The Cry Of Lot 49 Ethos Pynchon Analysis

Beginning in the 1990’s, a new movement emerged alongside postmodernism known as Third Wave Feminism. After fighting for legal and social equality by standing up against patriarchal oppression, the goals of feminists broadened to break down concepts of gender, sexuality, and the body (Rampton). Queer Theorists such as Judith Butler branched from this new movement in Women’s Studies to examine the reality of identity and attack the problematic perception of heteronormativity, the belief that humans are normally heterosexual and distinctly male or female. In The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon challenges the traditional perception of a gender binary through the protagonist, Oedipa Maas, who represents the fluidity and choice of gender identity as asserted by Queer Theorists. Throughout The Crying of Lot 49, it is made apparent that the novel has feminist undertones by the manner in which the plot dramatizes perception. Oedipa Maas, named the executor of her late ex-boyfriend’s will, is tasked with singlehandedly deciphering the clues he left behind, attempting to uncover a mystery. The novel follows Oedipa’s mission in search for greater knowledge while the paranoia of what she believes to be a conspiracy continuously calls her perceptions into question. Oedipa is curiously the only …show more content…
Oedipa appears to be an object of sexual desire for nearly every male character in the novel. From the casual flirting of her family lawyer, “Roseman tried to play footsie with her under the table… ‘Run away with me,’ said Roseman when the coffee came” (Pynchon 19), to the sexual encounter with the lawyer Metzger, “She awoke at last to find herself getting laid” (42) , Oedipa is desired by almost every man she meets. This exaggeration of heterosexual behavior is an example of the gender roles that Oedipa is expected to fulfill because of her