Clayton ("Bloody") Chiclitz

Character Analysis

Clayton Chiclitz is the president of Yoyodyne, the electronics and missile company that possibly has a connection to the Tristero Conspiracy. (Pynchon first introduced Yoyodyne in his novel V.) Oedipa sees Chiclitz when she attends a stockholder's meeting at the plant, and the president leads all of the stockholders in several songs that praise Yoyodyne and bemoan the fact that the company is not as successful as some of its rivals.

Chiclitz is a gross parody of a corporate CEO, who has no problem making a profit from selling missiles to the American government (which at this time would likely have been used in Vietnam). His nickname is a simple pun on "Chiclets," a brand of chewing gum popular in the 1960s. "Bloody Chiclitz" is street slang for someone who gets punched in the mouth.