Thursday, November 5, 2009
Oedipa is deperate
One thing I enjoy about The Crying of Lot 49, is that it is shown as if the entire thing could be in Oedipa’s head. That thought is always there in the back of her mind, and therefore the readers. She knows that she could have imagined all this business with the Tristero. Sometimes it seems that she wants it to be all in her head. She even goes to Dr. Hilarius so that he will tell her that she is crazy. She has no such luck there. This only adds to the confusing nature of the story. The protagonist doesn’t even understand or fully believe what is going on. She has nothing else to believe though, so she continues to chase this mysterious Tristero. If Oedipa had anything else in her life, she would probably never tried to take on this mystery. It is Oedipa’s lack of everything that leads her on. She has no one else to turn to and no one who will listen to her if she tried. All she has is the Tristero and the people connected to it. It is the desperate nature of Oedipa’s life that causes her to continue trying to solve the mystery, even if she is not sure there really is a mystery to solve.
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On a side note I think it's funny that we two are the only ones who posted something before Friday and we both wrote about something different: you, The Crying of Lot 49 and me, The Crucible...sorry if we were still supposed to post about that book, but I couldn't take any more of it :) Anyways, I think your idea about the book being shown as if the entire thing could be in Oedipa's head was interesting. And now that you mention it I too see that. She keeps searching and searching to solve this mystery, but the mystery could just be all in her head. I also agree with you when you say that Oedipa is desperate. She does seem to feel that way, attempting to fill the void of her life with this "mystery". I also agree with you when you say that if she had anything else in her life to occupy her time, she more than likely wouldn't have attempted to solve this mystery, but because there is nothing she attempts it.
ReplyDeleteI think opedia is lacking someone solid in her life to make her sane and calm her down so she can focus just on one person and not on any guy who comes her way. If she were to settle down in the book with one guy i wonder how it would have turned out
ReplyDeleteI agree that she had nothing. She just let everything go to her head too fast. The mystery took over her life and became her obsession. She started losing everything that was important to her and in the end, we can only assume that it meant a negative outcome for her.
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