The Crying Of Lot 49 Chapter 2: Music of Oedipa’s Life

Rejection is a word that has always been in at least one chapter of a person's life. I would say that rejection will always happen because the person doesn't fit in. I once tried to go to band class. I was not rejected by the teacher because he couldn't simply kick me out of class but, I saw that all my class mates were playing their instruments very well compared to me. I tried to get better by practicing but, it simply did not work. Finally I discovered that music wasn't simply my thing. I always felt bad when I saw my grades of that class because I simply couldn't do music. In that time I was very fortunate that the grades of exploratories did not count on the GPA. Finally I dropped out. My mistake was there. If I have learned something in life is that life will always manage to put up harder challenges so you try them, not for you to drop out. This theme of rejection and being left aside was the main theme of the song that Miles sang. Miles's song said "That's what you tell me all the time, When you really try'n' to put me down" (pg.16). This song that Miles sang had a meaning because it ended up in him not giving up. Pynchon had to use this song for a certain reason and used it when Oedipa was entering the room. He may be trying to foreshadow that during Oedipa's life there will be many cases when someone will try to bring her down. The important thing is for her not to give up.

Music is also a thing that has great ambiguity. In general people like music because it reminds them of parties and having fun with friends, or special moments like graduation. But music that you do not like can also get you really sad or angry. It all depends on what kind of music you listen to and like. Therefore we can say that music has the power to change our mood. According to Pynchon: "From the other room came a slow, deep crescendo of naval bombardment, machine-gun, howitzer and small-arms fire" (pg.25). This can be seen as the dark side of music. The sounds in war can also be seen as music. For me it would be music where it will get me angry and sad. Maybe the generals and the commanders who like war might hear this music as nice. It all depends on the perspective of who listens to it. The music that was playing on the TV was that of war. Pynchon might have done this to show us how Oedipa's life was and was going to continue to be like. What I have seen until now is that she has many lovers and that she doesn't seem to be in a job. Also her husband is a DJ in a radio station and she doesn't seem to be too fond of him.