Character Analysis Within the novel The Crying lot of 49 the author Thomas Pynchon uses the characters within the story to reveal some of society’s unfair norms. Thomas uses each character to challenge and get readers to think about what is actually considered to be normal. Themes such as racism, gender roles, sexism, and a typical life appears throughout the story. Pynchon wants the readers to understand that in society we accept the roles given to us without trying to change,
“Manny Di Presso, a one-time lawyer who quit his firm to become an actor. Who in this pilot plays me, an actor become a lawyer reverting periodically to being an actor. The film is in an air-conditioned vault at one of the Hollywood studios, light can 't fatigue it, and it can be repeated endlessly”.
Pynchon is using Manny as example of how society forces us to accept a role. After we realize it’s not exactly what we want we’re forced to continue no matter how much we want to
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Many of the characters almost expect Oedipa to have sexual relations with them simply because she’s a woman. Oedipa being nice to one of the male characters gets misunderstood for sex, “Miles closed the door behind them and started in with the shifty eye. Moving in on her. Do you want what I think you want?” (Pynchon, 17). Metzger and Pierce had a conversation and made a bet to see how difficult it would be to sleep with Oedipa. “What did Inverarity tell you about me?… That you wouldn’t be easy… She began to cry. Come back, said Metzger. Come on. After a while, she said I will. And she did” (Pynchon, 30). Oedipa listens to Metzger even after he humiliates her. Pynchon is using Oedipa character to the relationship between men and woman in the 1960’s. He’s trying to show how woman were forced to be submissive to men, and how men took advantage of how society was structured in order to use woman as