At this point in Libra, Lee Harvey Oswald is just Lee. He's not referred to by his full name, he's not an assassin, he's just Lee. Does this make him more of a sympathetic character? We talked in class today about how Lee kind of seems like a normal kid, kind of seems weird, and kind of seems like an asshole. I guess in order to figure out this character, we have to consider his circumstances.
He hasn't had a perfect upbringing. His mother didn't get a good settlement from her divorce with Mr. Ekdahl, which means he constantly has to move around, and he doesn't have a lot of friends and is a loner. I do kind of feel bad for him because he and his mother have struggled, and it can't be easy as a 13 year old to be so unstable. This might have to do with how he actually acts. He's rude to his mother and appears to look for trouble (he smirks when talking about how he got punched in the face. Not something that a lot of people would do). Perhaps one of the things that we've found to be most unusual about Lee is that he enjoys reading communist and Marxist propaganda as a young teenager. This might be something else that can be explained by his upbringing. I think what Aja said in class today was really interesting: while he may just be carrying around Das Kapital to show off to people how smart he is and to be a poser, it's definitely plausible that he might like this idea. A capitalist society hasn't benefited him or his mother, and the idea that there's a possibility for a change or something different might be appealing. I think with this background, DeLillo is able to make this character appear to be somewhat sympathetic, and if you don't consider the name Lee Harvey Oswald, the person he's describing could be anyone. It is still kind of weird that someone so young would want to read all of this Marxist literature, and that he bought a gun, but I don't know, Lee still isn't what I expected. He isn't painted like a villain, he isn't written like "Lee Harvey Oswald."
I wouldn't say that I entirely sympathize with Lee at this point because I still find him to be rude and he doesn't have the greatest personality, but it's certainly interesting how DeLillo has painted Lee Harvey Oswald from the history books as just a kind of weird kid in his teens. I'm interested to see him transform as he gets a little older (if he transforms at all?) What do you think about Lee?
Nice post! I agree with Aja's comment regarding Lee's interest in communist ideas. It stuck out to me that at one point in "In New Orleans," Lee notes "oppressed workers" unloading a shipment of bananas after which he thinks about finding a communist cell, which proves his interest in the ideas. It feels odd not to completely hate Lee Harvey Oswald, the understood assassin, as his childhood is described in an understandable way.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, I like the idea that Lee has somewhat of a legitimate interest in the communist ideas that he reads about. The banana-workers is a good example and supported by his destitute and deteriorating living standards; equality for all may be a very appealing idea for someone like Lee. But he still is a child, and I think that whatever ideas he has are vague and undeveloped at this point, which is why we also get Lee's constant fantasy of skimming across rooftops in dark clothing after joining a communist cell.
ReplyDeleteI definitely like this portrayal of Lee that we get in these early chapters, because it gives us some perspective on the life of this guy who everyone knows for one notorious act. This backstory and the use of just "Lee" rather than his full name serve to humanize him. As for the communist books, it was brought up in 8th hour today that he seems to like them for the attention that they receive rather than there actual contents.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the ambiguity surrounding Lee's fascination with Marxism (is he a poser? a "true believer"? does he even understand this stuff?), I think it's possible to see it both ways, and I think DeLillo specifically allows for some ambiguity here (as George de Mohrenschildt can't even assess how sincere Lee is).
ReplyDeleteAja made a very good point by noting that Lee's circumstances would render him very open to Marxist ideas: his mother and him have experienced the underside of the capitalist dream in some very stark ways, and it makes sense that Lee is disillusioned with capitalism as he's seen it so far. The fact that America is a class-based society (which the capitalist metanarrative would deny) is clearly evident to Lee from a very young age.
And yet, with his poor education and his undiagnosed dyslexia, we can only imagine how daunting a book like _Kapital_ would be to ANY 16 year old, let alone this kid. There's definitely part of him that enjoys being notorious, and being seen with the big dusty forbidden book of Marxism. But there's also a part of him that badly wants to grasp the ideas and analysis that Marx presents, and even if his understanding is incomplete, we have no reason to doubt the sincerity of the intent.
So, like so much else with Lee, it's possible to see him as both a poser AND a true believer, someone with an intuitive grasp of the class economics Marx analyzes AND an incomplete intellectual grasp on the theory.
I think it is important to look at Lee from both perspectives, especially if you read the narrative solely as a coming of age novel, instead a book heading toward the eventual culminating event of shooting Kennedy. Personally, I find Oswald to be a very troubling adolescent solely through his personality traits, but DeLillo makes the reader waver back and forth, especially by using the almost-nickname "Lee." We're reminded he is an relatively uneducated teenager from a troubled background just trying to escape his own reality, which makes us more sympathetic to his situation. I guess I go back and forth, but in the end, Lee does worry me.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post, I think I could see Lee in the light of just trying to have a better life-- maybe something he sees in Marxist values. However, once he gets older and things aren't shaping up for him, he's trapped and acts out to try to shape his own destiny.
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