Epictetus, the Greek Stoic philosopher, said: “Tell you first what you would be; and then do what you have to do. Defining one's personal identity may coincide with this ancient Stoic principle, but what is not mentioned is the human transformation that must take place to realize such an aspiration. In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49, there is a quest for personal definition that requires breaking the societal conventions of a chaotic culture. The Invisible Man is trapped in a world where his grandfather believes that the best response to the white man's racism is unprecedented, insincere kindness. In The Crying of Lot 49, Oedipa Maas exists in a community consumed by the “daily” of suburban life. While the Invisible Man and Oedipa Maas have been alienated by their respective cultures, Invisible derives a personal identity while Oedipa Maas continues to struggle in a world that is disintegrating around her due to her inability to connect and communicate with his chaotic society. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay At the beginning of the novel, Invisible introduces himself to the reader as a black man forgotten by society; he lives underground and steals electricity from a power company for his incredibly well-lit lair. The company knows someone is consuming an exorbitant amount of electricity, but the culprit is strangely invisible to the rest of the grid. He opens his relationship with the reader as a man forgotten by society, for better or for worse. Invisible says: “I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, of fibers and liquids – and one might even say that I possess a spirit. I am invisible, understand, quite simply because people refuse to see me” (3). The withdrawal from society that Invisible experiences is not a peaceful sabbatical, but rather an anxious fragmentation of the world he desperately wants to interact with. Sometimes he is insecure about himself and must continually prove to himself what others do not recognize. This constant struggle for recognition is sometimes painful, as Invisible says his efforts cause fatigue. He says, “You feel the need to convince yourself that you exist in the real world” (4). Invisible does not experience the symptomatic fulfillment of human interaction, and its absence causes pain and fatigue that prevent him from turning toward the seemingly blind society from which he has been excluded. Oedipa of Weeping from Lot 49 was also separated. of society, but not in the same way as Invisible. She is certainly "visible" to the rest of society, but she has established herself as "a Rapunzel role, that of a pensive young girl, somehow, as if by magic, trapped among the pines and salt sprays of Kinneret, looking for someone to say hey, leave it.” let your hair down” (10). While Invisible desperately tries to get noticed, especially with the electricity company, his presence remains unknown. The absence of Oedipa, or buffer between her, society and the adventures of her dreams, has an internal basis. She creates a fortress around her daily actions and only lets her guard down when the time is right. For Invisible, the barriers he faces are external and based on the thoughts and judgments of those around him. However, like Invisible, Oedipa will gain knowledge through new experiences that break down the walls of her isolation, but it remains to be seen whether she will develop a personal identity. We know that the beginning of Invisible Man is actually the end, and theend the beginning. By the end of the novel, he has come full circle and is living underground, perhaps with a view to taking his first bold steps into society as a man comfortable with his own identity. However, he doesn't start out with such control over his personality, nor does he possess the common sense to choose his battles. At the beginning, he is a man certainly invisible to society, and who presents himself as such. However, he does not always manage precarious situations as would a man who knows he is invisible in the eyes of society. He mercilessly hits a man who insults him; he hits the man's chin with his forehead and kicks him repeatedly. It is a break from the innocent and intimate nature in which the reader first sees Invisible as a man without any hold in society. His violence shows the immaturity of his feelings; it tries to force man to recognize himself as human through brute force, rather than by making a meaningful contribution to society. However, Invisible claims that his people were caught in the heat of an altercation and that fighting is not his normal response to a confrontation. He says: “Most of the time...I'm not...overtly violent. I remember that I am invisible and that I walk gently so as not to wake those who are sleeping… However, I have learned over time that it is possible to fight against them without them realizing it” (5) . Regardless, when he does not resort to violence, he falls back on his own invisibility to continue his “fight” that he deems necessary – at least at the beginning of the novel. Invisible has been alienated by his own culture. So, he must find a way to deal with the chaotic environment around him. When he takes Mr. Norton to The Golden Day sports and gambling house, Invisible is literally and figuratively forced into an environment that is foreign to him. He is forced to take Mr. Norton to the facility because the administrator needs medical attention, but he did not expect the tumultuous atmosphere of The Golden Day. Here he is not invisible (like everyone else is black), but rather reprimanded by the vet for his actions. The vet believes that neither Mr. Norton nor Invisible are acting authentically towards the other: they are simply playing a role that will lead them to their supposed destiny. He says, “[You] both don’t understand what’s happening to you. You cannot see, hear or feel the truth of what you see – and you seek destiny! It's classic! And boy, this automaton, it's made of the very mud of the region and sees much less than you. Poor stumblers, neither of you can see the other. For you, he is a mark on the scoreboard of your success, a thing and not a man; a child, or even less – a black and amorphous thing. And you, despite all your power, are not a man for him, but a God, a force. (95) In the midst of the chaos – and its normally disengaging effect – Invisible hears for one of the first times a story different from that of his grandfather. The vet scolds Invisible for his "yes sir, no sir" mentality toward the whites in charge, but later Invisible wishes he could tell Mr. Norton how ashamed he was of the frenzied atmosphere of The Golden Day. Rather, he believes that the white man's approval will bring him the social forum he desires. Although he is only beginning to define himself, Invisible still believes at this point that he can bring change as a servant of others. Invisible wages an unchanging struggle to please those around him, hoping to garner the praise of others and perhaps increase his own. self-esteem. When Invisible joins the Brotherhood, he feels a little disheveled since the beginning of his relationship with the strange brother Jack andhis eccentric mistress, Emma. Later, he reiterates his desire to please those around him: “My mind struggled desperately to be accepted. Nothing would change things. They would move me and investigate and I, still believing, still subject to discipline, would have to accept their decision” (407). Invisible, like so many times before, throws his preconceptions to the wind and gets carried away by the expectations of others while waiting for the promise of a public forum in which to speak and perhaps be recognized. We can also sense the insecurity Invisible feels as he questions whether Brother Jack still wants him or not. He has given up the idea of ​​servitude, but Invisible now believes he can carve out an identity for himself as a speaker public, even if it promotes the ideas of a secret and devious society. While Invisible seeks to define himself through those around him, Oedipa's search for truth requires the help of others, but is above all a personal exploration. She seeks out Randolph Driblette after watching The Courier Tragedy to ask him about the bones and their connection to Pierce's connections with the Cosa Nostra. Instead, Driblette is brusque and secretive, answering questions with questions. Driblette says, “You can piece together clues, develop a thesis, or several, about why the characters reacted to the possibility of Trystero the way they did, why the assassins arrived, why the black suits. You could waste your life that way and never touch the truth” (60). His quote coldly foreshadows the possibility that Oedipa may not find the truth at all, but it continues because of the strange mention of the Trystero. Oedipa's environment in which she must exist is chaotic in a way very different from that of Invisible. She must face characters with serious communication problems, while living in a foggy consciousness in which even she struggles to define reality with the recurring symbol of Trystero. As the search deepens, Pierce's hunt for him becomes more and more complicated. Oedipus wonders how far she must go to find essential reality; she wonders if "she too could not end up with only memories compiled of clues, announcements, indications, but never with the central truth itself, which must in one way or another to be each time too brilliant for his memory to be able to retain it” (76). The fragmented pieces of an undiscovered world are similar to the conflicting opinions Invisible receives from his grandfather, the veterinarian, and his brother Jack. However, many of Invisible's experiences are authentic in their freshness, while Oedipa seems to reel past face values ​​into a web of incorrigible clues that only grows more confusing. This realization is evident when “she glanced down the hallway of Cohen's apartments in the rain and saw, for the very first time, how far it was possible to get lost there” ( 76). Invisible begins to gain new awarenesses when he takes a closer look at the intentions of those around him, while Pierce's intentions only serve to confuse Oedipa as she delves into the mystery. Unfortunately, the reader does not learn Oedipa's ultimate justification nor is there an answer. insinuation of a great failure. The end of the novel is shrouded in more mystery than its beginning, which is undesirable both for Oedipa and for the reader hoping for an overall ending. In fact, Oedipa “lets his hair down.” However, whether she or the reader is better off for her actions is debatable. She can't communicate with the disorderly society.