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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 does Metzger theorize that the members of Mike Fallopian's group would be opposed to?

2. Who is Metzger?

3. How did Metzger know that Oedipa went to Mexico with Inverarity?

4. Pierce Inverarity was a _____________?

5. What is the actual first name of Oedipa's husband, Mucho Maas?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Oedipa imagine Pierce Inverarity might have died?

3. What kind of image does Funch the program director want Mucho to have at the radio station?

4. How is the sign advertising the Echo Courts in the likeness of Marilyn Monroe?

5. Describe the manager of the Echo Courts Motel.

6. When did Pierce Inverarity die?

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

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

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

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

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

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?

Essay Topic 3

The larger setting of The Crying of Lot 49 is the United States in the era of the counter-culture, the 1960s, when experimentation with psychedelic drugs was rife and identity crises pervasive. The problem the novel presents is the crisis of meaning present in modern life. Choose one of the four ways this theme manifests itself throughout the novel. Discuss it thoroughly with events and characters.

1) Identity crises

2) Relationship and sexuality problems

3) Injustice in the economic system

4) Loss of cultural consensus as to what constitutes truth

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 646 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample