Brutality/Violence

Violence and brutality are disturbing to humans because it is difficult to imagine how harming one’s fellow man could be a good choice for anyone. To comprehend such choices, society tends to dehumanize those who commit extreme violence against others. Killers are " cold-blooded" villains. In Catch-22, however, Joseph Heller does not rationalize the violence of war by showing soldiers to be savages. Instead, he shows that violence and death occur as part of daily life, and he does not infuse his characters with an excess of bloodlust. This makes the violence in the novel more strange because it cannot easily be dismissed or condemned. The men committing the violence are normal people who were civilians before the war started, not murderers. The choices to be violent were made initially by others.

There is not much graphic violence in this war novel. The death of Kid Sampson is perhaps the most gruesome incidence of violence in the novel; he is cut in half by the propellers of a plane while other men relax on the beach and watch. Heller never breaks stride to inject his description with extra pathos or pause. Though the death is an unthinkable image for many readers, Heller does not give it more weight than other events. Heller's consistency of tone makes this event more disturbing. It is not an act borne of cruelty or hatred but simply a mistake, a practical joke gone wrong. After the accident, McWatt crashes his plane, seemingly on purpose. This is a mysterious event, because his thoughts are not explained. It seems most likely that his conscience is unbearable, and he takes his own life out of guilt. This makes the scene still more uncomfortable because not even the man who killed Kid Sampson feels that there is a good explanation or rationalization for the death. The senselessness of violence in the novel, time and again, is what is most jarring about it.

The most shocking act of actual human brutality in the novel comes when Aarfy rapes and murders Michaela. The candor with which he commits these crimes is what shocks the reader the most. In some ways this could be considered inhuman, but his almost naï ve demeanor while causing the death of another is similar to McWatt's accidental manslaughter, too. Both men kill someone because they do not see their actions as having catastrophic effects. They both see their actions as innocent expressions of abandon and fun. What sets Aarfy apart, however, is that after McWatt kills Kid Sampson, the reader is led to believe he feels empathy and remorse, almost immediately killing himself, too. Aarfy feels neither of these things.

The world the men live in has little hatred or rancor, but terrible things happen. This is a tragedy in itself. When characters like Aarfy do not even care when horrible things occur, however, this is a greater tragedy. The level of desensitization that Aarfy has reached is too much for Yossarian to bear. Not only is their world brutal and violent, but Aarfy has grown accustomed to it. Or has he always lacked empathy and simply feels more at home in this more chaotic world? His affable manner and calm demeanor are chillingly antithetical to his inner feelings. There is, perhaps, something about war that brings out the violent tendencies of people and can desensitize them to violence and death.