In Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West and The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, the protagonists search for order and meaning. The books are similar in that both suggest the possibility of a lack of meaning in America's modern state of chaos. Although both books depict a dismal and temporary existence on earth, Miss Lonelyhearts is more optimistic. The West hints at a knowable world, despite all its misery. Miss Lonelyhearts stumbles through countless fragments of pain and despair, but at the root of her search is the suggestion that there is an answer. The cries of lot 49, on the other hand, contain limitless possibilities and doom the search. It is an unknowable disorder. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay West and Pynchon illustrate the absurdity of American culture in many different ways. Both authors use fragmented imagery and language, overwhelming the reader with tiny fragments of real life. Fragmentation illustrates a superficial sensitivity by developing countless, even entertaining, details without central force or purpose. There is a striking symbol for this cultural chaos in a used car lot, in The Crying of Lot 49. The language itself communicates a sense of searching, with enough commas to make each image its own frenzied gasp . This description contains "...cut coupons promising savings of 5 or 10 [cents], trade stamps, pink flyers announcing market specials, cigarette butts, tooth combs, help announcements, yellow pages torn from the telephone directory, rags of old underwear or dresses that were already period costumes, to wipe your own breath on the inside of a windshield in order to see anything , a movie, a woman or a car you lusted after, a cop who might arrest you just for the drill, all the pieces coated evenly, like a salad of despair, with a gray coating of ash, exhaust condensate, dust, bodily waste..." (Pynchon, 4) This fragmentation of information is an effective way of imitating the modern state. This creates a feeling of absurdity through the constant proliferation of material objects. Miss Lonelyhearts experiences a similar feeling in the deluge of horribly depressing letters that fill the novel. They're just pieces of paper covered in writing. But they encompass a shocking range of human suffering and survival. Separately, these objects could represent important aspects of American life. But together, their relative obscurity and pettiness becomes apparent. There is more than just fragmentation in creating a meaningless world. In characterization, both authors are able to make the same point. The people around the protagonists are superficial and simple. They are shells without a center, simply compelling and recognizable images of complete human beings. Shrike's voice is surprisingly monotone. He rarely goes beyond his cynical “impassiveness”, when “under the white and brilliant globe of his forehead, his features [gather] into a gray and dead triangle”. (West, 6) There is no depth in his understanding. His whole being can be summed up in the single, violent syllable of his name. His comment, like his personality, is just a horrible manifestation of his environment. Most of Miss Lonelyhearts' male associates, "like Shrike, the man they imitated,...were joke machines." (West, 15 years old) Betty issimilar in its representation in a single shade. She is the all-American girl, prey to a belief system encoded into her fragmented world. This simplicity is seen when she "dresses for things" (West, 55) feeds and heals the sick Lonelyhearts due to her firm belief that "if her body was right, everything would be right." (West, 36) Its transparency is particularly evident in its predictability. Just as he avoids Shrike because he can anticipate the next joke, Miss Lonelyhearts can woo Betty with "...all the things that went with strawberry soda and farms in Connecticut." He knows what she knows “[wants] it to be: simple and sweet, whimsical and poetic, a little collegial but very masculine” (West, 56) because his romantic notions are fragile icons of popular culture. both knowable because of the familiarity and predictability of their superficial ideals Miss Lonelyhearts and Oedipa Maas make the mistake of assuming that the world is as understandable as the generic personalities around them. even an illustration of the chaos they must face. Both characters are driven to examine their surroundings by an inner impulse. Miss Lonelyhearts watches "crowds of people move in the street with dreamlike violence" and is ". ... overwhelmed by the desire to help them. " (West, 39) It is this desire that keeps him addicted to the anguished letters he receives every day. And Oedipa cannot stop his "growing obsession with 'contributing something of herself'" . ..to the dispersal of the commercial interests that had survived Inverarity. She would give them order, she would create constellations. while searching. When Miss Lonelyhearts waits on a bench, he not only watches but "examines the sky...like a stupid detective looking for a clue to his own exhaustion and finding nothing in that expanse." , he "turns to the skyscrapers..." and "discovers what he [thinks] is a clue." (West, 27) There is no suggestion as to what this is a clue to. This moment reveals Miss Lonelyhearts. » tendency to create something worth searching for in the world around him, like Oedipa, he considers himself a detective in such cases, viewing his action as observation rather than projection. Although both characters find themselves in the midst of meaningless fragmentation, the two authors draw very different conclusions about the resulting search for order. West subtly betrays the belief that there is hope in all this chaos and purpose in the search. This idea is conveyed through details of language. In comparing herself to Betty, Miss Lonelyhearts makes an important distinction. He thinks that "his confusion [is] significant, while his order [is] not." (West, 11) And later, when "his imagination [begins] to work", and he finds himself in a pawnshop "full of fur coats, diamond rings, watches, hunting rifles , fishing tackle, mandolins... the paraphernalia of suffering". ", the hope in the West's worldview is even clearer. Facing this scene, just like at Mucho's used car lot, Miss Lonelyhearts knows that "all order is doomed to failure, but the battle is worth it." (West, 31 years old) Although he means this phrase in a somewhat sarcastic tone, his actions continue to solidify his belief in this idea. He makes something of these scattered and lost objects He has long given them a place when he “forms first a phallus of old watches and rubber boots, then a heart of umbrellas and trout flies, then a diamond of musical instruments and derby hats. ,.