Chaos as a result of Oppression

The crying of Lot 49 holds a strong sense of isolation and chaos. The world is depicted as having harsh and lonely living conditions, while life itself is chaotic and filled with a rollercoaster of emotions. The negative emotions expressed in the story mostly stem from feelings of loneliness and lack of feeling worthy. There is also a desire to escape from the chaos—a want to have change, but change being out of reach.

              Mucho Maas, while “better off” than most poor folks in the community, is still in search of achieving a goal and being successful. The fact that Mucho even uses the term “better off” and compares himself to those around him, shows that success for him holds a financial aspect to it. Life is seen as a race and whoever can be the most financially stable wins. It takes into consideration the power that money holds and the worldview of money in different societies. For capitalist societies, money becomes a way to prove not only success, but happiness. Even if one believes they are happy, to others, and by society’s standards, it is not until the person is wealthy that happiness has been reached at its full potential. This is seen when Mucho is described as “[believing] too much” in the used car lot he works at, and is seen as crazy and hopeless by his wife, Oedipa. Mucho is aware that the lot does not have much value in it, yet his own personal beliefs do not allow him to move on and find something better, even if he yearns for change. However, we as readers must also understand that his desire for change isn’t personal much like his desire to work at the lot is. Mucho yearns for change, yes, yet it is only because that is what he should want, not because it is what he actually wants.

              Even when looking at Oedipa and the way she lives her life, it appears as though she is always settling for less. We can attribute this to her relationship with Mucho; Oedipa evidently wants him to work somewhere else or hold the same belief in the lot to the station, but he does not. Instead, Oedipa settles and lets Mucho live his life. When looking for a Motel to stay in, Oedipa pulls into a lot that pictures a “nymph…revealing enormous vermilion-tipped breasts and long pink thighs at each flap” (Pynchon 27). Despite her only staying for a short time, Oedipa settled for the room instead of finding an equally inexpensive room somewhere else.

              While much of the lives in the book are in constant movement, the need for something different—something better, is always there. The lives of Oedipa and Mucho are chaotic and in the peak of society’s change, yet their lives appear rather stagnant; different events and experiences are made, yet the downfall of their lives continues to happen. Drugs are involved in their lives and affect them drastically, yet the world is still as chaotic, only differently. There is still unworthiness, loneliness, and desperation, but at different times—in different places and for reasons beyond the surface level “everything happens for a reason.”

Despite this, the story involves songs personalized and created by characters in the story. For some of the songs, a sense of apathy is heard while others hold a sense of contentment. Miles’s song touches on being “too fat” and uses the word “too” to focus on things never being just right, just enough for him and made specifically for him. However, he ends the song with “but at least I ain’t too slim to swim.” While this does not make much sense in the fact that weight does not hold a significant amount of effect on being able to swim, it still shows how there is a sense of settling by being okay with his weight and finding the silver lining. For Baby Igor’s song, there are feelings of loneliness yet is okay with it because while it’s only him, his dad, and his dog, at least its him, his dad, and his dog. Baby Igor turned the bare minimum he had and viewed it as the only things that he needed, a change in tone not seen in the song by Miles.

While life holds chaos, the characters in the story are also marginalized. It would be unfair to judge the worldview of the characters without acknowledging the systematic issues they are facing within society. The worldview is negative and clearly holds despair, but is only because of the oppression the characters face, something that can be viewed when compiling the several obstacles thrown their way.