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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. When Oedipa returns to the bar near the Yoyodyne plant, who does she find surrounded by women and dressed in army fatigues as if he were a guerrilla leader?

2. What does Oedipa see on an airmail stamp with a jet flying by the Capital dome that is on the letter the old drunk asks her to mail?

3. In Oedipa's search for the source text for the Jacobean revenge play , the publisher sends her to a warehouse in what city?

4. Tristero y Calavera set up his own postal system and called himself El Desheredado, which meant what?

5. After finding a copy of Plays of Ford, Webster, Tourneur and Wharfinger, Oedipa discovers a note that says "trystero" may be derived from the Italian word "triste." What does this word mean?

Short Essay Questions

1. In addition to visiting John Nefastis, why does Oedipa need to go to Berkeley?

2. What is the story behind the religious splinter group known as the Scurvhamites that Professor Bortz tells Oedipa about?

3. What does the historical marker that Oedipa remembers seeing at Fangoso Lagoons commemorate?

4. Describe the Nefastis Machine as it was explained by Stanley Koteks.

5. What connection does Oedipa make between the old German stamp with Thurn and Taxis printed on it which has a post horn, resembling the WASTE symbol, in each corner and the scene from The Courier's Tragedy?

6. At the end of Chapter 4, Genghis Cohen explains to Oedipa that the dandelion wine is clear now, but becomes cloudy in the spring when the dandelions begin to bloom, as if the dandelions in the wine remembered. What does Oedipa muse about this?

7. Why does Oedipa consider her job as co-executor to be similar to Driblette's job as director of a play?

8. The overall crisis Oedipa faces by the end of the novel could be summed up how?

9. The men Oedipa meets on her journey end up abandoning her. What were some of their fates and what did they represent?

10. Why does Nefastis contend that only a sensitive person can work his machine?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the myth of Echo and Narcissus? How is it represented in the setting, characters and themes of The Crying of Lot 49?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the function of language and its ability or inability to convey truth as a central thematic strand of the novel. How is this theme intertwined with others in The Crying of Lot 49?

Essay Topic 3

Explain how the Nefastis Machine is used as a metaphor for language within the novel. What does the use of a complicated scientific machine convey about Pynchon's views about language and communication?

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