59 pages 1 hour read

Thomas Pynchon

Vineland

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1990

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Essay Topics

1.

Each year, Zoyd Wheeler performs a stunt for the news cameras. How do these stunts serve as an example of how media and image-making work in the novel? What is the wider significance of mass media in the text?

2.

Explore how various characters wrestle with the question of identity in Vineland. How do characters like Prairie, Zoyd, Frenesi, DL, and others conceive of their sense of self through their political, social, and/or familial connections?

3.

How are hippies depicted in Vineland? In what ways does Vineland reflect hippie stereotypes, and in what ways does the novel challenge or subvert them?