Joseph HellerJoseph Heller (May 1, 1923 –December 12, 1999) was an American satirical novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His best known work is Catch-22, a novel about US servicemen during World WarⅡ. The title of this work entered the English lexicon to refer to absurd, no-win choices, particularly in situations in which the desired outcome of the choice is an impossibility, and regardless of choice, the same negative outcome is a certainty. Heller is widely regarded as one of the best post–World War II satirists. Although he is remembered primarily for Catch-22, his other works center on the lives of various members of the middle class and remain exemplars of modern satire.Heller’s Life and PlaceJoseph Heller was born in Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, the son of poor Jewish parents, Lena and Isaac Donald Heller, from Russia. Even as a child, he loved to write; as a teenager, he wrote a story about the Russian invasion of Finland and sent it to New York Daily News, which rejected it.After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1941, Heller spent the next year working as a blacksmith's apprentice, a messenger boy, and a filing clerk. In 1942, at age 19, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. Two years later he was sent to the Italian Front, where he flew 60 combat missions as a B-25 bombardier. His Unit was the 488th Bombardment Squadron, 340th Bomb Group, 12th Air Force. Heller later remembered the war as "fun in the beginning... You got the feeling that there was something glorious about it." On his return home he "felt like a hero... People think it quite remarkable that I was in combat in an airplane and I flew sixty missions even though I tell them that the missions were largely milk runs." ("Milk Runs" were combat missions, but mostly uneventful due to a lack of intense opposition from enemy anti-aircraft artillery or fighters.)After the war, Heller studied English at the University of SouthernCalifornia and NYU on the G.I. Bill. In 1949, he received his M.A. in English from Columbia University. Following his graduation, he spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar at St. Catherine’s College in Oxford University. After returning home, he taught composition at The Pennsylvania State University for two years. He also taught fiction and dramatic writing at Yale. He then briefly worked for Time, Inc., before taking a job as a copywriter at a small advertising agency, where he worked alongside future novelist Mary Higgins Clark. At home, Heller wrote. He was first published in 1948, when The Atlantic ran one of his short stories. That first story nearly won the "Atlantic First."He was married to Shirley Held from 1945–1981 and they had two children, Erica (born 1952) and Ted (born 1956). He died of a heart attack at his home in East Hampton, on Long Island, in December 1999, shortly after the completion of his finalnovel, Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man. On hearing of Heller's death, hisfriend Kurt Vonnegut said, "Oh, God, how terrible. This is a calamity for American literature."Joseph Heller is one of the most prominent American writers in the 20th-century. As soon as the publication of his masterpiece, Catch-22, Heller has caught attention from all over the world and his reputation as an outstanding American writer was immediately established. Catch-22 now is widely recognized as one of the most important novels written by an American writer since the World WarⅡ. With the fresh subject and unique style, Catch-22 is regarded as a masterpiece of black humor and the first novel in American postmodern literature.Heller’s Works and Writing StyleJoseph Heller began his writing career as a author of short stories but won immediate acclaim with Catch-22 (1961, film 1970). A protest novel underscored with black humor, Catch-22 satirizes the horrors of war and the power of modern society, especially bureaucratic institutions, to destroy the human spirit. Heller’s second novel, Something Happened (1974), an expose of the capacity of the business world to crush the individual, is a pessimistic statement about the effects of prosperity on the human condition. We Bombed in New Haven, a play produced on Broadway in 1967, is a tragicomedy similar in theme and mood to Catch-22. Good as Gold (1979) involves a humorous portrayal of Jewish family life and a satire of national politics, including attacks on real people such as Henry Kissinger. God Knows (1984) is a humorous retelling and analysis of the biblical account of King David. Among his later works are the novels Poetics (1987) and Picture This (1988) Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man (2000). No Laughing Matter (1986) is a chronicle of Heller’s recovery from Guillain-Barre syndrome, which contains alternating chapters by Heller and his good friend Speed Vogel. The book reveals the assistance and companionship Heller received during this period from a number of his prominent friends—Mel Brooks, Mario Puzo, Dustin Hoffman and George Mandel among them.Heller’s works are characterized by a satirical sense of the absurd, speaking out against the military-industrial complex and those organized institutions which seem to manipulate people’s lives in the name of reason or morality.In Catch-22, the author discarded the traditional realism, made whole works without a complete plot development clue. There was not a prominent character image. Instead, it is full of chaos, noisy, crazy atmosphere. But the authors also stressed a ―serious absurd‖, describing the whole American society from its internal dirty, corruption, and fall, especially those bureaucrats. Joseph Heller’s second novel, Something Wrong, written in 1974, described a company staff’s mental anguish. It reflects thepsychological state of American middle class. Something Wrong focused on writing external forces causing the person’s oppression and corrosion. Catch-22 mainly told the character s’ inner spiritual life. The author in this novel made use of jokes to show that there was really something wrong with the society. He also satirized the reality and politics through absurd and deforming description.The Background of Catch-22After World WarⅡ,America experienced a period of unprecedented economic boom. In 1950s, America became the big brother of the capitalism world. The Cold War broke out between America and Soviet Union. With the stronger of Soviet Union, many American began be afraid of communism. They thought that the lives of American would be in danger. The republican from Wisconsin Joseph R McCarthy speak out the fear of the American. McCarthyism made the young be resentful and limited the development of literature. Besides, exhausting all resources to build up American military power aroused the anti-war sentiment. Under such political circumstances, Catch-22 came out to express the author’s feeling to a chaotic America.At the beginning of 20th-century, the famous new humanism critic More found that there was a kind of ―the power of blackness‖ in American literature. O .Henry made use of ―tearful humor‖ to tell the miserable life of ordinary people. Mark Twain used a kind of humor, which described bleeding with pleasure and made jokes on corpse. This kind of humor was very close to black humor literature created by Mark Twain has significant effects on the following writers. With the time passing, the humor literature was developed by leaps and bounds. Some scholars pointed out that ridicule was one of the characters in 20th-century literature. In 1960s, black humor became prevalent. It was a new period of humor after Mark Twain. Just at that time, Joseph Heller began to write his Catch-22. And after it was published, he became the representative writer of this period.There are social factors for Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. Although the World WarⅡended in 1945, it was difficult for people to get rid of the fear and unpeaceful feelings caused by war. The crime of Nazi and the using of atom all left a very deep impression on people. Because of the using of atom, people doubted whether technology benefit human or not. In 1950s, the success of superatomatic experiments and artificial satellite all made people feel pollution made people unpeaceful. In 1960s, population explosion and deteriorated environment pollution made people feel ideological confusion. Democracy, individual pursuit religious belief all did not exist. Traditional moral beliefs and value system lost their effects. The people in modern society lost connect with history and were tapped in lone and alienation.。
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