『캐치-22』의 희비극적 반복구조와 요새리언의 탈영의 의미

Abstract

In his novel Catch-22 Joseph Heller experiments with tonal development through elaboration of the repetitive patterns and narrative divisions. As the author points out about a recurring and cyclical structure in the novel, this essay first tries to define repetitive patterns in Catch-22, which are a series of identical scenes such as Snowden's death and the soldier in white; repetitive patterns also include parallels in situation and motif such as various definitions of "Catch-22" and the officers' leaves in Rome in chapters entitled "Luciana"(16), "Nately's Whore"(33), and "The Eternal City"(39). As for the cyclical structure, the novel is divided into three parts: chapters 1-16, chapters 17-33, chapters 34-42. Each division starts with chapters 1, 17, 34, in each of which an episode of the soldier in white reappears. The first chapters of the three divisions represent the tones and moods of each division: the comic, serio-comic, and tragic. Heller employs that literary strategy for his novel, for he wanted people to laugh and then look back with horror at what they were laughing at. What readers see is the outcome of the military bureaucracy that enables the villain Milo Mindbinder's M & M enterprise and his secret ring to consolidate their power and interests, as the military regulation "Catch-22" justifies whatever they want to do because it has no real text or content. The only way Yossarian can break the illogical chain of Catch-22 is to cease to serve the system that perpetuates itself by the non-existent Catch-22 that requires his men to keep flying until their death. Seen in this light, the protagonist Yossarian's desertion bespeaks his determination to say "no" to the absurd institution; it is his insistence on a moral principle that he has chosen to hold, instead of his physical safety and the honor of being a live war hero. His rowing a small raft with a little oar to go to Sweden is a courageous act to take his new responsibilities for his fellow men's death and his live fellow men who decide to stay and in the Pianosa air base, debunking the bureaucratic system.