The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon - Essay Example

? World Literature Introduction: The world, in every segment of society, is engulfed in the avalanche of information. This has led to the cultural chaos, as the human being is unable to assimilate and put into proper use the available mass of information. In the meantime, new waves of information continue to arrive without intermission. Man is unable to fathom what he is creating, why for he is creating and what the end-results of his reckless creations are. Cultural Chaos in America In the book “The Crying of Lot 49,” Oedipa is the paradigm to show how vulnerable the man has become to the systems of information designed by him. The information system retards the individual growth and threatens the self. In the new circumstances she is thrusts in, Oedipa suffers nervous breakdown. She is a confused mental wreck by the end of the story, unwilling to accept any additional information, which she thinks will destroy her individual personality. Words, words and more words without any latent meaning of life in them! She is aghast to think about the contradictory possibilities in life and wonders how they are able to co-exist up till now and what is in store for the humanity that pursues goals through verbal duals. What type of flowers will bloom in the verbal garden that humankind is engaged in creating, and why there is no fragrance in any of those flowers. The problems of the Americans compare well with those Oedipa encounters and her increasing inability to stabilize is true of majority of Americans. Thomas Punchon (1999) writes, “Someday she might replace whatever of her had gone away by some prosthetic device, a dress of certain color, a phrase in a letter, and another lover.”(p.133)In America today, leaders in every segment of the society, politicians, sociologists, philosophers, writers etc. feel that something tangible needs to be done to infuse some life-- force in to the veins of the society and lead it to the area of happiness in the real sense of the term, but no one has the definite clues. Expressing identical views Margot A. Henrickson (1997) argues, “Alienation, loneliness, and nervous disillusion seemed the norm in anxious America. Panic and paranoia often appeared warranted in this psychologically damaged America, an appropriate reaction to an unsafe world that tried to avoid recognizing its insecurity” (p. 111). Everyone diagnoses the disease, but no one has the remedy. Alienation from the society Oedipa is in a peculiar situation in her life, she thinks that she is away from the masses, and her complexities lead her towards escapism. She discovers that she is a directionless and destination less personality, notwithstanding the fact that she is bestowed with all the material comforts of the American society can provide to an individual. Her possessions are not earned but gifted to her in fortuitous circumstances. She receives a letter from her ex-boyfriend Pierce Inverarity, a real estate tycoon, who has left the will nominating her as the legal heir to manage his estate. This avalanche of wealth engulfs her but she finds it difficult to adapt to the new situation and continues to remain alienated from the society. She finds herself lodged America whose complexities she is not aware of. She wonders how such a society with diverse number of cultural fragments will be able to co-exist, or remain welded into a Nation and whether integration in the true sense will ever be achieved. She encounters a diverse number of cultural fragments that highlight the notion of a fragmented society and they pose the problem of integration. Throwing light on the newfound mental agonies of Oedipa, Thomas Pynchon writes, “This is America, you live in it, you let it happen, let it unfurl,” (p.133) and watch the goings-on around you like a mute, helpless spectator. In his article “Alienation in American Society,” Fritz Pappenheim (2000) argues, “It seems to me that this kind of division in thought is typical of all of us. We are almost always interested in only that fraction of reality that can serve our ends; we are indifferent to the remaining realities that do not concern us. The more we advance in this separation, the more we create the split within ourselves.”(Issue, June) The American boat has left the shore, without the proverbial boatman and no one know to which direction the society is heading for. The lavish lifestyles of the American business tycoons and their unethical business practices for aggrandizement of wealth. Odepia is unable to find assimilation in the type of society she is thrust in, she fails to adjust into the new set up, and her individual personality reaches the abysmal depths of meaningless existence. From the normal life of a housewife from California, she is into the wonderland of extraordinary riches. She encounters situations that are not to her liking. The mail delivery system that has the ramifications of international conspiracy intensely torments her. She is too shocked to know its impact and in the end she begins to wonder whether she is sane or not. The fast-paced developments are beyond her comprehension. Her connections begin to expand she comes into active contact with persons like Metger, Mike Fallopin and the murky filter business in which for the manufacturing process of cigarette filters the bones of dead American GIs are used, shocks the inner world of Odepia and it results in paranoia. The viewing of the play Tristero cause immense stress to her psyche. She wonders of what use the information is which one is not able to sort out and derive benefits out of it. The churning process goes on in her inner world relentlessly as to what she has lost and whether she has gained anything at all trying to come to terms with her new lifestyles. Pynchon argues, “ For there either was some Tristero beyond the appearance of the legacy America, or there was just America then it seemed the only way she could continue, and manage to be at all relevant to it, was as an alien, un-furrowed, assumed full circle into some panoria.”(p.151) The more she thinks about the American craze for wealth, the more it paralyzes her mental faculties. Conclusion: Cultural chaos, alienation of the individual from the society, the lavish lifestyles of the American business tycoons and their unethical business practices for aggrandizement of wealth have created a complicated social cobweb. The politicians and the legal enactments will not be able to find solutions. Each individual has to change, for he is the brick of the magnificent mansion of the American Dream. The wise among the economists, sociologists, philosophers and spiritualists will have to sit together to discover a just solution. References List Henriksen, Margot A (1997) Dr. Strangelove’s America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age. University of California Press. Pynchon, Thomas (1999).The Crying of Lot 49. Harper Perennial Modern Classics. Pappenheim, Fritz (2000) Article: Alienation in American Society Monthly Review, Volume 52, Issue 02(June) Web:monthlyreview.org/2000/06/01/alienationin-american-society Read More