Final answer:
In Joseph Heller's Catch-22, the problems of institutions in the military and politics are exaggerated, similar to other contemporary works that critique bureaucracy and societal control.
Step-by-step explanation:
The novel Catch-22, written in 1961 by Joseph Heller, exaggerates the problems of institutions in the military and politics. Heller satirizes the absurdities of bureaucracy, the irrationality of war, and the powerlessness of individuals against unwieldy institutions. The narrative's critique is akin to the skepticism and critical view of institutions depicted in other mid-twentieth-century works, such as George Orwell's 1984, which critiques a society under totalitarian governmental control, or Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, which portrays a struggle for identity and recognition in a society rife with racial inequality. Moreover, references to the stifling effects of bureaucratic expansion discussed in works like Dodd and Oppenheimer's Congress Reconsidered align with Heller's depiction of an overpowering military bureaucracy in Catch-22.