The Failed Escape of the Suburban Housewife

At the beginning of the novel, we are presented with a stereotypical image of the average housewife through Oedipa’s mundane routine : “One summer afternoon Mrs Oedipa Mass came home from a Tupperware party[...]” (1) It is within this opening line that Pynchon first displays this satirical relationship with his protagonist. This long and not particularly gripping, opening passage with its lack of punctuation could certainly signify the mundane, tedious and continuous routine of the suburban housewife, a stereotype that Oedipa seems to live up to.

This outdated image of the suburban housewife is continued by the comparison Oedipa makes between her own life and her relationship with Pierce and the image of Rapuznel: “[...]In the central painting of a triptych, titled “Bordando el Manto Treestre,” were a number of frail girls with heart-shaped faces, huge eyes, spun-gold hair, prisoners in the top room of a circular tower[...]seeking hopelessly to fill the void[...]Oedipa had stood in front of the painting and cried” (11) It can be argued that it is as if society has left Oedipa living a life she is not content with, living the lifestyle of a woman that does not fit her desires. Oedpia has has two options: To leave this ivory tower that a manmade society has created for her and to explore her identity or to continue living the facade that does not fulfil her. Of course Oedpia does not fit into the lifestyles she encounters whilst slumming it in San Francisco.

This longing for independence and escape from her day to day routine is contradicted by Pynchon for the very fact that her life is somewhat controlled by the importance of men in her life and is always seeking approval from a man, not to forget that Oedipa has not reached any personal resolution or clarity by the end of the novel. 

 At first, Pynchon’s handling of Oedipa annoyed me greatly, the satire appeared to be somewhat antagonistic, but it is with further depth and understanding that we have established collectively that Pynchon is presenting satirically, every essence of what a woman should not be through Oedipa’s character.