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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. What type of business is Hogan's Seraglio in downtown San Narciso?

2. What name does Oedipa give to her series of revelations?

3. After Oedipa has lunch with her lawyer, what does he ask her to do?

4. Dr. Hilarius has a theory that faces are like what?

5. What is the name of the manager of the Echo Courts Motel?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is suggested by the name of Oedipa's psychiatrist, Dr. Hilarius?

2. Who was the Peter Pinguid Society named for?

3. Describe the manager of the Echo Courts Motel.

4. How did Mucho Maas feel about the used cars his customers brought in for trade-in?

5. What do the Paranoids set outside the door of Oedipa's room?

6. What is Mike Fallopian trying to prove in his history of private mail delivery in the U.S.?

7. According to Mike Fallopian, what eventually happened to Peter Pinguid?

8. Where did Tony Jaguar get the bones that he sold to Beaconsfield Cigarettes?

9. As she is losing the game of Strip Botticelli, what does Oedipa remove first?

10. As Oedipa seeks a motel to escape the illusion of speed and freedom that driving provides, to what does she compare the road?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Crying of Lot 49 mixes elements taken from several different genres, or types of literature. Discuss each of these in terms of its use in the novel.

1) The picaresque novel, such as Don Quixote

2) The Jacobean and Elizabethan revenge plays, such as Hamlet

3) Mythology

4) Fairytales

5) Historical texts

Essay Topic 2

Fate is a dominant theme in The Crying of Lot 49. 1) Discuss this theme throughout the novel. 2) How is Oedipa trying to find out the fate of America, not just her own fate?

Essay Topic 3

How is Oedipa figured as a modern Rapunzel locked in a tower from which no prince can free her? How does Pynchon repeatedly emphasize that what confines her is visited upon her from outside? How does this mystery of what constitutes this malignant external force drive the entire narrative of The Crying of Lot 49?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 619 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample