Beginning of Essay
Thomas Pynchon's is a very deep, complex, and demanding novel, requiring the wide breadth of knowledge. One of the most fascinating aspects of the novel is Pynchon's choice -- or rather, invention -- of the names he gives the characters and organizations describe ....

Middle of Essay
.... king's wife, who of course is his mother. When Oedipus finds out what he has done, he blinds himself and becomes a wandering beggar. Sigmund Freud took the legend of Oedipus as a metaphor for the wish of every small boy to get his father out of the way so he could have his mother all to himself. Most men resolve this dilemma by the time they reach adulthood; some do not, and are therefore unable to cope with the stresses of adult life. Men do not want to recognize this tendency in themselves, but -- like Oedipus -- once they are aware of this, it intrudes itself on their consciousness at every move, until they begin to doubt their own sanity. This is ....