Crying of Lot 49: Did Oedipa Escape the Tower?

In Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49, there is definitely some sort of critique of female, middle class passivity. However, I am particularly interested in what is going on with the roles of women. In the beginning Oedipa's quest is mapped out as her attempt to escape from the tower, which she can do by marriage, finding some sort of hobby, or by going insane. As the novel continues we see her quest to get to the bottom of this whole postal mystery become her sort of hobby and mental illness. She is possibly insane possibly not, probably somewhere in the middle there. She is obsessed with this completely arbitrary trail of clues leading to what sort of end we are not sure, and in the end we are not even sure what happened with the quest as it ends with Oedipa awaiting the crying of lot 49 in which she is certain she will find the answers/ end to her quest but alas, the reader will never know.

One couple lines, in light of this quest, I want to examine more closely in this blog post. When Oedipa goes to Bortz's house and speaks briefly with his wife Grace she inquires about how Oedipa escaped her children that day, to which Oedipa responds she has none. Then Grace looking surprised says, "There's a certain harassed style...you get to recognize. I thought only kids caused it. I guess not"(Pynchon 124). I was curious at first as to what is going on with this remark. Perhaps the novel is saying Oedipa's quest has taken place of having a husband and kids, but has still had the same affect on her; a "harassed" affect. But if that is the case, is the novel advocating for the quest or against it? Oedipa doesn't seem to have escaped the tower, and doesn't seem to have become less passive although she embarked on this quest as an alternative route to marriage and motherhood, and an attempt to find meaning. However, the point of the novel seems to be that there is no escape. Oedipa is still as harassed as motherhood would've left her. So, clearly Oedipa did not escape the tower. However, I'm still left with so many questions: If Oedipa is a cautionary tale, what is the right path to escape from the tower? Or is there no escape at all?