Lee Being Smart and Dumb and a Little Annoying

Lee Harvey Oswald as depicted in Libra, written by Don DeLillo, is a tough character to pinpoint. I started off feeling bad for him in the beginning with how he seemed like a little wimpy kid with big beliefs. Even in the first few chapters when he was around middle school age, he was said to be “not afraid to stand up for his rights” (DeLillo 47). This was said after he brought a broken gun to be repaired, but the mechanic didn’t even take a look at it for 5 weeks. Poor Lee goes and decides to stand up for himself. I found this scene a little silly that Lee viewed the inaction by the mechanic as an infringement upon his right to bear arms, but it’s shown in a sort of endearing way like the kind of feeling one gets when a toddler gets mad when you take something from them.

Lee doesn’t change much in his self righteous fight for his political viewpoints/rights. When he’s with Alpha-66, he says that he got sent to jail for “politics. Just like Fidel” (293). The true reason though was that he nicked himself in the arm with a tiny pistol to try to stay in Atsugi and then later on got in a fight with a commanding officer. He maintains the same air of everything I do has some higher importance such as his rights or freedom of speech, but in reality his true actions fall a little flat. In fact, him boasting about how he got sent to the brig for his political beliefs reminds me of little boys bragging about how good they are at sports just to actually suck at them and get demolished when push comes to shove. The only difference is that Lee is a grown man.

  Shoutout to Diza for being a day one hater of Lee (although that may be because of prior knowledge that he assassinates someone). I think something interesting about Lee’s character is that it appears he doesn’t seem to change much throughout the story. He maintains the same consistent set of beliefs of his importance in the overall narrative of history and that he stands for something much greater. When he’s a little kid, the way he acts is a little endearing, but as he gets older there’s less and less forgiveness for his actions which at this point seem a little dumb. He epitomizes a smart dumb person. 


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