Lee Oswald becomes Salty?
Libra’s main character, Lee Harvey Oswald, is this person who strongly desires attention throughout the book. Soon after he enters the Marines, he is made aware of some extremely classified government secrets by receiving a signal from a U-2 plane flying higher than what anyone thought was possible. Feeling this sense of importance and power, he desires to tell these secrets to the Soviet Union and live there as a USSR government agent. This motivation is mainly catalyzed by his beliefs of communism. He ultimately ends up going to Russia in hopes of betraying the US and work for and be a part of Russia government. However, his plans don’t go according to plan.
Lee travels to the Soviet Union and openly renounces his
connection to America by giving them his passport and telling Russia that he
doesn’t have any family in the US. He does this in hopes of being fully
accepted into the Russian government; however, things don’t go according to his
plan. At first, he is happy and proud that he is in communist country and gets
a job in the factory, eager to discuss the topic of Cuba with other fellow
communists. In reality, the Russian citizens are not interested in Cuba and
have pretty neutral opinions on the recent events in the US. When Lee Oswald
first encounters this, he is shocked by the lack of enthusiasm the people in
Russia have about their own beliefs. Once word travels that an American entered
the USSR, women begin to date him simply to inquire about the US and what it is
like. This only furthers his rage until Lee’s emotions lull him into a state of
depression. This happens because his hopes and dreams of being in the USSR,
working for their government, having heated discussions of communism, and even
possibly being marked within history books have all been crushed. As a result,
Lee attempts to commit suicide.
When Lee attempts to commit suicide, he finally catches the
attention of the Soviet Union. Rejuvenated, Lee begins talking to Alek about
all the US secrets he knows. Although he doesn’t tell them all of the details,
he only really tells Russia about the U-2 plane that he received a message from
that was at an abnormally high altitude. In addition, when Alek inquires about
the plane, Lee admits that he doesn’t remember all of the details. The Soviet
Union, realizing that Lee is stupid, drops him off in a city and gives him a
factory job and pay. Slowly Lee also realizes that Russia isn’t the paradise
for Communists and begins his journey to go to Cuba. He leaves Russia to Dallas
with his Russian wife and baby. However, when they settle back to the US Lee receives
no attention from the government which only upsets him even more. This along
with his mom constantly imposing her life upon him irritates him further.
When analyzing Lee’s adventure to Russia, we can’t help but feel slightly sympathetic to Lee’s childish ambition. When Lee traveled to Russia, he thought that he was finally going to play a critical role in history and dramatically be accepted into the USSR. However, when this plan is put into action, no one seems to care. When he drops his passport at the embassy, the staff there seem to be pretty indifferent about his goal to convert to a Russian citizen. Then, when he arrives in Russia, he doesn’t receive the attention he craves and even when the Russia government gain some interest in him, it is short lived. Angry that his dreams didn’t live up to his expectations, he moved back to the US. With this trip, he assumed the FBI would be at the airport when he set foot in US because he went to Russia; in reality, nothing happened, again. Frustrated that he can’t become important as easily as he thought, he begins to become abusive and more angry than usual with his wife and family. Then, these flames are further tempted because his mother tries to steal, in Lee’s eyes, his last hope of gaining attention and importance: by writing a book.
Hi Deven - thanks for the post. "Salty" is an interesting and accurate way of describing Lee's life - as you mention, he does all of these things to seek attention, but oftentimes, little is returned to him. Even in times when he risks his life or commits illegal acts, ironically, little attention ends up being directed towards Lee.
ReplyDeleteInteresting blog post, Deven! I think you've revealed a key aspect of Lee's personality: despite his early communist dedications, his primary goal is towards notoriety and being acknowledged, even if that attention is negative. This goal is shown through how he seems to enjoy doing extremely dangerous acts, just to gain the attention, as demonstrated by your example of his suicide attempt.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you describe his actions as "childish ambition" as Lee certainly feels like a child at times, somebody who doesn't understand the full weight of his actions. That never ending smirk of his is also very emblematic of a child.
ReplyDeleteNice post! Lee's personality is particularly attention seeking because he wants to be seen and remembered (for good or negative reasons), going to great lengths to make a point.However, when he does not receive the attention he believes he deserves, he acts "salty".
ReplyDeleteGood post. Reading your blog and reflecting on the book, it does seem like Oswald life and actions are dictated by childish ambitions that everything in life will go exactly to plan. Moving to the USSR, he becomes "salty" that things don't fit his expectations and therefore tries to commit suicide. Childish in an adult mannar.
ReplyDeleteHe kind of reads as a loser. Especially in the parts of his story you highlight, Lee is definitely a pretty pitiful but also almost comedic character. There's this constant state of him wanting so bad to be seen (often negatively, because he seems to see himself as a misunderstood iconoclast), but not being seen. Then when he is seen, he sees that he's overestimated his own spectacle. It's both kind of sad and funny to see Lee go through this cycle and grow more and more frustrated. Btw, I really liked the line "The Soviet Union, realizing that Lee is stupid, drops him off in a city and gives him a factory job and pay." Great line.
ReplyDeleteNice post Deven, though Lee certainly does leave a mark on history in his move to Russia (possibly aiding in the capture of Gary Powers), his impact on events is not known to the rest of the world. Lee’s desire to be important supersedes all political inclinations he might have; Oswald routinely plays both sides of the political spectrum.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Deven! Lee definitely maintains an interesting character throughout the book, simultaneously being the smartest and the dumbest. I think it's interesting how we end up seeing him as the laughing stock and the one who really doesn't know the whole story.
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