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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 comments does Metzger make to Oedipa after every commercial on the TV as they watch his movie in the motel room?

2. What is in the pond at the center of Fangoso Lagoons?

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

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

5. What does Metzger ask Oedipa to bet on in Chapter 2?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What was strange about Pierce Inverarity's call to Oedipa a year ago?

5. Why can't Mucho Maas drink honey in his coffee?

6. When did Pierce Inverarity die?

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

8. Why does the manager of the Echo Courts think Oedipa is trying to seduce him?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

One of the themes of The Crying of Lot 49 is that technology does not reveal truth. How is this demonstrated in Chapter 5? Are there other examples of this theme in the novel?

Essay Topic 2

The possible crime related to Inverarity's estate, the use of GI bones, is coupled to a Jacobean play about crimes also set in Italy, The Courier's Tragedy. Discuss how the themes of the novel are echoed in the play, as well as referencing the literary significance of Pynchon's use of a play-within-a-play.

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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