Lee's Issues With Father Figures and Belonging

Never in Lee Harvey Oswald's childhood, the story of which is told in Don DeLillo's Libra, does he have a father, or even father figure, who is around long enough to matter. His mother's first husband, Edward, walked out on her when she was pregnant with Lee's half-brother John Edward Pic; his biological father Robert died suddenly of a heart attack during her pregnancy with Lee; and her last husband, Edwin, cheated on her. (4-5) Furthermore, Lee rarely gets much recognition, respect, or validation. In the South, he is viciously harassed for his "Northern" speech, while in the North people mock his perceived Texas accent with a variety of colorful nicknames. Without engaged or supportive parents to help him with any of his trauma, he becomes isolated, sad, and even aggressive, and is sent to a youth home after he begins skipping school. Because of his constantly changing childhood and adolescence, Lee seems to feel lost and purposeless, and much like Mother's Younger Brother all the way back in Ragtime, he begins aimlessly riding the train around New York, symbolizing his restlessness and search for meaning.

When he moves to New Orleans, Lee initially faces even more bullying from his classmates at school. But he soon discovers two contrasting worlds that, to him, promise the community and purpose he has been searching for his whole life. The first of these is the Marines, as encouraged by his brother, a Marine himself, and Lee's new friend Robert Sproul. Lee obsesses over the Marine Manual, taking in every little detail and fantasizing about the new life he could live: "He memorized the use of deadly force. He studied principles of close order drill and the use of ribbons and badges. He made unauthorized phone calls to Robert Sproul to read hair-raising passages about bayonet fighting. [...] There was no end of things to quote from the manual. The book had been written just for him." (42) Simultaneously, though, he also becomes completely engrossed in the directly contrasting idea of communism, and with it the "idea" of Russia. He struggles through his dyslexia to read Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto, but strongly relates to the texts and feels immersed in their theories, so much so that "[h]e could see the capitalists, he could see the masses. They were right here, all around him, every day." (35)

Yet both of these idealistic plans Lee makes for the future of his life fall apart or are actively dismantled by the people he once idolized. In the Marines, he meets a woman while deployed to Atsugi and is introduced to her friend Konno, who also adores the idea of communism. Konno is one of the first real "father figures" that Lee meets, fully affirming Lee's ideas and hearing him without judgment. He expresses radical ideas about the downfall of capitalism, some of which Lee shares, then hints at his desire to keep up a friendship with Lee as he gifts him a pistol and some cigarettes. Soon after, Lee, fond of Japan for the moment, shoots himself in the arm with his new gun to avoid leaving with the rest of his unit. To some extent, his plan works — he stays in Japan — but he is also court-martialed and sent to the brig, where he is bullied and humiliated more than ever before. Upon his release, sick of not only Japan but also the "system" as well, he follows his other plan and defects to the Soviet Union with the expectation that he will be welcomed with open arms for his military intelligence and sympathy for the communist cause, but his dreams are once again crushed before he can even become a citizen. He attempts suicide, then storms into the American embassy and renounces his citizenship, before Soviet leaders even notice him. His weakness to "father figures" is exploited again here, too. After a man named Kirilenko (Alek) and his assistant come to him, Lee is sent to a factory in Minsk and occasionally used to gather military intelligence. At first he's constantly excited to tell Russian officials everything he knows in the hopes that he will get to take on the exciting, powerful roles he thought he would be assigned, but they never come. With his fantasy about Russia also shattered and the realization that, in reality, the men he believed to support and understand him were just putting up with him, he returns, dejected, to the United States.

By this point, Lee's mental state is beginning to further deteriorate. He beats his new wife, neglects their child, and fights frequently with his mother. Then he meets George de Mohrenschildt, one of the most insidious "father figures" in Lee's life. He is described as being "warm-spirited and assured, with a relish for conversation and a voice that surrounds you like a calm day." (233) Lee is instantly drawn to him, telling him all about his life in the Soviet Union and in the United States. George praises Lee in many ways, like calling him an "interesting individual," momentarily fulfilling Lee's lifelong need for validation. George, like Konno, expresses interest in keeping up a relationship with Lee, who laughs and seems keen on doing so. Unfortunately for him, George actually exploits their relationship to hand him over to the corrupt government agents who had been planning the Kennedy assassination since the beginning of the book. And like George, the Soviet leaders, and to some extent Konno, they also harness Lee's desire for respect, validation, and recognition, this time as they groom him to become the scapegoat for the assassination, with David Ferrie being one of the key figures in this plot.

From the earliest parts of his childhood, Lee lacks both supportive parents and a sense of meaning, and his search for a "substitute father" or even just something to give his life structure or purpose repeatedly falls flat on its face. None of the places he ever hopes to find such people or concepts in ever work out for him, and his final effort to feel accepted and become part of history ironically ends in his murder by a strip club owner with a personality not too dissimilar to his own.