We have been reading Libra for a week now, and we still don’t know the meaning of the title. Mr.
Mitchell has given vague illusions to how it plays a role in the story, but as of now we only know it
pertains to the zodiac sign of Lee Harvey Oswald. The title Libra applies to both the astrological sign,
as well as signs of Lee's character.
Ozzie the Rabbit was born on October 18th, 1939. This means he fits in the Libra section of the
horoscope calendar. An important part of the Libra sign is their astrological symbol, scales. Scales
are known to suggest balance, stability, and a sense of justice. This immediately made me wonder
about the title. We’ve seen Lee in a lot of different scenes so far, and I wouldn't go so far as to
describe him as balanced and stable. He’s constantly throwing himself into new scenarios to try and
find himself. He is willing to shoot himself when he gets a glimpse of happiness in Japan, and he
spends all of his young life obsessed with the Soviet Union, only to defect from there after staying
two years. His life isn’t balanced or stable. He is young, he is court-martialed twice in the Marines.
He is still figuring things out. Also, if we consider his life as a whole, the whole killing Kennedy and
shooting Walker wouldn't make me believe he is stable. Mr. Mitchell told me about his shooting of
Walker, and they found a photograph of Oswald holding the gun he used to shoot Walker and kill
Kennedy as well as Marxist literature. On the back of the photograph, “hunter of fascists” was
written.
Another thing about Libras that seems relevant is that they are known to be joyful, but have a hard
time expressing themselves. They can appear quite difficult and sometimes hard to understand.
They need time to develop a real connection. I think this really applies to Lee. He’s portrayed as a
complex character with a complicated and interesting life. He can never really find himself. The
website I’m reading about horoscopes says that once they settle down with a family they are more
patient and very protective. I can imagine this scenario for Lee, but he never gets that chance.
I wish I could have found a horoscope back from when Oswald was alive, but I couldn’t find
anything. The Fort Worth and Dallas newspapers only go back in the last 10 years in their online
versions, and I couldn't find any archives. Horoscopes, as we know them as signs for when you
were born and fortune telling in the newspaper, became popular in 1937, so the situation is entirely
possible.
We are apparently going to learn more about what the relevance of the title is, but at this point I’m
going with some complex story of the person that is Lee Harvey Oswald. How he doesn't really fit in,
but at the same time he does. These are just some thoughts. Feel free to comment any ideas, or
insights. This being mainly written after the In Atsugi chapter, so this post might be irrelevant soon.
This is really interesting. TO be honest I hadn't thought anything of the title until you brought it up but I think it is really interesting to look at the parallels between horoscopes and conspiracy theories. They are both believed by a portion of the populace and rejected by the other part, often viewed with the same sense of skepticism, I wonder if Don Delillo used that on purpose as well. Well written.
ReplyDeleteI agree (and I'm sure most people would) that Lee doesn't seem to be the most stable, even as a young man. It seems like so far, this mostly stems from his inability to identify with many of his peers. He also seems to have trouble interacting with people as you pointed out. Apologizing for spilling your drink on someone seems polite, even if you don't like them and it wasn't your fault. It seems like most of his problems so far have come from not really understanding or communicating well with other people.
ReplyDeleteAlright 99.8% of the time any discussion of astrological signs fills me with deep, deep rage, but I guess it makes sense to discuss it in a book that already questions the nature of "objective fact." I think the themes of balance, stability, and justice are pretty significant ones in Lee's narrative arc. Even if he himself isn't balanced or stable, there is a sense in which he attempts to create balance and stability in the environment around him, trying to craft something sensible out of the chaos, he's brought up in. That also ties in with the idea of justice, since Lee clearly has a pretty strictly defined notion of good and evil and how to deal with them respectively.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that DeLillo connects Lee with the idea of balance and justice. It almost seems to suggest that there's some justice in his assassination of Kennedy.I'm interested to see in what ways these themes will continue to play out.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post! I think a main thing with Oswald is him not being able to communicate with people very well. This definitely gets him into trouble numerous times. It's pretty cool to relate that to his astrological sign.
ReplyDeleteTo comment on your picture, I think its interesting how that picture even exists. It literally looks like something Win would ask him to do so that he could make his paper trail.
ReplyDeleteJust putting that out there...