Lee Harvey Oswald character analysis in LIBRA 

    In Don DeLillo's LIBRA there is a lot going on while following Lee Harvey Oswald that it becomes easy to miss the insane amount of subplots revolving around Lee during his journey to assassinate president Kennedy. Throughout Lee's life he has always viewed himself as someone who will immortalize himself in history by being something greater than his time. However multiple times throughout the story, Lee continues to fail in achieving an act capable of immortalizing him in history. At first, Lee's desire to make sure no one takes him lightly overshadows a lot of other aspects about his character that aren't explored as much during the story; however upon further inspection everything Lee does comes back full circle to simultaneously make Lee significant and even more insignificant at the same time. 

    From his beginnings, Lee was constantly on the go from house to house so that him and his mother could live with food and shelter. The absence of Lee's father started to take a toll on Lee as he felt a part of his identity was missing. Lee's search for this missing piece to his identity carried him on a journey throughout the world. He begins this journey by joining the marines which gives him the ability to search for that missing piece of his identity. Despite his experiences in the marines, Lee decides that a life in Russia would be much more politically fulfilling to him rather than staying in the U.S. During his tenure in Russia, Lee continues to search for something to make his life significant. He spends time journaling about the area hoping that it will be of use for someone in the future looking back at this time. He also spends time going out with women to see if that helps fill the void. Lee begins to understand that Russia isn't going to help him find what he's looking for, so he travels back to the U.S.

    Subconsciously Lee realizes that all the time he spent searching for the missing piece of his identity, became apart of his identity. From the early stages of his life when he had to care for his mother, to his time in the Marines learning about the politics of the U.S, to his time in Russia where he found his wife, Lee realizes a bit late that what he was searching for he had already found. This can be seen too when Lee the day before the assassination is lying with Marina in front of the T.V. This is one of the only scenes in the story where Lee has a family, however blinded by his desire to be recognized and respected he continues on with the plot to assassinate Kennedy. 

Comments

  1. Maryalice KleinDecember 22, 2023 at 10:39 AM

    hey Leor- I agree that Lee's search for identity is what leads to him doing these insane things. He is so easily manipulated that people can convince him to do almost anything. he becomes so obsessed with these ideas of becoming a historical figure and filling this void in his life he loses sight of what is really important to him. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Larissa DolcosDecember 24, 2023 at 4:26 PM

    Nice post! It's definitely interesting how Lee's search for who he is becomes one of his leading characteristics. He's an obsessive character who defines history in serious ways and it's interesting how the book frames him.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kevin Character analysis

Kevin character analysis      In Kindred Kevin is Dana's spouse and is a middle aged white writer. Kevin, like Dana gets sent to the past to experience the tragedies of slavery. To the reader on the surface, Kevin could come across as both insignificant to the development of the story, and somewhat useless and ignorant, however with further investigation there are a lot of layers to Kevin's character that are hard too unpack upon first glance. Butler does a great job using Kevin quietly as a way to make the reader to stare at the harsh realities of slavery and racial inequality, and ultimately Butler uses Kevin as a student learning through the 1619 project.     Towards the end of Dana's second visit to the 19th century she finds herself trying to fight off a patroller who thinks that she is Alice's mom. After shaking the patroller off, she finds herself mistaking Kevin as the Patroller. This moment is where Butler begins to flirt with the idea of Kevin goi...
Read more

The blur between history and fiction in Doctorow's Ragtime.

     The blur between history and fiction in Doctorow's Ragtime.      Doctorow's Ragtime is a story which has you often asking the question "Did this really happen?". The answer most of the time is maybe. Doctorow finds multiple pockets throughout history, where it's hard to tell exactly if something really happened or not. For example Harry Houdini suddenly crashing his car at the same time a kid was thinking about his idol/ role model Harry Houdini. Later on you see him entering their house and chilling with their family before leaving and carrying on with his own business. In history there are many moments like these where something could've happened or it could've not happened and this is all possible due to Houdini's day to day life not being recorded in history. Doctorow loves to exploit these spaces in history where there are gaps, even if those gaps are small and seem to be insignificant on a larger scale in history, they help him fabricate his...
Read more

What is Jes Grew?

The significance of Jes Grew in the novel Mumbo Jumbo  In Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo a viral epidemic seems to be plaguing the lives of people across America. The disease revives in New Orleans and begins to spread uncontrollably throughout America, trying to reach its final destination in New York. The Atonist description of Jes Grew is people "doing stupid sensual things" and "were in a state of an uncontrollable frenzy". However according to Papa LaBas Jes Grew is an anti-plague and enlightens the "infected" and encourages them to move and think freely. So what is Jes Grew and what is it's significance       Despite multiple accounts reporting that Jes Grew is an extremely dangerous epidemic and could threaten the existence of mankind as a whole, the emphasis on curing the disease is very big throughout the story, which gives the reader the impression that the disease is very bad. However as the story continues the reader begins to learn that J...
Read more