Oedipa's Mission

The Crying of Lot 49 is more generally about rhetoric than “Rhetoric of Vietnam and Iraq”. It seems that every time Oedipa is persuaded in to thinking that she has solved the mystery; another event occurs that influences her to think otherwise. She takes many twists and turns to try to find out the underlying truth. The book is filled with her taking different approaches to find out what she wants. I did feel like Oedipa when she was trying to solve the mystery. Every time Oedipa and I thought she had discovered the truth, she wound up uncovering another piece to the puzzle. And for the book to end without her finding out the complete truth left me frustrated and confused, probably the same emotions she had. Her detective strategies were very secretive and sneaky although she occasionally came out and asked what she wanted to know. She never told anyone what she was doing because that would have compromised her mission. As for me, I tried to read between the lines. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.