... environment. This lack in empathy and inhabiting of multiple subject positions allow Oedipa to begin the final and  most important process of exerting agency: paranoia. Because of Oedipa's master subject position--an un-empathetic, controlling, and deceiving person-- she can allow herself to become paranoid, and ask all the lingering questions she has--thus exerting agency. "In the crying of lot 49, the heroine collects hints and traces that reveal ... to her, step by step, an alternative W.A.S.T.E., an unofficial counterculture-unpublicized, private, separate, and silent- outside the ...

• Word Count: 737
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate