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

2. Oedipa protests to Metzger at the end of the play that she's Republican, and she's not motivated by a desire to right wrongs, but simply by ____________.

3. What is the huge complex surrounded by barbed-wire-topped fence, its entrance flanked by sixty-foot missiles with the name Yoyodyne, Inc. lettered on each nose cone, that Oedipa passes as she drives into San Narciso?

4. What happens when a heavy, pale young man carrying a mail sack appears in the doorway of the bar where Oedipa and Metzger are talking to Mike Fallopian?

5. Oedipa compares Mucho's angst about his work to what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Oedipa do in the bathroom of the Echo Courts motel room prior to playing a game with Metzger?

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

3. What aspect of Mucho's job does Oedipa compare to a religious officiant conducting a ceremony?

4. What is the metaphor Oedipa is referring to about The Trystero and the costumes of historical figures?

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

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

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

8. What is the plot of the movie that Metzger starred in as a child?

9. Who was the Peter Pinguid Society named for?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the overall theme of the breakdown of communication on the societal level. How was it symbolized and explored throughout the novel? Compare this to how communication breaks down on a personal level for Oedipa.

Essay Topic 2

How is the language of description repeatedly used to suggest that Oedipa's quest for truth is also a quest for religious or spiritual significance in a world apparently devoid of it? Give specific examples throughout the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Pynchon bases Oedipa Maas on the Greek Myth of Oedipus.

1) Give a synopsis of the Oedipus Myth.

2) Compare the character of Oedipa to that of Oedipus. How are their struggles similar? What larger theme is Pynchon conveying with the use of the myth?

(see the answer keys)

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