Gravity's Rainbow Summary
Thomas Pynchon

Everything you need to understand or teach Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.

Gravity's Rainbow Summary & Study Guide
16 Literature Criticisms
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Gravity's Rainbow Summary

Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow is one of the landmarks of American fiction. Set in the final months and aftermath of World War II, it focuses on a search for German V-2 rockets, which were the world's first guided missiles, as well as the wartime atmosphere in London and the postwar atmosphere in Germany and France. Particularly important to this narrative are American Lieutenant Tyrone Slothrop and his quest to find one particular...

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Study Pack

The Gravity's Rainbow Study Pack contains:

Gravity's Rainbow Study Guide

Introduction

Author Biography

Plot Summary

Characters

Themes

Style

Historical Context

Critical Overview

Criticism

Critical Essay #1

Topics for Further Study

Thomas Pynchon Biographies (3)

Thomas Pynchon

1,350 words, approx. 5 pages

The American novelist Thomas Pynchon (born 1937) is best known for V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity's Rainbow, Vineland, and Mason & Dixon, complex fictions noted for their encyclopedic erudi... Read more

Thomas (Ruggles) Pynchon, (Jr.)

4,083 words, approx. 14 pages

Thomas Pynchon 's willingness to address the most important cultural and social issues makes him an important writer. He depicts the plight of contemporary humanity caught in, rather than sustained by... Read more

Thomas (Ruggles) Pynchon, (Jr.)

15,979 words, approx. 54 pages

Thomas Pynchon 's ancestral roots go deep into the soil of America--an appropriate genealogy for a writer whose overriding concern in his fictional project is the construction of "America" and the nec... Read more