Oedipa Has No Goal Just As The

Hair Spray Can Has No Aim Essay, Research Paper

Oedipa Has No Goal Just As The Hair Spray Can Has No Aim

The hair spray can has no aim when it is flying around just as Oedipa

has no goal when she is traveling around. The can is flying around bouncing off

of whatever it hits and is out of control. Oedipa is traveling around San

Narciso just going where ever people take her and really has no destination in

mind. Both Oedipa and the can are traveling aimlessly around their respected

areas.

The can is flying around the room because Oedipa knocked the can over

and the top broke off. The can then started flying around the room, “The can

hit the floor, something broke, and with a great outsurge of pressure the stuff

commenced atomizing, propelling the can swiftly about the bathroom”(36). The

can is fueled by something in side of it. The stuff inside the can sends it

around the bathroom even though it does not know where it is going.

Oedipa starts traveling around San Narciso but she does not have a

destination. She is being fueled by something inside her just as the can was.

The stuff inside Oedipa that sends her around San Narciso is her curiosity. Her

curiosity in the meaning of the Tristero and the meaning of W.A.S.T.E. are what

sends her around San Narciso. She does not know where she is going but she will

go until her fuel runs out just like the can.

Oedipa travels around the city of San Narciso without a real destination.

She will get temporary destinations but no final destination. The can does not

have any real destination either. The can will get a temporary destination just

as Oedipa will. The can’s temporary destination changes each time it hits its

destination (e.g., a wall or other object). Oedipa’s temporary destination

changes when she reaches it (e.g., a store or other location) just like the

can’s does.