A Paradox! A Paradox!

In Catch-22, Joseph Heller conveys his anti-war beliefs by creating scenarios that are paradoxical and absurd. He demonstrates the insanity of those involved in war primarily through the character of Yossarian. The reader is first introduced to him when he is in the hospital (pretending to be ill in order to avoid flying more missions) and censoring letters written by soldiers. Since the number of missions he has to fly is increased every time he is close to completing a tour of duty, he begins to search for loopholes the in military system. In this search, he comes upon “catch-22” which states that a pilot can be grounded if he is insane. However, he has to ask to be grounded and asking to be grounded proves sanity because a desire to avoid harm demonstrates sound mental health.
In the novel, more highly ranked officials are portrayed as either particularly insane or particularly sadistic. Thus far, my personal favorite of these mad higher-ups is Major Major Major Major. This fellow is so cowardly that he cannot even handle being in the presence of any of his fellow soldiers. He instructs his assistant, Sergeant Towser, to only allow people to see him once he has fled the building (another “catch-22” per se). I believe that Heller is using these people and scenarios to demonstrate how the lives of thousands of young men should not be put into the hands of inefficient governments and corrupt, sadistic officials.
The variety of “catch-22”scenarios builds toward a general theme of war itself as a “catch-22”. In order to achieve peace, the opposing sides have to kill each other until they are weary from killing each other. Minor incidents of silliness such as signing false names on documents, en masse feigning diarrhea, absurd names, absurd practices, and tampering with intelligence reports all guide the reader to the realization that the entire war itself is a massive farce. (316)

The Unknown Citizen - W.H. Auden

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be

One against whom there was no official complaint,

And all the reports on his conduct agree

That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a

saint,

For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.

Except for the War till the day he retired

He worked in a factory and never got fired,

But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.

Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,

For his Union reports that he paid his dues,

(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)

And our Social Psychology workers found

That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.

The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day

And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.

Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,

And his Health-card shows he was once in a hospital but left it cured.

Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare

He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan

And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,

A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.

Our researchers into Public Opinion are content

That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;

When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.

He was married and added five children to the population,

Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his

generation.

And our teachers report that he never interfered with their

education.

Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:

Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

Unknown Possibilities?

W.H. Auden’s poem The Unknown Citizen was written as an epitaph on the monument of a citizen who was identified as “JS/07 M 378”. The poem is satirically glorifying the “typical citizen” from the perspective of government organizations. Throughout his life, Auden held radically left political views. The Unknown Citizen is perhaps a reflection of his politics and beliefs that a government should do more to ensure the happiness and well being of its citizens instead of functioning as an impersonal, purely rational entity. The piece also alludes to possibilities about the true quality of life about the unknown citizen.

The poem states that there was no “official” complaint against this man. The word “official” implies that he was never arrested or in any sort of legal trouble. Auden purposely uses the word for those connotations to show that the government that is glorifying this man has no idea if his friends or family had any troubles with him or cares for him. In his work in the factory whereby he “satisfied” his employers, he was unexceptional and likely mediocre. He did nothing to distinguish himself because he did not kowtow to his employers (he was not a scab) and he was not excessively loyal to his union though he paid his dues (he was not odd in his views). The mention of his career shows a glorification of mediocrity. Since he is not unemployed or destitute, he is not using government services or any of the public coffers to make ends meet. His lower to middle class status also signifies that he did not have enough money or power to have any profound affect on the world around him. Therefore, his existence was “neutral”. He did not make the world any better or any worse.

His “popularity with his mates” really says very little about his social status. We do not know how many friends he had, if he had healthy, fulfilling relationships with them, or if they were morally reprehensible people. Since he liked to drink, he could have been an alcoholic drowning his sorrows in substance abuse. His buying a paper every day, having normal reactions to advertisements, and holding the proper political opinions shows that he was easily manipulated by the press (in this case, likely a tool of government) and did not form his own interpretations of the world around him in spite of being informed of current events. He was the perfect citizen of a powerful government because he did not try to resist the status quo in any way that we know of.

The final two lines sarcastically reveal how material possessions (“everything necessary to the modern man”) and being a good citizen do not ensure individual happiness. In terms of his freedom, it is unclear whether or not the unknown citizen is living a life that he chose for himself. We do not know if he had any desire to ascend beyond mediocrity and achieve greatness. Circumstances, poverty, or an oppressive government could have prevented him from living in a manner that he found most suitable.

The government that he was living under only wanted to ensure that he maintained a healthy degree of patriotism and did not cause any trouble. The unknown citizen never did anything to distinguish himself from the masses and the speaker of the poem implies that such behavior made him the ideal citizen. The speaker implies that the unknown citizen had no hopes and dreams beyond being an average member of the populace. If he had any other plans for his future, the poem implies that carrying them out would not have been possible because he was suffocatingly bound to the values of society. Had he been living in a society where discovering individual happiness was valued, he could have created a life for himself that would have been better than average. (645)