Libra: Analysis of Major Characters
"Libra: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the intricacies of key figures surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Central to this exploration is Lee Harvey Oswald, portrayed as a deeply insecure individual shaped by a tumultuous childhood and a longing for belonging. His life is marked by a series of relocations and affiliations, from his time in the Navy to his defection to the Soviet Union, where he marries Marina. The narrative also examines Nicholas Branch, a CIA analyst grappling with the ambiguities of historical truth regarding the assassination, and Walter "Win" Everett, Jr., a disgruntled CIA agent with a vengeful plot that inadvertently intertwines with Oswald's fate.
Other significant characters include Guy Bannister, a former FBI agent entangled in anti-Castro activities, and David Ferrie, a former pilot with a troubled past who becomes involved in dubious conspiracies. The analysis further touches on the motivations of figures like George de Mohrenschildt, who influences Oswald and serves as a bridge to the intelligence community. The interplay of personal ambition, paranoia, and political machinations underscores the complex web of relationships that culminate in a historic tragedy. Overall, this character study provides a multifaceted understanding of the individuals whose lives converged in this pivotal moment in American history.
Libra: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Don DeLillo
First published: 1988
Genre: Novel
Locale: The United States, Japan, and the Soviet Union
Plot: Postmodernism
Time: The 1950's and the 1960's
Lee Harvey Oswald, John F. Kennedy's assassin. Dyslexic and fatherless, the emotionally insecure Oswald—reared by a neurotic mother and frequently uprooted while growing up—is a misfit, a “solitary,” who exists at the very margins (social, economic, and psychological) of American life. Even as he exacerbates his own social isolation, he fantasizes about belonging, about having a “destiny” and a part to play in history. He drifts across America, following first his mother, then his brother, a Marine. He joins the Navy, is assigned to a U-2 base in Japan, and is befriended by local communists. Back in the United States, he convinces himself that he will be happy if he can live in the Soviet Union. He defects and marries Marina, a Soviet. He comes to feel again that things would be all right if only he could live somewhere else; he sets his sights first on Texas, then on Cuba. Back in the United States, he becomes an object of interest to both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Their very different interests fuel both his sense of importance and his paranoia. Oswald drifts from one marginal job to another, physically abuses his wife, and becomes involved in both right-and left-wing activities; he is a Libran, “sitting on the scales, ready to be tilted either way.” In the plot to kill Kennedy, Oswald's desires and the plotters' needs intersect. Once caught, Oswald comes to believe, cheerfully, that he has found his life's true purpose, his destiny: to sit in a cell—a room of his own—and think and write about the assassination.
Nicholas Branch, a retired senior CIA analyst. He is in his fifteenth year working on contract with the CIA to write the secret history of the assassination. In this sense, Branch, in his room, with his computer and boxes and shelves of endlessly expanding materials, picks up where Oswald left off in 1963. Working in an area of research he sees as marked by ambiguity and error, by political bias, and by systematic fantasy, Branch wonders how to approach this kind of data and how to distinguish history from paranoia and coincidence from conspiracy. Paranoia proves contagious, however: The more material Branch receives, the more he wonders how much is being withheld.
Walter “Win” Everett, Jr., an embittered fifty-one-year-old CIA agent forced into semiretirement following the Bay of Pigs debacle. Exiled to Texas Women's College, he plots his revenge, a plan that will excite and shock the exile community and the whole country. His plan is an assassination attempt on the president, a “spectacular miss” that will lead to Fidel Castro but that will also expose earlier CIA attempts on Castro's life. At a still deeper level, the plan will be penetrable by only a select few at the CIA. In furtherance of his plan, he decides to create a fictional assassin. Discovering that his fiction already exists in the real world, as Oswald, proves disconcerting and suggests how little control Everett has over his own plot.
Laurence Parmenter, who is, like Everett, a CIA “true believer” and Bay of Pigs veteran. Unlike Everett, Parmenter is a gentleman spy, educated at the finest schools. His anti-Castro anticommunism is linked to opportunities for personal profit. He serves as an intermediary between Everett and Mackey.
Guy Bannister, a sixty-three-year-old former FBI agent. Pushed out of government service, he runs a detective agency in New Orleans that is a front for channeling CIA money to local anti-Castro forces.
David Ferrie, a forty-five-year-old former airline pilot who was discharged for sexual misconduct. He suffers from a disease that has made him completely hairless and interested in the occult, pseudoscience, anticommunism, and young boys.
George de Mohrenschildt, an oft-married “multinational man” with divided loyalties and a penchant for turning spying into personal profit. At a gathering of Russian émigrés, he befriends Oswald, whom he then encourages to meet with the CIA and inadvertently gives the idea of assassinating Edwin Walker.
Major General Edwin A. Walker, a controversial far-right political activist. Oswald shoots at him but misses, the bullet changing course when it nicks a window frame. Walker rails against communism, fluoridation, integration, and the income tax.
Theodore J. Mackey, also known as T-Jay, a CIA operative born Joseph Michael Norniak and assigned this pseudonym. Like Everett, he refused to sign a letter of reprimand concerning his unauthorized activities following the Bay of Pigs operation and was demoted to training novices. Mackey trusts no one, not even Everett, whose plan he modifies (and betrays). Instead of a spectacular miss in the assassination attempt, Mackey opts for a direct hit.
Carmine Latta, a New Orleans mobster who controlled one-third of the Cuban drug trade before Castro took power in Cuba and who now supplies cash (via Ferrie) to the exiles in return for gambling concessions after Castro is deposed. He offers to take care of Jack Ruby's financial problems in exchange for Ruby killing Oswald.
Marina Oswald, Oswald's Russian wife.
Jack Ruby, the owner of a Dallas strip club. He is protective of the girls he exploits but unsure about his own sexuality. He accepts Carmine Latta's offer and shoots Oswald.
Marguerite Oswald, Oswald's mother, who was married three times: once widowed, once abandoned, and once divorced. She has a fantasy of family life. Grievance is her most characteristic mode of address.