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Vineland Study Guide & Plot Synopsis

This Study Guide consists of approximately 48 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Vineland.
This section contains 430 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Purchase our Vineland Study Guide

Vineland Summary & Study Guide Description

Vineland Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. This study guide contains the following sections:

This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion and a Free Quiz on Vineland by Thomas Pynchon.

Vineland Plot Summary

Preview of Vineland Summary:

Vineland tells the story of the people surrounding Frenesi Gates, a one-time sixties radical who turns government informer and goes into hiding, abandoning her husband and young daughter. Pynchon moves fluidly in his narrative from character to character and between the time settings of 1970 and 1984, describing a loosely-knit group of people whose lives are greatly affected as Frenesi passes through them.

The novel opens in the fictional Northern California town of Vineland, where Zoyd Wheeler, Frenesi's ex-husband, lives in semi-seclusion with Prairie, his 14-year-old daughter who has no memory of Frenesi, her mother. Zoyd learns that Prairie is being targeted by Brock Vond, the charismatic federal prosecutor in love with Frenesi who first convinced her to betray her friends in 1970 and is now seeking revenge on her for leaving him. Zoyd sends Prairie away to escape Vond who is preparing a full-scale military invasion of Vineland.

Prairie...
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This section contains 430 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Purchase our Vineland Study Guide
Copyrights
Vineland from BookRags and Gale's For Students Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.
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