Gender Consciousness Studies On Heller’s Catch-22

Joseph Heller is one of the most important writers of American literature in late20th century, and also the representative writers of the Black Humor. Catch-22is notonly the most successful works of Heller, but also one of the most popular novels inthe United States after World War II. Heller’s novel highlights the "black humor"approach, and reveals some common problems in Western societies with cruelty andabsurdity of the war. Such literary mean that people feel anxiety in the absurd andchaotic world, recognize the true is one of the great achievements of the20th centuryworld literature. This paper mainly does a study on the gender consciousness and theideological and cultural essence reflected in Catch-22.Through research, we can betterunderstand the Western cultural ideology under the guise of Heller’s complex genderawareness and highlight the unique connotation of cultural criticism; Furthercontemplation and interpretation the complex and contradictory values of Westernculture,in order to establish a more objective and rational understanding of modernWestern society.The whole thesis is divided into five parts.The introduction part is mainly to introduce the general situation of Heller andCatch-22, in order to set a clear path to the personal research. It discusses the research statuson Catch-22done by academic circles at home and abroad in recent years and theintention of the author writing this paper.The first chapter discusses the origin of gender awareness of Heller. It mainlyintroduces two concepts of sex and gender from the perspective of sociology andpsychology, discusses the core terms of gender awareness combined with relationsbetween image of women and gender awareness. It also analyzes the changes of social gender from male dominated to female arousal with the development of society. Then,combing the writing background of Catch-22, mining useful information fromcomplex socio-economic backgrounds and traditional gender cultural background,and reveals the hidden gender awareness of author in the text inevitability.The second chapter explains the writing of gender under the construction ofpower. Through the analysis of the construction of the male protagonist in politicalpower, money and violence, to reveal the nature of the patriarchal society in the shapeof male-centered in the novel. Meanwhile, analysis of women in power, money andstatus from the property, interpreting the social positioning of women and the lack offemale discourse right from the edge angle, and exposing the social reality thatwomen become political machines, money dolls and sex tools.The third chapter explores the nature of the absurd world in gender metaphors.Combined with the dominant background of "catch-22" in field of ideology,interpreting the living environment for the characters from the starting point of naturalenvironment, exploring the relationship between the natural environment and the lackof maternal culture, and the differences of living conditions between male and femaleunder Ideological doctrine imprisonment, for revealing women’s tragic fate under"catch-22"and patriarchal. Meanwhile, Heller has inherited traditional thinking ofliterature on the essence of "people" to seek, thus, I will analyze the differences in thespirit of the resistance between man and female with existentialist theory, especiallythe subjective reactions to absurd world, to explore the sex metaphor of characters onthe freedom to choose.The conclusion part summarizes the whole thesis, and reiterates the viewpointsagain.