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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. Who does Oedipa dream about as she sleeps in the hotel in Berkeley?
2. Which of the following is NOT a place that Oedipa encountered the WASTE symbol?
3. A young female graduate student reveals to Oedipa that ________ drowned himself in the Pacific Ocean two days ago.
4. Bortz suggests to Oedipa that Tristero might have caused ______ simply in order to issue the Proclamation of the 9th Frimaire, An III, ending the sanctioned postal monopoly.
5. What happens when Oedipa returns to her hotel in Berkeley?
Short Essay Questions
1. Inamorati Anonymous' association to the muted post horn symbol seems purely accidental, yet what are some similarities this group has to the Tristero?
2. Why does Oedipa consider her job as co-executor to be similar to Driblette's job as director of a play?
3. Describe the Nefastis Machine as it was explained by Stanley Koteks.
4. Give examples of individuals with the post horn symbol who are somehow alienated from society.
5. Why does Nefastis contend that only a sensitive person can work his machine?
6. What is the paradox that Oedipa discovers concerning the Trystero couplet from Driblette's play?
7. The men Oedipa meets on her journey end up abandoning her. What were some of their fates and what did they represent?
8. What does the historical marker that Oedipa remembers seeing at Fangoso Lagoons commemorate?
9. Why are WASTE mail boxes located under freeways?
10. What causes Oedipa to realize that every source of information on the Tristero can somehow be traced to Inverarity?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
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.
Essay Topic 2
Discuss the function of language and its ability or inability to convey truth as a central thematic strand of the novel. How is this theme intertwined with others in The Crying of Lot 49?
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?
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This section contains 1,031 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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