Wait, I Thought It Was Different

After reading , I didn't even know what to think of the book. I had been narrowing down my ideas about the book, and I was really starting to understand the story, until this chapter came along. There had been a certain story that was building up, but this chapter seems to just change every character. Maybe I'm not completely understanding the book as much as I should because Pynchon has been constantly changing the characters. This is clearly a technique used by Pynchon not only to keep the reader interested in the progression and growth of the characters, but it also completely gives freedom to the character's actions. In many stories, the characters involved almost always have the same personality. The serious dad is always the serious dad, and the crazy brother is always the crazy brother. What Pynchon does by releasing that linear personality from his characters, is ultimately creates a free place where the characters don't necessarily have to follow any certain personalities. I may be ignorant to the literature and reading world, but this is the first book that I read were everything is so inconsistent. It's like if the book its making fun of itself by just changing everything. Pynchon build part of a story up, and then before we know it, everything has changed.

A thing that also shocked me was the craziness of the characters. Many characters have just gone completely crazy and are acting very different compared to previous chapters."Day by day, Wendell is more himself and less generic. He enters a staff meeting and the room is suddenly full of people, you know? He's a walking assembly of man (115)." This is a sample of how the reader is forced to start thinking about how everyone is changing. This type of sentence is only put in a book to make the reader stop reading, and analyze how the characters are changing."You'll think I'm crazy, Oed (116)." Just on the page after, another hint is given to us. Not only can we as the readers recognize the abnormalities of the characters in the story, but the book itself also makes us think about the same thing.

Overall, this chapter was a complete mess, and it once again made reading this chapter more interesting. Pynchon will not let the reader rest on what they know. He is constantly changing the plot and the characters to keep everything fresh. It's a very effective tool that has kept me interested in the book.