Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 is a very deep, complex, and demanding novel, requiring the wide breadth of knowledge. One of the most fascinating aspects of the novel is Pynchon's choice -- or rather, invention -- of the names he gives the characters and organizations described in the novel. These names function as metaphors for the people and things they represent, thus enabling us to understand the hidden meaning of the novel. .
The protagonist of The Crying of Lot 49 is a woman named Oedipa Maas. Oedipa's first name, obviously, derives from Oedipus, the hero of Sophocles' famous play. According to the legend, Oedipus' parents found out that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Therefore, they arranged for the child's death. However, he was rescued and grew to adulthood in another kingdom. As an adult, Oedipus meets a strange man on the road and kills him, never knowing that he is actually his father. When he reaches the next kingdom, he learns that the king has mysteriously died, and Oedipus himself becomes king, marrying the former king's wife, who of course is his mother. When Oedipus finds out what he has done, he blinds himself and becomes a wandering beggar.
Sigmund Freud took the legend of Oedipus as a metaphor for the wish of every small boy to get his father out of the way so he could have his mother all to himself. Most men resolve this dilemma by the time they reach adulthood; some do not, and are therefore unable to cope with the stresses of adult life. Men do not want to recognize this tendency in themselves, but -- like Oedipus -- once they are aware of this, it intrudes itself on their consciousness at every move, until they begin to doubt their own sanity. This is very much the case with Oedipa as well. Once she begins to pick up on the difference appearances of the existence of Tristero, it seems to be everywhere, and its pervasiveness seems impossible.
"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 official channels of communication....
(Dubus 59) In "My name is Margaret" the girl respects her family and the name that they gave her. ... In both stories, these people learned a lot and grew from what they went through. ... The lady ended up crying and going crazy over the fact that Margaret dropped her dishware because it was given to her by her family. ...
Without names, she threw them'- (59?). How can a mother think a lot of children whose faces resemble those who rape and enslave her? ... However, Denver was not crying because Beloved disappeared, per se. Denver stated that, "she is crying because she has no self- (116). ...
Also as his incident takes place at the time of the Great Depression, with poverty all over the country and people crying and dying for money, it is close to impossible for George to make all the money needed alone even with the help of Candy to buy land. ... He goes deeper into it telling the details about the bit of land they wanted, the house on a few acres and the rabbits which they were going to have along with a lot of other animals, their own rooms and the stove with the milk on it, which has cream so thick that one could cut it with a knife (1A, Steinbeck, Page 16-17). ... George alway...
The two books had a lot in common only that Meursault chose to act in a certain way, while Gregor was forced into a certain predicament. ... At home, "Maman used to spend her following me with her eyes, not saying a thing.(5)" He was not crying at the funeral for his mother, " just sat there like that for quite a while.(11)" He didn't seem to care about her anymore. ... When he stays in an enclosed place like that, he has a lot of time to meditate over what he's done. ... Then I fire four times at the motionless body.(58-59)" It was his fate to spend his life in jail or to be execu...
Despite his crying and begging to be brought home, his custody was singed over to a group of strange men dressed in black robes. ... "(59) Brother Mathias taught him to be a better ball player. ... G AB H 2B 3B HR R RBI BA YEAR 1920 142 458 172 36 9 54 158 137 0.376 1921 152 540 204 44 16 59 177 171 0.378 1922 110 406 128 24 8 35 94 99 0.315 1923 152 522 205 45 13 41 151 131 0.393 1924 153 529 200 39 7 46 143 121 0.378 1925 98 359 104 12 2 25 61 66 0.29 1926 152 495 184 30 5 47 139 145 0.372 1927 151 540 192 29 8 60 158 164 0.356 1928 154 536 173 2! ...
Objective Journalism: Oxymoron Allegations of a liberal media bias have plagued journalists for years. Journalists have been crying "foul" for the last thirty years against those who would throw the bias flag. Through the development of more and more sophisticated mass communications, the ...
She was coughing and gasping for breath and crying that her eyes were on fire- (Raisa). ... Slum residents were often exploited by money lenders, protection racketeers, and illegal "landlords" who exercised control over the poverty by threat of violence" (Shrivastava 59). ...
she screamed" (Fox and Abraham-Podietz, 59). ... A lot of the children who were sent to the hostels were of the older age range. ... "When on the following Monday, she met with her English foster mother, they ran toward each other, 'laughing and crying at the same time' Her foster mother, 'Mummy Rainford', hugged her and said as they entered their new quarters at Bloomsburry House, 'You shall be loved" (Gallant, 206). ...
