The Multinational Superspy

A little trick DeLillo uses to make Libra interesting is the conflicting portrayal of historical and fictional characters. With timid and conservative fictional characters, the inventions in the book are all very understandable and believable. Although that does muddy the line between fiction and fact, in this particular case many of the facts are quite bizarre by themselves without any author's embellishment. By having this contrast between actual people and invented, but hyper-realistic characters, Libra calls into question all the previously understood facts. By bringing up and proving the possibility of this particular conspiracy theory, it leaves the history of the Kennedy assassination open to speculation and more theories. It also facilitates the narrative inside the narrative, since Libra itself acts a tell-all story about American undercover operations that Win Everett wants to reveal as part of his "Let's Almost Kill Kennedy" plot. The outline of the novel is properly convoluted, with many characters coming and going with different and often times secret interactions that make it hard to keep track of. This too only makes the conspiracy more real since it shows the difficulties with organizing such a complex scheme. In the end, the character writing results in making the fictional characters more believable than the actual historical figures.

One of the more unbelievable but real characters, George de Mohrenschildt is the best way to describe the CIA, representing the easy duplicity of the organization. On one hand, from Lee's perspective we see a kindly and intelligent father figure that fills a void in Lee's life. If that weren't enough, George also befriends Lee and his new wife and helps them settle in in the new area. But then we also see the same story from de Mohrenschildt's perspective, who sees Lee as the potential asset that he is to the CIA, having defected to and from the Soviet Union makes him a person of interest with potentially useful knowledge. Even beyond that there's also George's hint that Lee took the shot at General Walker under some influence from Mohrenschildt. In Lee's mind, the General was a fascist leader, but it is impossible to tell how much of that was his own ideas and how much was ingrained by the superspy. The end result is a very conflicted view of the character since his motives are so muddled. His affection towards Lee is obvious, but especially with his discussion with Parmenter, it puts Oswald closer to the center of a conspiracy theory where he is the scapegoat. Overall, I'm still impressed with the smooth skill and ability that Mohrenschmidt has, bringing many different underground connections to the table. Like the rest of the character writing, the final goal is to have a believable conspiracy theory invented by DeLillo, then described as the real thing to prove that not all the history is set in stone.

What's Wrong with People Anyway?

Although at first Dana is fine surviving in the past as a free black woman on a slave-holding plantation in the South, the real trouble starts after Kevin comes back with her. If in the first trip together they share a similar outlook on the atrocious by modern standards treatment in the slave-holding world, then Kevin becomes tempered to the life there. It is even more obvious how adjusted he became when he returned to 1976 and had trouble re-adjusting to everything that is now so new to him. The difference is all the more shocking to Dana after she comes back because Kevin had no choice to adjust and get used to the atrocities of the time but Dana was only gone a short while from Maryland so she basically met a completely different person from the one she married and knew.

In addition to the problems with Kevin and the tensions created in that relationship by such an arrangement, it is obviously disturbing to Dana that efforts to raise Rufus as a well-mannered and normal (by 1976 standards) individual completely fall through. Without her guidance, Rufus quickly turns into the spoiled child who emulates the father he hates but without any of the restrictions or morals his father had but hid. I hate to say it, but Tom Weylin seemed rather fair to his slaves but hides his own sentiments so as to hide weakness. Tom is almost as business-minded with his family as he is with his children, instilling fear in Rufus from an early age. The boy ends up with a life-time fear of blame and justifies his actions with completely inverted logic. This way he can do what he wants and keep the people he wants while blaming his victims for putting themselves in such a situation

In the end, the story is from Dana's perspective. Dana is also not without fault, so although her outlook hasn't tempered to the time's like Kevin's has and she still manages to be a caring individual unlike the grown Rufus, she also has her own dilemma. The circumstances of her time travel have led her to believe that her actions are essential to her own survival. She believes that she needs to be Rufus' and Alice's matchmaker, forcing Alice to comply against her wishes. It truly is messed up that Dana forces a girl in a similar position to herself to have sex with the master just because Dana is worried that otherwise she will never be born, something she has no proof of. What if Dana just did nothing, would she just disappear off the face of the Earth? Butler never gives enough detail as to the specifics of the time travel to be able to justify Dana's quite terrible actions, as much as she hates to admit it. Perhaps something will be revealed later in the book to provide explanation for the first scene in the book, and maybe that'll explain the weird time travel that otherwise leaves me completely unsatisfied with the character's motives.