Pity for Lee

Lee Harvey Oswald is not a historical figure that I've usually looked on with much kindness. Looking at just his actions from my twenty-first century perspective, I see little that I could sympathize with or relate to. This is probably the greatest achievement of Libra in my mind, because this work of fiction has forced me to reconsider my opinions of historical characters and readjust the ways in which I seek to justify my evaluation of others.

The tired old adage goes "walk a mile in someone else's shoes." Libra does much more than that, showing you how the shoes were made, expectations of the shoes, and the flaws inherent in the shoes' design. To get away from this INCREDIBLY tortured metaphor, Libra serves to help us understand what makes Lee tick, and better understand him as a flawed human being, not just the black and white deranged villain of the twentieth century that historical photos seek to portray him as.

Interestingly though, much of this character is little more than interpretation. The Lee we find in Libra is a patchwork of history and fiction, with DeLillo filling in the missing bits with his own unique interpretations and assumptions. No person in their right mind would defend the historical Lee Harvey Oswald by saying "oh don't be so hard on him, haven't you read Libra, he's really an unlucky guy who sought to be more than he could reasonably achieve, a modern day Icarus!" Instead, we are meant to consider the plausibility of this Oswald's existence. In other words, Lee Harvey Oswald was not necessarily the person that DeLillo portrays, but he COULD be, and that's what's important.

I started this book with the belief that Lee Harvey Oswald was a mentally sick individual who brutally murdered a man he never met, whether by chance or by conspiracy, and believed his actions were inherently commendable. While it is entirely possible that Oswald behaved this way, DeLillo has shown me that he could reasonably be a pitiable man who sought to prove himself and be a part of something bigger, showing his own worth as a thinker and a man of ideals. Neither interpretation has more weight on my mind when I consider the historical figure, and this has also trained me to view more than just the surface appearance when judging the actions of individuals.