Gravity's Rainbow - Structure and Chronology

Structure and Chronology

The novel's title is a reference to the parabolic trajectory of a V-2 rocket: the "rainbow-shaped" path created by the missile as it moves under the influence of gravity, subsequent to the engine's deactivation; it is also thought to refer to the "shape" of the plot, which many critics such as Weisenburger have found to be cyclical or circular, like the true shape of a rainbow. This follows in the literary tradition of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake and Herman Melville's The Confidence-Man.

Gravity's Rainbow is composed of four parts, each of these composed of a number of episodes whose divisions are marked by a graphical depiction of a series of squares. It has been suggested that these represent sprocket holes as in a reel of film, although they may also bear some relation to the engineer's graph paper on which the first draft of the novel was written. One of the book's editors has been quoted as saying that the squares relate to censored correspondence sent between soldiers and their loved ones during the war. When family and friends received edited letters, the removed sections would be cut out in squared or rectangular sections. The squares that start each of the four parts would therefore be indicative of what is not written, or what is removed by an external editor or censor. The square frames that divide each chapter were the work of the publisher's production department, and were not suggested by Pynchon. The number of episodes in each part carries with it a numerological significance which is in keeping with the use of numerology and Tarot symbolism throughout the novel.