The meaning behind the title of The Crying of Lot 49

I went back to the end of chapter 6 to analyze into further depth the ending of the Crying of Lot 49. I wanted to focus on how the title of the novel relates to the end of the story being narrated.

To start, I found the first word of the title in the following quote, “We’re in luck. Lorren Passerine, the finest auctioneer in the West, will be crying tonight.”(151) In this citation of the text, the person speaking is referring to crying as the word used to describe the action of calling out the auction sale. It is rather strange to think of this act as “crying,” but in a way, the auctioneer is actually using a lot of pressure on the public for them to raise their paddles and offer more money. This people are actually begging for more money to be offered, but they do it in a threatening tone which manipulates the audience. When we say, The Crying of Lot 49, we are relating it to this part of the book and we think mostly of the desperate need to sell a lot. In this case, it is Lot 49.

The next word we see is lot. Now this word appears several times in the novel. Most of the times it is related to Mucho Mass, Who worked in a sort of parking lot and that later on mentions a lot were his radio station was located. Pierce left a lot of lots behind and they were very important for Oedipa to discover all her findings on the great mystery. A lot can also have other meanings besides a place. A lot, is a great amount of something, it is a certain amount of objects, it is to draw something from somewhere to have a luck based victory, to receive an inheritance, to divide, distribute, etc. After seeing some of the many definitions of this word, I could analyze that maybe the title is not exactly referring to the use of an object that would be raised to decide who would keep the collection of stamps. The lot could also be the collection itself which was denominated as a lot and was given a specific number to be able to identify it.

Finally we find the number 49. This number is a number that you don’t interpret as a luck number (7) or as a misfortune number (13). 49 is very a very neutral number, but it is exactly before fifty. Fifty is considered as half. You always refer as something that is half as 50%. Being fifty years old, is also considered living up to the half of a life time. When you see 49, it is the point in which you are about to be in the center of life, but are not still there yet. It’s more or less like a limbo. For the novel to include 49 in its title, the number has to have some significance, buy up until now, it can be anything, from the paddle 49 that will buy the collection to the age that person has or just the number assigned to the stamp collection in the auction, the collection being a lot.

Oedipa ends the story by referring to the title in the following way, “The auctioneer cleared his throat. Oedipa settled back, to wait the crying of lot 49.”(152) This symbolizes the whole plot of the book in one sentence. Oedipa’s anxiety to find the answer to the mystery is reflected in the way she awaits this crying. Finally we as readers can conclude that all of the efforts made by this woman add up to this crucial moment that will define the last piece to the puzzle. When she hears the crying of lot 49, everything will be clear for her, and her journey will end, or at least it will be near to its end. The Crying of Lot 49 is not only the title of this book, but it is the element that puts all the pieces together and leaves the reader almost clueless and full of expectations towards the final answer that the mystery will reveal.