The Angst Manifesto

First of all, I'd like the preface this post by saying that I'm thoroughly committed to the exercise of reading Libra as though I don't know how the story ends -- as though I have no idea who Lee Oswald is at this point, or deducing what parts of Everett's plan must change in order for Kennedy to be shot in the manner that he is. At this point, I'm doing my best to believe that the assassination attempt will be in Miami and that he will be shot by an (ex) CIA operative and a ghost-assassin will be framed. (Although that sentence contained an implied cheat upon my exercise, and of course this sort of reading blinds one to many of the intellectually interesting aspects of the novel, so I'll be dipping in-and-out of my elected oblivion, but that is neither here nor there).

That being said, I will begin the process of laying out my impressions of Lee regardless of what I know about his future, which is probably the fairest way to treat him as a character. My initial impression is that he is an insufferable little dipshit, part of which can be written off to the fact that he's a fifteen-year old boy. More on that later -- I'll argue with myself in a couple of paragraphs.

My first, and probably strongest, argument for why Lee pisses me off is that he's a complete jerk to his mom. Some of his greatest hits from the last couple night's reading include

• "I'm your son. You have to do what I want" (35).
• "[My brothers] are in the service to get away from you" (35).
• "You just go to work like any other day" (6).

Not to mention all the times Marguerite acknowledges that he yells at her for food, although, annoyingly, she often qualifies it with the phrase "like any other boy." Probably this is her trying to save face on behalf of her son in the court she is apparently testifying to -- perhaps Warren himself? Furthermore, with this repeated line, DeLillo dares us to stop for a moment and consider as 2016-readers the extent to which Lee isn't like any other boy (but we're not going to do that, because that ruins our suspension of prior knowledge). 

His other grating qualities are a little bit harder to pin down. I'm inclined to question his reasons for his endorsement of communism. I believe that part of the reason is that he's impoverished, and something about a criticism of capitalism would resonate with him. But, also, in 1950s America, a communist was THE MOST hated thing you could be. And Lee revels in being hated. When he's in Robert Sproal's house, he's emboldened by the knowledge that "a parent" is listening to him discuss Marxist rhetoric, raising his voice. He seems to enjoy the role of the steadfast, persecuted outsider -- because he lacks another identity or because he's been forced into that role, I'm not sure. But he's a button-pusher.

Right now, I see Lee as an irritating kid. He's latched onto communism because he's attracted to both the ideas and the way it makes him feel about himself. In some ways, he's behaving like the typical angsty teenager (though I'd be liable for some ... negative reinforcement ... if I pulled the same lines with my mom). But that doesn't mean I have to like him.