Lee

Before reading Libra, I knew pretty much nothing about Lee Harvey Oswald. So far, I think DeLillo has done a good job portraying someone known for assassinating a president. Lee is definitely not a likeable character, but as a reader I’m invested in him and want to know how his story continues to play out. Since his childhood he was a social outcast, constantly getting ridiculed for being an outsider at every new location he lives in. When he lives in New York, he gets made fun of for his Southern accent, and when he’s in New Orleans, he gets made fun of for sounding like he’s from the North. Reading things like this instinctively make me feel bad for him, but Lee really isn’t a typical protagonist at all. While he does get bullied for very little reason often, he’s not necessarily a character you feel sympathy for. He’s an incredibly strange person, and to me comes off pretty creepy at times. His only friends are basically the books he reads, and DeLillo makes it clear how much of an impact they have on Lee: “He saw himself as something vast and sweeping. He was the product of a sweeping history, he and his mother, locked into a 16 process, a system of money and property that diminished their human worth every day, as if by scientific law. The books made him part of something.” Characterizing Lee in this manner creates a suspenseful tone for the rest of the novel, yet also provides rationale for many of his actions like joining the Marines. When we get to the place in the novel where the conspiracy of attempting to assassinate the president is underway, Lee’s unawareness of the truth also adds to the suspense built throughout. The fact that DeLillo used factual accounts from Lee’s background makes his fictionalized version of Lee even more interesting to me.