippers with his red pajamas and slept between freshly pressed colored bed sheets like the one Milo had retrieved half of for him from the grinning thief with the sweet tooth in exchange for none
46、of the pitted dates Milo had borrowed from Yossarian. (Chapter7)4. ConclusionCatch-22, as Joseph Hellers masterpiece, is one of typical representatives of black humor. This paper mainly has a general introduction of the novel and the author, Joseph Heller, and also explains the black humor briefly.
47、Besides, the paper proceeds to discuss the black humor reflected in Catch-22 through four aspects: the portrayal of main characters, the arrangement of the structure, the themes of the novel and the features of language. In a word, catch -22 is one of the most important works of black humor and this
48、 paper is just a brief analysis on Catch-22 and black humor, which would help us understand the novel better, but more and deeper researches are also necessary to be done.BibliographyHeller, Joseph. Catch-22 M. New York: Dell Pubkishing Co., Inc, 1961.Dickstein, Morris. Ed. “Black Humor and History:
49、 The Early Sixties”. Gates of Eden: American Culture in the Sixties M. Boston: Harvard University Press, 1997.Kiley, Frederick, and Walter McDonald. Ed. “An Impolite Interview with Joseph Heller”. A Catch-22 Casebook M. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, Inc, 1973.Nagel, James. Ed. Critical Essays on Joseph Heller C. Bostoon: G. K. Hall, 1984.陈永国. 20世纪文学泰斗海勒M. 四川:四川人民出版社, 2001.杨乐芳. 黑色幽默的精彩演绎-论第二十二条军规的艺术特色 J. 齐齐哈尔：齐齐哈尔师范高等专科学校学报，2009,（4）常文革，张芮. 黑色幽默的典范
