What the hell was Heller doing? It's a simple but daunting question. In the 1961 novel Catch 22, Joseph Heller mocked not only the United States military, but the entire human race. He often pointed out how there was a lot of disorientation in the army and that nine times out of ten no one knew what was going on. Heller being the old veteran probably had some experiences without knowing what was going on. He flew 60 missions himself and was a bombardier like the main character in the novel centered on Captain John Yossarian. Yossarian is the protagonist of the novel and focuses solely on himself. Heller uses a lot of satire to tell his story and explain the confusion in the military. He uses a lot of comedic allusions to give people's names a different meaning, for example, Lieutenant Scheisskopf actually means shithead, and Lieutenant Colonel Korn's name doesn't necessarily have a meaning like Scheisskopf's, but its name still has built-in symbolism. . Heller has a twisted sense of humor and the way he told his story made you laugh and often made you think of people who reminded you of the characters. He not only uses comedic allusions to tell his story, but often uses dark humor in instances you wouldn't find funny. Some of the dark humor Heller uses may be offensive to some, but others may view it as comic relief. Throughout the novel, Yossarian tries to get "grounded" so he can return home, but there is always a trap, trap 22. Trap 22 is a no-win situation, every time Yossarian tried to being pinned to the ground, the doctor always talked about it. catch. He appeared several times throughout the storyline and seemed to follow Yossarian wherever he went. We could see...... middle of paper ...... another example of black humor in his novel is at the very beginning when Yossarian is in the hospital and he censors all the letters and at at one point he gets so bored of censoring them that he starts writing Washington Irving on the letters and when he gets tired of them he starts writing Irving Washington. This is just another example of the monotony of the military while you just sit in the hospital and censor letters to make sure no information gets leaked. So what the hell was Joseph Heller doing? Well, he showed all the problems in the army in the 1940s. He made a point of highlighting all the disorientation that reigned in the army. He also uses a lot of satire because obviously that makes everything better. So in Heller everyone was ready to make fun of both the US military and the human race..