Download a PDF to print or study offline.
Study GuideBibliography
Course Hero. "The Crying of Lot 49 Study Guide." Course Hero. 16 Mar. 2018. Web. 6 June 2023. <https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-Crying-of-Lot-49/>.
In text
(Course Hero)
Bibliography
Course Hero. (2018, March 16). The Crying of Lot 49 Study Guide. In Course Hero. Retrieved June 6, 2023, from https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-Crying-of-Lot-49/
In text
(Course Hero, 2018)
Bibliography
Course Hero. "The Crying of Lot 49 Study Guide." March 16, 2018. Accessed June 6, 2023. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-Crying-of-Lot-49/.
Footnote
Course Hero, "The Crying of Lot 49 Study Guide," March 16, 2018, accessed June 6, 2023, https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-Crying-of-Lot-49/.
Character | Description |
---|---|
Oedipa Maas | Oedipa Maas is a 28-year-old suburban housewife. When she is named an executor of her ex-boyfriend's will, she becomes involved in investigating a shadowy organization called the Tristero. Read More |
Wendell "Mucho" Maas | Wendell Maas is a former used-car salesman turned radio DJ who goes by the nickname "Mucho." He is married to Oedipa. Read More |
Metzger | Metzger is a lawyer with the firm that handles Pierce's estate. He becomes Oedipa's lover. Read More |
Dr. Hilarius | Dr. Hilarius is Oedipa's psychiatrist. He wants her to join a study on the effects of LSD and other drugs on suburban housewives. Read More |
Jesús Arrabal | Jesús Arrabal is a Mexican revolutionary who met Oedipa and Pierce during their vacation to Mexico. Oedipa later meets up with him in a coffee shop and learns he has been exiled. |
Grace Bortz | Grace Bortz is Emory's wife. She tends to the children while her husband meets with Oedipa. |
Emory Bortz | Emory Bortz is a professor. He once taught at Berkeley, but now he teaches at a college in San Narciso. |
Genghis Cohen | Genghis Cohen is an "eminent philatelist," or stamp expert, who has been hired to valuate Pierce's stamp collection. He comes to the auction to bid on some items. |
Manny Di Presso | Manny Di Presso is a lawyer turned actor. He is working again as a lawyer and plans to bring a case against Pierce's estate on behalf of his client Tony Jaguar. |
Randolph Driblette | Randolph Driblette is an actor and director who put on a version of the play The Courier's Tragedy. He later ends up walking into the Pacific to his death. |
Mike Fallopian | Mike Fallopian is a member of the Peter Pinguid Society, an extreme right-wing underground group whose main rival is the Birch Society. Fallopian hangs out at The Scope. |
Caesar Funch | Caesar Funch is the program director at KCUF, the radio station where Mucho works. |
Hernando Joaquín | Hernando Joaquín de Tristero y Calavera is said to be the founder of the Tristero. |
IA member | Oedipa meets a man at a bar called The Greek Way who claims to be a member of Inamorati Anonymous, an underground group of people who shun romance. He calls Oedipa by the name "Arnold Snarb." |
Pierce Inverarity | Though Pierce never appears in the story, his shadow looms over it. He named Oedipa as executor of his will, and he may have engineered the Tristero investigation as a hoax. |
Tony Jaguar | Tony Jaguar is the alias of Anthony Giunghierrace. He is "very big" in the Mafia, or Cosa Nostra. |
Stanley Koteks | Stanley Koteks is a frustrated inventor at the Yoyodyne Corporation. He might be a member of the Tristero. |
Miles | Miles works at the front desk of Echo Courts, Oedipa's motel. He is also in the band the Paranoids. |
John Nefastis | John Nefastis is the inventor of the Nefastis Machine, which contains a Maxwell's demon. Nefastis tests Oedipa to see if she is a "sensitive," and when she is not, he offers sex as a consolation prize. |
Loren Passerine | Loren Passerine is the auctioneer for the auction of Pierce's estate. |
Roseman | Roseman is the Maas couple's lawyer. He wishes he could be a successful trial lawyer. |
Serge | Serge is a member of the band the Paranoids. His girlfriend leaves him and elopes with Metzger. |
Mr. Thoth | Mr. Thoth is an elderly man at Vesperhaven House, a home for senior citizens. He tells Oedipa about his grandfather riding for the Pony Express. |