Satire

noun - satire
the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.

I chose this picture of Jewish men in chains and uniform because Heller uses satire to expose the issues of the war. I think this image does the word expose justice, in that the lack of human rights in Jewish camps needed to be exposed to get support to destroy the Nazi empire and create fairness and equality in Europe.

I chose the Iwojima image to signify partly change, and the 'rise' used in satire. Heller wrote the novel to create a movement and change the way the stupidity of war and its participants go about doing buisness. He was trying to get Americans to rise, and the image to left is the perfect fit for that word.

This image to me is a funny political cartoon, but I think it represents the ridicule that Heller was trying to create when he used his satire technique openly point out the issues with the war. This image perectly fits the word because Americans are ridiculing Hitler and beleifs.

This image speaks for itself, almost literally. Heller uses satire to try to change peoples outlook on war and to change the way things are done. This image is perfect because Heller isn't trying to make money and get his book taken off the shelf, but to change the way people think on a matter that will always be important.

Sacasm and satire are very similar, but I think of sarcasm as a type or form of satire. Another funny, and self explanitory image, but I think it fits the theme because of the simple use of sarcasm to get a point across... that is unless your speaking to a man like the one on the left. (America???)

This represents the irony of satire, irony is used constantly throughout the novel and Heller uses it hilariously. This image is an obvious example of irony however in the novel some of the irony presented is hard to follow or even catch onto.

( http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/satire ).

http://alexhughescartoons.co.uk/comics/2008-08-01-Graphic-Satire-Props-and-Metaphor-Warehouse.gif12

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Invisibles-Tete-a-Tete-poke-bonnet-satire-1810s.jpg12

http://blog.news-record.com/staff/outloud/Satire.jpg12

http://sanpi.net/images/satire.jpg12

http://www.chinasmack.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/cartoon-peng-yu-case-satire-560x857.png12

Catch-22

Can you ground him?
I sure can. But first he has to ask me to.
Then why doesn't he ask you to?
Because he's crazy,
He has to be crazy to keep flying combat missions after all those close calls he's had.
That's all. Let him ask me.
And then you can ground him?
No. Then I can't ground him.
You mean there's a catch?
...Catch-22,
That's some catch,
It's the best there is,
...at times Yossarian wasn't quite sure that he saw it at all,
Orr would be crazy to fly more missions missions and sane if he didn't,
If he flew them he was crazy...
...but if he didnt want to he was sane and had to.

Citations: (Heller Catch-22 54). (54). (54). (54). (54). (55). (55). (55). (55). (55). (55). (55). (55). (55). (55). (55).

Why the 27th air divisio is so damn crazy

In the novel Catch-22, war affects everyone in the story, some take it in stride and even enjoy it, and others blame all their problems on it and hate every second of it. Either way, everyone has something to blame on someone.
(Because Catch-22 is a fictional novel and all names and characters are fictional, I’m just going to kind of let the imagination take over, and instead of who is at fault for the war, I’ll say who’s at fault for everybody being crazy.)
It all starts with the Texan, yes the Texan. He may not be an intrical character in the book from a simple minded outsiders point of view, but for those of us who study literature and can see in-between the vast and vague lines of simplicity, he is the man behind the crazy, he is at fault for sending Hungary Joe and many others over the brink of sanity and making them as crazy as he was sane.
The Texan was admitted to the same hospital that Dunbar and Yossarian were staying in at the beginning of the novel, he unlike Dunbar and Yossarian, was truly wounded and intended to make a full recovery and dive right back into the horrors of war with no second thought. Now, Dunbar and Yossarian intended to stay in the hospital to avoid war and stay healthy, ironically, and stay out of the horrors of war rather than explore them deeper. That makes Dunbar and Yossarian sane, and the Texan more or less insane. This Texan had a large impact on Dunbar and Yossarian, for after he healed and left the hospital, they seem to have caught the crazies and followed him right back out into the cold hard real world, where at the time, was full of bullets whizzing by, and people dying all around.
Now, I’d like to think of the ‘crazies’ as a sort of disease that can be passed on to an unsuspecting person who is, at the time, perfectly sane. Therefore, with too much exposure, that once sane human can turn quickly and violently into a full blown, crazy MF. This is what happened to the 27th air division, too much exposure to the crazies made everyone who wasn’t already crazy, crazy. Still don’t believe me? Well take Appleby for example, he was a man who pointed out others craziness, and therefore could not be crazy himself, he didn’t like the war, and that made him completely sane. He was good at everything and it takes sanity to be good at everything you do, and was perhaps the sanest member of the 27th, but as soon as Yossarian got to him he began to doubt his own sanity. Yossarian told Appleby that he had flies in his eyes, this is obviously something that a crazy person only as crazy as Yossarian could think of, and a perfectly sane person would dismiss the accusation as easily as they would dismiss a crazy person accusing them of having flies in their eyes, but not Appleby, he had no knowledge of Yossarian being completely insane, therefore he could not dismiss his accusations because you cannot simply ignore someone who you believe to be sane even if they really aren’t. So Yossarian gave Appleby the crazies because Appleby somewhat believed something a crazy person told him.
So, as you can see, the crazies would eventually spread to the entire division except one man who didn’t mind the war at all, so he was crazy to begin with. Hungary Joe got the worst of the crazies because when he didn’t have missions to take care of he was yelling out in his sleep ravenously. Yes this may all seem mildly confusing and rather hard to follow and may even seem completely untrue and a waste of your time but I don’t think it and that’s what really counts. So the Texan is responsible for the craziness of the 27th air division.

Artifact from WWII

In WWII there are many things that played large roles in deciding the outcome of the war and the start to it as well. But one thing that was very important throughout the war were the fighter planes and bombardier planes used on each side. This also connects with my novel because all of the characters are apart of the 27th air division or are somehow related or involved with it.
The artifact I’m choosing is the TBD Devastator, the plane that was most dominant in bombing in the U.S and used by the main character of Catch-22. This artifact is important because it was one of the most dominant bombardier planes in the war and had the ability to snake away from danger while carrying large loads heavy bombs to the target location. This will likely be the eventual demise of my main character however.
This artifact is not upsetting or nor does it make me proud as an American, but it does provide many cool stories, knowing that many of the greatest pilots in the history of humanity have flown in this certain type of plane is very interesting and creates quite a story in the head if you have an imagination or do drugs. (just kidding)
The Bomber plane played such a huge impact in the war and my novel in fact, that I did some of my own research on it only to find that in every war since WWII bomber planes are designed to emulate the type of bomb dropping that the TBD did, and it killed more innocent German civilians than targeted soldiers even though it had, quite literally, deadly accuracy.

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity" - General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Hate is a word that is often over used, but never truly meant. Hate can be an emotion or an action, a statement or even a thought, but hatred comes around every once in a while, and when it does, it destroys and harms everything/everyone around it. Hate is an intense, incomparable dislike of something or someone. "Today we may say aloud before an awe-struck world: Hate as we may, we are still masters of our fate. We are still captain of our souls." - Winston Churchill

Many groups of people were discriminated against and suffered terribly throughout the war, most notably of course were the Jews. But another group that faced discrimination were the Japanese, and this seems to be forgotten in American history books. Everybody knows that the Jewish people suffered unimaginable hardships throughout the war, and easily suffered the most, but what people don't know, is that the Japanese were sent to American based interment camps where many of the same torments that the Jews went through, the Japanese also went through.

Even today the United States is full of discrimination and hatred, and many groups of people feel the pain of racism and discrimination. The groups that feel these burdens heavily are brown skinned people who under go racist acts every day, and get paid less than a white person in the same job, and gays/lesbians who feel the wrath of close minded America and religious believers daily.

Blog #0

Alex Pirouznia is reading the book, Catch-22. It's gon' be hella tight fee