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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 is the name of Dr. Hilarius' s face number 37, which is the face children often use for taunting?

2. What does Driblette tell Oedipa he found at Zapf's Used Books?

3. What has Oedipa noticed about her life before she embarks on her journey?

4. Despite a lack of specific facts, what does Mike Fallopian say took place in 1864?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What is scribbled next to a message advertising the WASTE group on the bathroom wall of The Scope?

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

3. What does Oedipa mean in Chapter 1 when she tells Dr. Hilarius that she is already having hallucinations?

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

5. Why does the moment Oedipa sees San Narciso from a hilltop have a religious quality to her?

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

7. How can electronic music be performed live at The Scope bar?

8. Why is the introduction of the Yoyodyne mail deliverer at The Scope important to the plot of The Crying of Lot 49?

9. Who was the Peter Pinguid Society named for?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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 3

The presence of numerous male characters in the narrative who are unable to truly love Oedipa alludes to Freud's theory of the Oedipal complex.

1) Explain Freud's theory and how it relates to The Crying of Lot 49.

3) Show specifically what each of these male characters represents to Oedipa and how they abandon her: Metzger, Driblette and Mucho.

(see the answer keys)

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