Perpetual Racism

When comparing The Crying of Lot 49 to “The Journey into the Mind of Watts” the most obvious difference between the two lies within the level of complexity and ease of comprehension. I think that out of necessity, Pynchon crafts his words and sentences in order to reach a much broader audience. Since this piece aims to present hardship within the community of Watts and racism overall within the United States, Pynchon elects to use simple sentence structures and keeps the piece linear in order to aid the reader in grasping what is trying to be conveyed. What is also different between the two works is the presence of essential hypothetical situations found within “The Journey into the mind of Watts”. These fictionalized representations are surprisingly effective in depicting hardships faced by many African Americans living in that time. The language that he uses and the situations he imagines are all designed to communicate that racism in America is perpetual. What I mean by this interpretation is that because of all the discrimination imposed on the African Americans by the “The Man” or “The small man” there is a cycle of endless racism. To further clarify, I am going to illustrate a hypothetical of my own. Suppose an African American is raised to believe that all African Americans are not intelligent. This causes him to never pursue education and eventually becomes the epitome of the stereotype imprinted upon him when he was young. When people look at him and classify him under this stereotype they begin the cycle again. Without a break in the stereotype from either end, it will continue to cycle. This crude and simple situation is the premise behind Pynchon’s argument.