"The Crying of Lot 49" chapter 4

     In chapter 4 Oedipa goes from person to person and from place to place trying to piece together clues and trying to figure out what W.A.S.T.E may stand for, and she is also trying to figure out what the strange symbol she found on the bathroom wall at the scope may mean.
     Oedipa starts her research out by rereading Pierce's will and realizes that the Yoyodyne company is mentioned in it so she decides to go to one of the stockholders meeting which was to be held the next day. This meeting seemed very strange to me as the company president led the people in a sing along after the regularly scheduled business was taken care of. After all this takes place Oedipa is taken on a company tour and seemingly like she always does she gets lost and separated from the rest of the group. It just so happens that the person she finally stops and talks to is doodling the mysterious symbol at his desk. Oedipa describes this symbol as " a loop, triangle, and trapezoid all connected together". After visiting and talking with this guy she gets a copy of the play thy saw a few days earlier and decides to got to the place the copy of the play was published.
     While on her way Oedipa decides to stop by an old folks home that Pierce had built. Once again she picks a completely random person to talk to. He tells her about the dream he was having, it was about his grandfather who rode for the pony express. The pony express was the fastest mail service of its time using horse and buggy to carry mail from east to west. The pony express only ran for about a year but it was the quickest way to get word from east to west before the telegraph was invented. The man said his grandfather was an Indian killer and he showed her a ring that his grandfather has cut off one of the Indians. And once again here it was that strange symbol she was trying to chase down the meaning off, the symbol was on the ring that the old man showed her. So after this Oedipa goes back to the scope to talk to Fallopian to try and piece together some of the clues but, they fail to do so. So once again Oedipa ventures off and heads to see Pierce's personal stamp collector. On many of the stamps they looked at they found the mysterious symbol and some symbols that were slightly different.
     So pretty much chapter 4 is about Oedipa running around following clues trying to figure out anything she can about this symbol. All of the people that Oedipa talked to in this chapter seemed to cut her off and try to change the subject when Oedipa seemed to dig to far. There is very little mention of Metzger in this chapter as he seems to be working on the will of Pierce. There is also no mention of Oedipa's husband, i think their relationship may fall apart within the next few chapter. As of right now i really don't know what to expect next, Oedipa keeps digging for clues but then she keeps getting the door slammed in her face when she digs to far.