Catch-22
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- Category: Cultural Literacy
- Published: Monday, 19 January 2015 14:58
- Written by Brian Jaeger
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Information about Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy describes the unsolvable puzzle also called a Catch-22 to be like not being to get a job because of lack of experience, but not able to get experience without getting a job.
Catch-22 is a satirical novel by the American author Joseph Heller. He began writing it in 1953; the novel was first published in 1961. It is set during World War II from 1942 to 1944. It is frequently cited as one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century.[2] It uses a distinctive non-chronological third-person omniscient narration, describing events from the points of view of different characters. The separate storylines are out of sequence so that the timeline develops along with the plot.
The novel follows Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier. Most of the events in the book occur while the fictional 256th Squadron is based on the island of Pianosa, in the Mediterranean Sea, west of Italy. The novel looks into the experiences of Yossarian and the other airmen in the camp. It focuses on their attempts to keep their sanity in order to fulfill their service requirements so that they may return home.
The phrase "Catch-22" has entered the English language, referring to a type of unsolvable logic puzzle.