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العنوان
A pragmatic reading of social satire in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 /
المؤلف
Al-Musawi, Rafka Hasan Kareem.
هيئة الاعداد
باحث / رفقة حسن كريم الموسوي
مشرف / حمدي محمد محمد شاهين
مشرف / إسلام أحمد حسن الصادي
مناقش / نازك محمد عبداللطيف
الموضوع
World War, 1939 - 1945 - Literature and the war. War stories, American - History and criticism.
تاريخ النشر
2016.
عدد الصفحات
158 p. ;
اللغة
الإنجليزية
الدرجة
ماجستير
التخصص
اللغة واللسانيات
تاريخ الإجازة
1/1/2016
مكان الإجازة
جامعة المنصورة - كلية الآداب - Department of English
الفهرس
Only 14 pages are availabe for public view

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Abstract

In conclusion, Catch-22 is a satire that has shown Heller’s dexterity as a satirist-novelist whose ability to mingle the comic and the tragic is remarkable indeed. The ability to reveal the themes discussed in the previous chapters in a non-linear and non-chronological order points to the author’s linguistic abilities and to his command of his tools as a novelist and a satirist. His criticism of the war and its aftermath is a direct satire against the illogical political, military, and institutional practices of the commanders on the Pianosa Island which is an epitome of a man-killing-man world, included an introduction, five chapters, a conclusion , a list of sources and references, and extension forms and images. This power of bringing the crazy weapons of war into that focus is combined with a linguistic command that has left many of the memorable quotes of which some have become proverbial and some idiomatic; Catch-22 is an excellent example that is a common idiom now for anything that is enigmatic with no possible solutions. Further fun is poked at the illogical reasons behind waging wars so much that those who participate in such wars are almost ignorant of the reasons why they play fighting roles and why they have to fly combat missions that would leave behind thousands of dead bodies; bodies that, in the majority of cases, belong to innocent people. It is such people whom Heller implicitly cares for and whom he tries to protect from the blind bombings of the stupid airplanes which target all: innocent and guilty.
Thus, the novel is a representative of the absurd trend that concentrates on the absurdity of the war context in which all are the enemy of all and in which bombs do not differentiate between friends and foes. This is largely due to the principles set by the Catch-22 that is based upon premises unintelligible even to those who have devised it. Colonel Cathcart himself seems not to understand a bit of it but all he cares about is his own individual interest at the expense of that of all other people. If it is a method of communication among people, it almost communicates nothing. Further absurdity is added to the situation as with death becoming a normal everyday scene where people do not care anymore for the loss of lives simply because this has been preceded by the loss of identity. The present thesis has explored all this by analyzing the function of language from a pragmatic outlook. Even when Heller plainly states some ideas there are often, if not always, implications behind his statements.