Slothrop’s life itself can be interpreted in mise-en-abyme in relation to the parabola of the rocket and that of the rainbow. His personal descent occurs when his identity starts to dissipate, just as he has escaped Their control and is left free to fall to the ground and disintegrate (Hite ‘Ideas of Order’ 117). Herbert Marcuse identifies Slothrop’s fragmentation with the embodiment of the pluridimensional man, freed of all control and impossible to be apprehended (Hite ‘Ideas of Order’ 118). Last time we see Slothrop, he engages in sexual hallucinations: ‘Slothrop sees a very thick rainbow here, a stout rainbow cock driven down out of pubic clouds into Earth, green wet valleyed Earth, and his chest fills and he stands crying, not a thing in his head, just feeling natural’ (GR 626). It seems that this serene clearheaded disposition is the fruit of a relaxed rapport between Slothrop and the world—as the pantheistic theme returns. Pynchon shows once more in what way ignorance is bliss and how the mindlessness of taking a moment’s break from paranoia (which other characters spend by eating bananas) can turn out to be the only solution to personal fulfillment. Control is a topic that brings the most important symbols in Gravity’s Rainbow together: the rocket, Slothrop’s erections, and bananas. Pynchon’s parabola stands for totalitarian control as the human need to encompass and rationalize experience (Hite ‘Ideas of Order’ 98). However, there is hope to be gathered from the ending to the story of each of these three elements. The rockets begin to have a will of their own after Brennschluss, and therefore defy Their authority. As Slothrop meanders through the Zone, farther and farther away from London, his conditioning seems to be wearing off, so he is finally able to enjoy his sexual freedom. Ultimately, what could be more absurd than the idea of a clockwork banana? Pirate uses the banana figure to subvert the official system, therefore subscribing to a long list of cultural associations according to which this fruit symbolizes freedom, rebellion, and the sexual side of humans.
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