Significance to the Names of the Characters

After reading the first chapter of “The Crying of Lot 49” I was extremely confused. The stream of consciousness made the introduction to the plot of the novel seem almost like a puzzle with its pieces strewn about randomly left for you to collect and put together. However, after going back through the chapter I realized that the names of the characters served as a helpful tool to putting together the pieces of this “plot puzzle”.

During the first reading the names stood out to me as sort of odd selections such as “Mucho” and “Dr. Hilarius”, but once I went back through I realized that each names tells something about the character. Beginning with Oedipa Maas, I immediately made a connection to Oedipus and Frued’s Oedipal Complex. Although I did not see any references to the Oedipal Complex in the first chapter (not so say that there weren’t any), I think perhaps her name is a foreshadowing of something that has yet to be revealed about Oedipa, such as perhaps a strong dependency on her father or a yearning for someone to fulfill a father figure. I did see that Oedipa, much like Oedipus does seem to be rather paranoid and anxious. She is paranoid about the letter sent to her by a Los Angeles law firm informing her that she had been named executor of the estate of Pierce Inverarity.

Just as his name indicates, Pierce’s spirit so to speak seems to pierce Oedipa. I got the sense that Pierce and Oedipa had a love affair in the past and now his spirit was reappearing in Oedpia’s life and causing a lot of trouble. She is struggling to figure out why she was appointed executor of the estate and it seems as though the reemergence of Pierce’s presence is causing problems between Oedipa and her husband, Mucho.

Mucho is the Spanish word for a lot, and mas is translated in Spanish to mean more, which corresponds with Mucho’s last name Maas. So literally translated into English his name means “a lot more”, which indicates to me that Mucho’s character is desperately searching for more, he isn’t satisfied with his life. He has the car lot and the radio show, but that’s not enough—he needs a lot more.

Funch, Mucho’s boss at the radio station, is not a very pleasant name and definitely not very flattering. Funch and Mucho often but heads at work because Funch feels that Mucho’s image is a bit too provocative. Mucho’s opinion of Funch correlates with Funch’s name. By that I mean, when you think of someone who is conservative with a by-the-books sort of mentality, referring to them as a “funch” seems like a good way to describe them.

Finally, Dr. Hilarius’ character name probably stood out the most. He is Oedipa’s psychotherapist or a “quack as they are sometimes referred to so it seems that Hilarius if a fitting name for a “quack” that is apparently not very trustworthy in his diagnoses and prescriptions for hallucinations.

As I started to study the text more and more I was fascinated by Pynchon’s selection of character names and they way the names revealed certain characteristics about each character. I’m curious to see if these initial speculations remain true throughout the novel.