Lee Harvey Oswald. Upon hearing the name, one of the first
images that comes to mind is Oswald's—Lee's—historic smile. In Libra, DeLillo describes Lee’s “peculiar”
and “immortal” smile (289, 279). These descriptions of his smirk especially
reminded me of Lee Harvey Oswald the assassin, who I constantly forgot about
for a lot of the previous Lee-plot. It is odd to feel sympathetic towards an
individual who disturbed so many people and I think that’s why when asked if I
feel sympathetic towards Lee, I respond with a look of confusion. I do feel sympathetic, but should I because
he is an assassin? DeLillo does a good job at making Lee more human-like
than the numerous news reports that readers have if not read, then at least
hear about. In Libra, Lee had grown
to be a more likeable character in my mind after the first chapter because he
seemed childlike and his education and home conditions were far from ideal. I
must add, however, that I have become less sympathetic towards Lee after
finding out that he abuses Marina, his wife. Even with this recent distancing
of myself from sympathy for Lee, DeLillo's excerpt on Lee’s smile made me once
again feel that Lee is a human, not just an historic assassin.
On page 319, DeLillo describes Lee’s smirk with more insight
into Lee’s mind. He says,
When Lee has a certain look on his
face, eyes kind of amused, mouth small and tight, he finds himself thinking of
his father. He believes it is a look his father may have used. It feels like
his father. A curious sensation, the look coming upon him, taking hold in an
unmistakable way, and then his old man is here, eerie and forceful and whole, a
meeting across worlds.
His “eyes kind of amused” and “mouth small and tight” is a
fairly accurate description of the killer’s smile that has survived through
history. Yet, I was more struck by the idea that Lee’s smile reminds him of his
father, making his smirk less evil and rather childlike. A smile that will
later become ominous and possibly abhorrent in the eyes of the public is
actually an innocent way for Lee to connect with his deceased father, who Lee
never even had the chance to meet. A while ago in class, we talked about how it
seems that Lee wants a father figure in his life and men like David Ferrie or
George de Mohrenschildt fill in that spot because Lee listens to them. The innocence and
good intentions of his smile is further emphasized because his subtle desire to
have a father has been unfulfilled. Still, this contradiction between the
public’s view of his smile and Lee’s view of his own smile makes me especially indecisive
on my feelings towards Lee, for I know (as do almost all readers) of Lee’s
smirk as a representation of his disturbingly casual response to murdering the
president, but to Lee, it gives him the mental support of his father. Feeling
his father’s force with the smile may also be a way for Lee to justify his plan
or find a type of approval for his actions. Nonetheless, to think that Lee
smiles in the videos of reports after his arrest because he feels his father’s
spirit “forceful and whole” is indeed rather “eerie” as it adds a more human
aspect to Lee’s actions and suggests that Lee maybe did not mean to cause as
much damage as he did (319).
I also find the “meeting across worlds” to possibly show
another contradiction in Lee. Previously, we find out that Lee is not very
religious or superstitious, yet he believes in a “look” from some force “coming
upon him” (319). Ferrie, however, we know believes everything (and therefore
thinks there is no coincidence) and talks to Lee, emphasizing the inevitability
of his actions, saying “it’s been waiting to happen” (384). This inevitability
is the same that the reader has—we know that Lee is going to take a shot (or
more) at the president and we are waiting for that to occur in the plot, giving
the feeling that there is a sense of destiny for Lee. It’s unclear whether Lee
believes in the destiny that Ferrie (and the readers) have planned for him
because Lee is not religious, yet he does believe in feeling his father’s spirit-like
presence in his smile.
Furthermore, Lee’s “meeting across worlds” with his father
is similar to his and Kennedy’s worlds crossing, of which Ferrie later informs
Lee. Lee seems to believe that the coincidences between he and Kennedy have a
meaning, that the two are connected in a way. Yet, going back to childish, sporadic
Lee, it seems that he is looking for meaning in these coincidences and
therefore doesn’t realize the gravity of shooting the president.
