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Continuing the motif of pig as sacrificial substitute and furthering
the association of Tyrone with Norse god Thor, the Plechazunga pig suit
both disguises and protects Tyrone. As he wanders through the Zone in
search of 00000, he stumbles into a town celebrating an arcane pagan
tradition that leads him to his second symbolic identification with
the pig; the townspeople surround him and tell him of the Pig-Hero,
Plechazunga, sent down by the Norse god Thor to protect them from
Viking invaders (577). They ask Tyrone to wear the Pig-Hero costume
because he appears to be the only person fat enough to fit. He concedes:
“The pig costume is a little startling—pink, blue, yellow, brought sour
colors, a German Expressionist pig, plush outside, padded with straw
inside. It seems to fit perfectly. Hmm” (578). It is no wonder that Tyrone
is a perfect fit; after all, the pig is his totem animal. He partakes in the
festivities until the Russians come in and brutally break it up—but he
remains unharmed: “the first billy-clubs catch him in the straw padding
over his stomach, and don’t feel like much. Civilians are going down left
and right, but Plechazunga’s holding his own” (580). The pig symbol here
both protects and disguises as Tyrone learns that the Russians are actually
looking for him. Under—within—the protective symbol of the swine,
Tyrone Slothrop flees from the town and continues to navigate the hostile
Zone in search of the rocket.
The costume protects him again as a sacrificial substitute when,
during a raid at a brothel, Duane Marvey steps into it thinking that
“no MP would bother an innocent funseeking pig” (617), but is sorely
mistaken as he is apprehended by the MP, who assume he is Slothrop and
castrate him. Slothrop, disguising himself in the Plechazunga costume
to circumvent hostility in the Zone, appears to resonate with another
Norse myth, one in which Thor is said to have disguised himself as Freyja
(also spelled Freya), a goddess who rides a boar with golden bristles, thus
enabling him to navigate a hostile zone in search his lost hammer (Munch
156 | Caputo
77). It is no coincidence, then, that Pynchon’s fictional Plechazunga myth
is associated with Thor. Tyrone’s safety, like Thor’s, depends on a pigrelated
disguise. Moreover, Thor’s association with Freyja the goddess is
comically paralleled in Gravity’s Rainbow by Tyrone’s meeting with Frieda
the pig, an encounter that establishes Slothrop’s connection to romantic
pastoral imagery.
Tyrone’s association with Frieda as his totem animal establishes
the idea that the pig symbol is more than transgressive or sacrificial.
Weisenburger suggests in Companion that Frieda is “named for Freya, the
etymology of whose name gives us fried (peace). Frieda is an apt name
for Pokler’s pig because the Teutonic goddess Freya often appears riding
a sow or boar, sometimes one with golden bristles” (195). Weisenburger’s
etymology of “Frieda” connects her with Freyja, goddess of love
and peace (Rydberg 1020), adding dimension to the novel’s swinish
symbolism. Too, Tyrone’s time with Freida is arguably the most peaceful
and romantic of his Zonal experiences; his connection to “peace” and the
romantic pastoral symbolized by Freida contrasts his earlier transgressive
sexual encounter with Katje. He wakes one morning in the countryside
to Freida licking his face, and rather than being repulsed by the pig that
“grunts and smiles amiably, blinking long eyelashes” (583), he responds
with deference: “‘Wait. How about this?’ He puts on the pig mask. She
stares for a minute, then moves up to Slothrop and kisses him, snout-tosnout”
(583). A passage of pastoral serenity follows as Tyrone and Frieda
travel the countryside together in peace. She leads him to food, protects
him from an attacking dog, and guides him to his next lead on his quest.
Tyrone realizes the animal’s totemic relationship to him in an epiphany
one night as they sleep together:
Slothrop keeps waking to find the pig snuggled in a bed of
pine needles, watching over him. It’s not for danger, or out of
restlessness. Maybe she’s decided Slothrop needs looking after.
Caputo | 157