eems to be an obsession to find a truth in symbols (be they horns or crop circles), a truth that both characters come to realize may not even exist. By definition, obsession is a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling. Therefore, the moment that their questions are absolved, the moment that their hypotheses are proved, the quest and its subsequent paranoia, frustration, and pain are removed. The motive is fear that the quest is unending, that there is no answer to the questions, and perhaps that there truly was no mystery to begin with. For each character, Mulder and Oedipa, this fear drives them in their personal quests for the truth.Many themes from The Crying of Lot 49 can be seen in modern culture, especially movies: paranoia in Conspiracy Theory and Enemy of the State, and Hilariuss psycho-drug culture in Girl Interrupted. However, no movie or show ties so well to Oedipas quest as FOXs The X-Files. Both Oedipa Maas and Fox Mulder seek personal truths, one based on a secret postal system, another on alien intervention in human life, but they hold more in common than it first appears. Maybe aliens are delivering mail behind the back of the US government. Black BoyIn the penultimate chapter of Black Boy, Richard very uncharacteristically participates in a boxing match with Harrison, a fellow black boy employee. Though this seems unlikely early in the chapter, Richard eventually caves to Harrisons requests for a fight. The culture instigating this fight is fairly obvious: the white employers want to see the black boys fight like a dog or rooster for their entertainment. The ideology behind the event, then, would be the assumptions of the white men, like most in the Southern culture in this book, are that blacks are inferior to whites. This idea is not consciously implemented into the minds of the employers, but it is an aspect of the culture that they take for granted. In the minds of...
