.Justin
Suissa
November 05,1996
In literature sometimes a character
can be helped or hindered by the economic, social, or political conditions of
the day. In the novel Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, the character Doc Daneeka
illustrates this idea perfectly because the conditions surrounding him greatly
hindered him. Catch 22 takes place during WWII on an island named Pianosa that
is close to Italy. Doc Daneeka is adversely affected by the war in the end
because when it began he was making a profit from it as other doctors had been
drafted, but then his day came too. Doc
Daneeka was also hindered by the war
because of what he had to endure throughout it. He hated his two medical
assistants and his bunkmate. Doc Daneeka had to fly frequently on airplanes
which he detested. Doc Daneeka's two assistants failed ever to find anything
wrong with him, which deeply perturbed him. The war also caused Doc Daneeka to
lose his wife after his "death." The war that was imposed on Doc
Daneeka ravaged his life and terminated all of his chances to become a normal,
practicing doctor.
Before the war arrives on Doc
Daneeka's doorstep, it appears to have benefitted him. Doc Daneeka was making a
nice sum of money from various illegal means. He received kickbacks from drug
stores in the area that ran an illegal operation. He also utilized beauty
parlors to perform two or three abortions a week to bring in more revenue. When
the war begins, Doc Daneeka's practice starts to pick up because of the lack of
other doctors. Originally, he thought of the war as a "godsend";
however what he did not realize was that, the war would catch up with him soon
enough. One day someone from the draft board came to check on Doctor Daneeka,
who was in perfect health, to make sure that his story about having an
amputated leg and being bedridden with arthritis was true. The doctor explains
to Yossarian, a major character in the novel, that he was outraged that the
government would not take a doctor's word, especially a doctor that was in good
standing with the Better Business Bureau. After they uncovered the doctor's
lie, they sent him to Pianosa to act as a flight surgeon.
The doctor hated flying on airplanes. In
his own words he said, "I don't have to go looking for trouble in an
airplane.". Doc Daneeka felt that trouble comes after him so there is no
reason to take any actions that might get him involved in more trouble. This
statement reflects one of Doc Daneeka's major characteristics, cowardice. It is
ironic that Doc Daneeka was drafted as a flight surgeon since he hated flying.
To alleviate this problem Doc Daneeka asks Yossarian to list his name on the flight
logs even if he doesn't actually go on the flights. Doc Daneeka never returns
the favor because he would not declare Yossarian insane so he doesn't have to
fly any more missions and he can go home. However, he knows that Yossarian
cannot ask to be declared insane because concern for your own safety is a trait
of a sane person. This "favor" that Yossarian does later causes the
doctor problems. When a plane crashes, the army lists him as being dead because
he was on the flight log. This shows how flying is just another way that the
war adversely affected the doctor.
One of the many horrible conditions the
doctor was subjected to during the war was his bunkmate and his two medical
assistants. Chief White Halfoat lived with Doc Daneeka, and the doctor hated
every second of it. He believed the Chief was a moron because he felt that if
he kept on digging he would hit oil. The doctor was also preoccupied, for no
apparent reason, with thoughts of what the Chief's liver would look like.
Besides the Chief and probably even worse than him were the doctor's two
assistants, Gus and Wes. They were worthless medical assistants who were
horrible diagnosticians. All the doctor ever wanted from them was to find
something, anything wrong with him that would make him eligible to be sent
home. They were complete idiots because they could never really assist the
doctor with anything important, and they interpreted all of his orders too
literally. The doctor was reported as killed in action because he was listed on
the flight log of a crashed plane. When he went to talk to his assistants to
see if there was anything wrong with him, they noted only a low temperature.
They then went on to inform him that since he was dead, he was rather lucky
that nothing else was wrong with him.
One tragic thing that resulted from
the circumstances that Doc Daneeka was subjected to was the fact that he lost
his wife due to the war. After the doctor is listed as being on the destroyed
plane, his wife received a letter from her husband, and at the same time she
received information that he was dead. Mrs.Daneeka, begins to grieve for her
husband, but she does not know what to make of this puzzle. When she writes
back to her husband, her letter is returned stamped that Doc Daneeka was killed
in action. Again, the doctor sends her a quickly scribbled letter. Again, she
receives official notice of his death. Mrs Daneeka decides to believe that her
husband is dead in part because she can only receive benefits and pension money
if he is dead.
If there was ever a character that was
adversely affected by the conditions of his time it was defiantly Doc Daneeka.
Throughout the novel the doctor lists
all of his grievances about his conditions with his catch phrase, "If you
think you've got problems . . . ". The doctor lost everything he had and
all of his potential because of the war, and he is left at the end of the novel
as a dead man that is really alive, which is just another example of Catch 22.
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