Mucho Prejudice-o

One of the most interesting sections in the first chapter of The Crying of Lot 49 was where we learn how Mucho compares the people and families who come to him looking to trade in their vehicles with the actual cars themselves. I believe Pnychon's specific purpose behind giving the reader this information about Mucho is to reveal his character to us. Specifically that he is prejudiced. He makes judgments about his customers lives based on the "automotive projection" (pp 5) of themselves.

We see that he is judgmental of those that come in offering trade-ins that have little or no value, connecting the poor condition of the car with their lives. He assumes that just because they do not take car of the car, their lives must be in ruins. Mucho never stops to think that perhaps the people who come to him just choose not to spend their money on a nice car, but save it for things they might deem more important. He assumes because the interior of a car smells like cheap beer and cigarettes means the person who brought it too him must be smokers and and drinking in order to leave the problems of their "troubled lives". He doesn't think it just might be possible they purchased the car from someone else who smoked or drank. Mucho's problem in relating to people is that he doesn't go beyond the outward expressions of a person's life. He does not and chooses not to search for the hearts of the people he deals with and therefore will always be blinded by first-glance characteristics which may or may not be the true reflection.

Though Mucho may often be correct in his assumptions of people based on the evidence their automobiles provide, he will inevitably be incorrect sometimes. I cannot say for certain at this early stage in the novel, but I believe Pynchon reveals this characterization of Mucho as foreshadowing of his downfall because of his prejudice.