Oedipa’s Paranoiac Quest In Pynchon’s The Crying Of Lot49

Paranoia is a very important theme in Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot49. This thesis explores Oedipa’s quest of Trystero system in The Crying of Lot49through three aspects:discovery of connectedness, suspicion of conspiracy and employment of projection mechanism which are acknowledged as three main characteristics of the paranoic by many critics.On the basis of the above analysis, a conclusion is drawn that Oedipa’s quest of Trystero system in The Crying of Lot49is paranoiac. She has been resorting to paranoic mode of thinking in her quest of Trystero. This mode of thinking can be found both in psychiatric diseases and normal behavior. According to Lacan, everyone in this world is paranoiac since human knowledge is paranoiac.