Sympathy for Lee

The beginning of Libra contains a very interesting depiction of a relatively young Lee Oswald. The opening chapters of the book try to depict Lee in a somewhat sympathetic light, but he retains characteristics which are off-putting. Many of Lee’s characteristics which are described showcase his apparent lack of ability to understand or empathize with other people’s points of view. One of the aforementioned characteristic is that he thinks that he is always right and that he is better than other people because he seeks an alternative education using large, dusty books that he finds in the back of the library. In addition, he only likes the books because they give him a sense of superiority in terms of allowing him to talk about subject matter than none of his peers care about or understand and being difficult to comprehend. He doesn’t even fully understand the subject matter he uses to justify his greatness and superiority, and this adds a level of complexity to how Lee is viewed. Lee thinks that others will think of him in a “better” light if he does show that he is smarter by reading these old, dusty books, but we know that he doesn’t fully understand what the books are talking about. This creates a conflicting view for the reader. In some ways, we admire the amount of effort he is putting in trying to get people to think he is smart, but on the other hand it would be smarter of him to actually educate himself in things that could advance his life more readily. Lee seems smart at first glance, and if he decided to apply himself to a field of study other than Marxist literature, he may have been extremely successful in the rest of his life. We know that Lee doesn’t really have anyone in his life that could tell him this, which again plays up the sympathy in the reader’s view, and in the way the book currently presents the plot, it would seem like Lee would basically be being used by the agents to get back at Cuba. If we chose to view Lee in a sympathetic light we have to be careful about what action we condone and what actions we oppose. Most of his service in the military seems innocuous until he decides to start giving out American intelligence and shoots himself in the arm to make sure that he doesn’t need to continue to tour with the rest of his troop.

The duality of sympathy and disdain for Lee’s actions seems to be a major component of the story so far and it will be interesting to see if this continues. If we get a depiction of Lee’s thought process in shooting the president, it will be interesting to see if we sympathize with him or if we are completely against his actions. If understanding Lee’s thought process allows us to sympathize with him more than we expect for a seemingly calculating individual, we may be able to understand how other murderers go through and justify themselves as well as how earlier moments in their life affected their actions.

Society in Rufus and Dana's relationship

The relationship between Rufus and Dana becomes more convoluted as the novel progresses. An astounding number of factors go into determining how their relationship plays out, but one of the most largest factors in their relationship is the development of Rufus into a seemingly stereotypical slave master.

Throughout the beginning of the novel, Dana tries to counteract the societal factors that play into Rufus being a stereotypical slave master. She tries to educate him and have him develop some respect for black people and for women and she thinks that she is somewhat successful as Rufus is a fairly nice boy who dislikes his father’s way of doing things in some respects.  Together, Dana and Rufus align themselves against Tom Weylin’s way of doing things and as Rufus grows up he begins to stray from his father’s way of looking at the world.

A large strain is put on the relationship between Dana and Rufus when he pulls a gun on her and Kevin as they are trying to leave because of his abandonment issues. Dana knows that the Rufus she taught would never do something like that and she is extremely distraught by how much he has changed during the time she has been gone. One of the reasons that Rufus has changes after Dana leave is because of society telling him that he can have anything he wants. As the heir to a plantation, he will at some point own many slaves and he can do whatever he wants with those slaves and no other people around him will care. Society would act as if he was abnormal if he didn’t control, and maybe even abuse, the black people who he ends up owning. Along with this societal pressure to be normal and use his power, he believes in the example his father set him. This example again shows Rufus that he can have anything he wants, including other people’s lives, and that he can treat them any way he wants to without fear of repercussion. In fact, when Rufus does act against his father’s example, he gets beat. As such he has more motivation to act normal in this context because he thinks the only way he will be reprimanded is if he acts abnormally.

These societal factors outweigh the small amount of influence that Dana thinks she has over the outcome of Rufus’ development. Dana thinks that the small amount of education that she gives Rufus will change the way he views society and allow him to act differently, but the social backlash that he would induce upon himself far outweighs the risk in his mind. Dana does have some influence on how Rufus thinks, as in the case of how he feels towards Alice and her sway in getting him to lie about who he was beaten by, but she is not able to challenge the amount of cultural influence which makes Rufus so despicable in some of his actions. We find that Rufus is not able to really grow out of a childhood state of mind where he throws a tantrum if he doesn’t get what he wants because that is completely normal in the society where he lives.

Overall, the development of Rufus’ character has a large strain on the relationship between him and Dana. Dana tries, unsuccessfully, to change how Rufus will turn out as an adult, but the societal factors influence him in such a way that he does not need to change to live a fulfilling life, and if he does change and go against the status quo, he may be reprimanded by society.