Yossarian as an Anti-Hero in Joseph Heller's Catch-22

Abstract

Joseph Heller's Catch-22 features the status of the protagonist John Yossarian as an anti-hero because he lacks traditional heroic virtues and noble qualities and he is sometimes inept, cowardly, stupid or dishonest. Therefore, it is necessary to show contrast to Aristotelian typology of hero as set forth by Aristotle. Then the research leads to unravel the anti-heroic character traits of Yossarian. He is gifted by the essential anti-heroic qualities like immorality, self-centrism, anger, passivity dishonesty, irrationality, escapism etc. which make him to stand up as an anti-hero. So, the focus of this research is to label John Yossarian as an anti-hero there by providing a necessary expanse of clarification. Heller portrays Yossarian as an anti-hero to show his anti-war attitudes towards the Second World War. Yossarian is an American bombardier pilot who is stationed on the Island of Pianosa. He, instead of fighting for the country, desperately tries to avoid the combat mission on different pretensions. He stays in the hospital during the war by faking various illnesses. It is a trait of the protagonist to save the others but he is a self-centred man, who wants to save himself rather than the nation and others. He behaves with the people in quarrelsome manner. He never regrets what he does. He is a selfish man. He neglects simple nature of human being. In this way, he never plays the heroic act. Self centrism, anger, passivity, unfriendly and unregretful nature characterize his actions and attitude.