She has other ties to Oedipus as well. Like him, she originally belonged to the society of which she claims to be a part -- in Oedipus' case, Thebes; in Oedipa's, twentieth-century America. But her discovery makes her an alien, and she comes to doubt her own sanity like Freud's conflicted men.
This question of reality is one of the most pressing concerns in the novel, particularly later on when Oedipa begins to suspect that the whole Tristero plot may be nothing more than a figment of her own overactive imagination. The problem of understanding the "religious instant" is closely tied to the concept of reality. First, notice that this religious moment has nothing to do with God, at least not directly. It is a type of secular religion that deals with a pagan god of batteries and small towns--a type of order and structure. But whatever is behind the religious instant, it cannot communicate anything in particular. "She gave it up presently, as if a cloud had approached the sun," thus, ending the moment. Oedipa has not come away with a greater sense of understanding but simply with the knowledge that, as the novelist Joseph Heller writes, "something happened." There is no communication as to what. If there is a message implicit in the moment, it is deeply shrouded, and the clouds come in to end the moment before anything can be really gained. The central problem is reaching any sort of underlying truth.
This certainly ties in to the events in the motel with Metzger. The game of Strip Botticelli is particularly illustrative of the plot about to unfold. In the game, the multi-layered Oedipa strips plenty of her clothes off, but she never really approaches any sort of nudity thanks to all her bundles of clothing. On one level, this may be an insight into Oedipa's personality; perhaps Pynchon is trying to assert that she is a multi-layered character who cannot be fully exposed under any circumstances.
"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 ...
It feels like it was yesterday. It was a Monday, November 24, 2014. It was just like any other day, or so I thought. I woke up, got ready and off to work I went. Once I arrived at work, I started in with my normal routine. I started the coffee pot ( first things first, you know?) and sat down to st...
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). ...
