There was a significant transition with respect to Oedipa in chapter 5; Pynchon really showed the tables turning on her. Prior to her being named executrix, Oedipa was portrayed as carefree and easygoing. Although it was only a small part of the first page that describes her prior actions, it says, “One summer afternoon Mrs. Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupper-ware party whose hostess had put perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue…” Even in this one sentence, the fact that it is summertime, she is at a tupper-ware party, and there was alcohol in the fondue gives the reader the perception that Oedipa is likely is a housewife that does not have a lot to worry about.
In the progression of the novel, through a series of actions such as having an affair with Metzger, leaving her home, and just in general being irresponsible, Oedipa is portrayed as acting without giving thought to consequence. It is in Chapter 5, however, that Oedipa begins to see a more serious side of life. It is in this chapter that she is really presented with the issue of decrypting the muted post horn and the play, her husband has gotten into heavy drug use, and her doctor has also gone crazy. She has never really been confronted with these types of problems before and Pynchon uses these series of events to develop her into a more dynamic character.
I also thought it was interesting how the references to drugs and altered mental states continued. When you are on drugs, things are not as they appear and Pynchon uses drugs in this novel to introduce the contrast of appearance vs. reality. For Oedipa, life is not always as it seems, as the reader learns from the progression of the novel. One of the questions that the reader continues to have at the end of the fifth chapter is what was Pierce’s true motive in leaving Oedipa as the executrix of his estate? I find their dynamic to be very interesting because most men in her life don’t seem to have a lot of respect for her… “As with Mucho when she’s left Kinneret, Metzger did not seem desperate at her going.” However, even if Pierce had left the estate for her to sort because he thought she needed to grow up and he knew it would be a difficult job, it still shows that he saw a deeper side of her and believed that she had greater capabilities that she often demonstrated.
Another theme that is majorly at work in chapter 5 is the mystery of the Tristero. Oedipa is seeking to find out information and to prove its existence or nonexistence. The secret eludes her, and the more it does, the stronger her desire is to uncover it. When discussing Nefastis' use of the word entropy, Phychon says, "The word bothered his as much as the "Trystero" bothered Oedipa." It continues later, "Amid the exhaust, sweat, glare, and ill-humor of a summer evening on an American Freeway, Oedipa Maas pondered her Trystero problem." Every person has things, often goal-oriented, that consume a good deal of their thoughts and for Oedipa, it is finding the true story behind the Tristero. I also thought Pynchon's use of the term "American" freeway was interesting in the quote; it is seems as if he is contrasting the idea of the "American Dream" with Oedipa's current exhausted, confused search. In a way the reader could interpret this Pynchon not believing the American Dream is real or truly attainable.
ReplyDeleteVocabulary Words:
1. Baroque: relating to or denoting a style of European architecture, music, and art of the 17th and 18th centuries that followed mannerism and is characterized by ornate detail.
2. Somnolent: sleepy; drowsy
3. Secular: denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis
4. Cerise: a bright or deep red color
5. Municipal: of or relating to a city or town or its governing body
6. Gringo: a white person from an English-speaking country (used in Spanish-speaking regions, chiefly Latin America).