Something Lee thinks about all the time, and I think a
driving force in his life, is his ambition to be “a man in history”. Like his
Marxist idols, Lee has always dreamed about being part of something bigger.
From his childhood delusions of jumping across rooftops, to his later defection
to Russia, and then finally being involved in the assassination of JFK, Lee has
felt like it was his “destiny” to make an impact on history. We’ve talked in
class about why Lee so strongly needs to be recognized—and hailed as a hero—by others
and I think it stems back to his childhood. Lee didn’t have a close knit family
and moved around a lot which often made him an outsider. Even when he has
friends as a child, Robert and his sister, they don’t understand Lee and their
parents are wary of him.
Honestly somewhat surprisingly, Lee’s childhood dreams of plots
and secret groups kind of come true when he is targeted to be a part of the
Kennedy assassination plot. Although some of Lee’s behaviors, such as defecting
to Russia and then coming back to the US, set him apart from the average
person, if I didn’t know what actually ends up happening I would never have
expected that Lee would actually become involved with something of so much
magnitude—he seemed too normal and too incompetent. However, I don’t think that
being involved in the Kennedy plot lived up to Lee’s expectations. He is
treated as somewhat of a child by Ferrie and the others, and he is unaware that
he is being completely manipulated and used to further something that is bigger
than him. Although he is involved in this big plan, he doesn’t seem to be that
instrumental.
In Dallas, when Ferrie is talking to Lee, he says “You
wanted to enter history. Wrong approach, Leon. What you really want is out. Get
out” (DeLillo 384). The way that Ferrie worded this was really interesting to
me and I think it makes sense. With a postmodern view, everyone is a part of
history, and nobody’s story is inherently more important than anybody else’s,
which Lee doesn’t recognize. He wants to be regarded as different, or as more
prominent than others, and to do so he has to jump out of the “normal” area of
history and do something to become infamous. However, even in this sense I don’t
know if Lee succeeded because he is still only known for one action of his, and
not his person.
I think it is so ironic that Lee is constantly dreaming about being an important in history, because we are literally reading a book about his whole life that is exploring how he came to stage where he would do something that would immortalize him in history. So even though he is only known for the one famous act of his, some people (including us) are interested enough in that one act to learn more about him as a person to understand how he got to the place where he would do that act. For whichever reason Lee wanted to become an important part of history, he definitely achieved that dream of his by killing JFK.
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact that Lee is known for his killing of JFK, I think it is incorrect to say that he is only known for that. BECAUSE he killed JFK, there are people who study his life. It's like George Washington wasn't known for his entire life, no, he was known for the fact that he was a huge general dude who eventually became president and after that people began to study his later life. (I guess there's a difference since people studied him while he was still alive, but I think fame in one situation still leads to fame in others. People may not have studied Lee's life while he was alive, but as soon as he became famous for killing JFK, people were doing exactly what Libra is doing, recording all of Lee's life in order to get a sense for his person.)
ReplyDeleteLike Catalin, I think that Lee has certainly, to an extent, gotten what he wanted- after all, people are still deeply interested in him and his character into the next century. Still, what I think would surprise him is being so deeply regarded as a villain, because if there's one thing Lee is good at, it's completely misestimating what the public opinion of him/his actions will be. I think we have to consider what Lee's definition of "success" would be, and honestly, it's probably not very clear to him either- but I think that being lauded for his actions into time immemorial would be a good start. So Lee succeeded in being remembered, but I think he'd be shocked at just what our opinion of him is.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above comments, but also, to the general population, Lee is only remembered for one action and one action alone.
ReplyDeleteI suppose Lee did succeed in going down in history, but really only because he killed Kennedy. Nathalie makes a good point in that Lee, always anticipating one public opinion and getting the opposite, would be quite shocked to find out about how we think of him. Based on how DeLillo depicts him, it's easy to pity him - he's got all these hopes and dreams of being known as a Marxist and ends up being used in this twisted plot.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Lee really cares exactly how he goes down in history, as long as he is a part of it. He wants to be amazing whether good or bad. I feel like if he wanted to be go down in a positive light he would not have defected to Russia, you know?
DeleteDo you think it's possible that DeLillo is making Lee out to be the one that's right all along despite his lack of historically significant ability? I think DeLillo does a lot to set this up. He does still end up being deluded in that he thinks he will be recognized as a hero, which obviously doesn't happen.
ReplyDeleteNice post! I agree that his background played a huge role in how Lee turned out. As a child, he probably craved attention that he never really got. This desire probably carried over as an adult, and probably is what drove him to do all the things that he ended up doing.
ReplyDeleteI think you're completely right that Lee didn't achieve his historical value in the way he wanted. He wanted to really make a difference and be remembered as someone like Stalin (which yikes why), when in reality he's remembered for just this one action and not really the motives behind it. When he was younger and writing in his diary, strongly believing that people in the future will read it, he ends up being right but people aren't reading it because they value his ideas and want to invest in his philosophy but rather because they want to see what Lee Harvey Oswald was like before he killed JFK.
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