The implication of the title: Realizing that all kids like him are in danger of losing their innocence, he wishes to be a “catcher in the rye”. While many children are playing some game in a big field of rye near a cliff, he would try to catch everyone if they start to go over the cliff, that is, to save children from losing their integrity and goodness.
In the decade of the sixties, sth more radical occurred which pushed the American novel into a new phase, phase of absurd. Then black humor or black comedy is commonly used by the novelists of the absurd. Writers believe that the world is crazy and absurd, and there is no outlet for human beings, only dilemma. So their response to the blackness of modern life is laughter, laughing in face of a tragic situation.
Black Humor: a kind of drama or a non-dramatic work in which disturbing subject like death, disease, or warfare are treated with bitter amusement, usually in a manner designed to offend and shock.
Joseph Heller (海勒)
Catcher-22(第22条军规)
It marked the beginning of a new period, that of the absurd.
It protested against the absurdity of modern America as embodied by the military power structure it describes. It takes place in a United States Air Force base in wartime Italy. As a rule, any pilot who has finished 25 missions can be demobilized and return home. But being eager to be promoted, Colonel Cathcart and Korn increase it from 25 to 30, to 35, 40, eventually to 80. Pilot Yossarian refuses to fly more and protests against it. If he stays, he will make trouble for the Colonel, as the others will follow him. So they decide to send him back to America as a hero, but there is a deal: After Yossarian returns home, he should like two of them, and say nice things about them.
Catch-22 is a rule: All the bomber pilots are afraid of flying bombing missions and wished to be grounded and escape death. One of them, Orr, is crazy and can be grounded. All he has to do is to ask to be grounded. But as soon as he starts asking, he is no longer considered crazy and must fly more bombing missions. This is the simple logic of Catch-22. (more: If he agrees to fly, he must be crazy. If he refuses, he will not be considered crazy, and must fly again.) （这里面只有一个圈套，这就是第22条军规。这条军规规定，面临真正的，迫在眉睫的危险时，对自身安全表示关注，乃是头脑理性活动的结果。奥尔疯了，可以允许他停止飞行。只要他提出请求就行。可是他以提出请求，他就不再是个疯子，就得再去执行飞行任务。倘若他再去执行飞行任务那他准是疯了，如果他不肯再去，那他就没有疯。可是既然他没有疯，他就得去执行飞行任务。倘若他去执行飞行任务，他准是疯了，不必再去飞行，可是如果他不想再去，那么他就没有疯，他就非去不可。
Beat Generation: a phrase used to describe a group of American writers led by the poet Allen Ginsberg and the novelist Jack Kerouac emerged in the 1950s. It represents a non-confirmist, rebellious attitude toward conventional values concerning sex, religion and the American way of life, an attitude which results from the feeling of depression and exhaustion and the need to escape into an unconventional-communal-mode way of life.
