The Ultimate Performative Male; Lee Oswald as Depicted in “Libra”
The term “Performative male”– a man who performs for women as women’s ideal man to get gratification and often sex– is a term utterly befitting of Lee Oswald’s character in “Libra”. In his case however, instead of performing for physical gratification, he performs for emotional gratification and a sense of superiority that keeps his sly smirk on his face. His audience in his performance is everyone, but he feels superior to those who don’t understand him, and recognized by those who do; other communists.
From the start of the novel, we see a severely dyslexic Lee attempt to read the massive “Das Kapital” and other books to show off his elite communism. This initial performance is met by a non-understanding audience. Nobody gets him. He’s not like other Americans. This lack of understanding/pushback does however bring him a sense of superiority because he is unique in his community. Later, we see him join the marines, with the manual memorized, being a know-it-all. But gratification hardly comes. Nobody gets him. Then, he defects to the USSR, comes back, and argues with his mom over who gets to write a book on his experience. He has notes he wants to turn into a novel, widening his audience, which he shows off to one of his father figures/centers of gratification (George). Or even how he lays out writings for Marina’s friends about communism, to show off. He seeks for validation even in simply having a Russian wife, which after it stops going his way, he gets violent. The greatest performance is perhaps the picture in which Lee holds the rifle that shoots Walker, a pistol, and laid out are communist magazines, showing off.
Hi Sophie! I really liked your post about Lee Harvey Oswald being a performative male. The picture you added with him and the rifle and magazines, compared with the other person holding the book and matcha, is such a perfect depiction of his performative-ness. I think you are completely correct - my impression is that he always tries to portray himself to be some revolutionary thinker and doer to men like Alek and Konno. He kind of reminds me of a pick-me: he always tries to put down other people like the American marines in order to appeal to a select audience.
ReplyDeleteHi Sophie! What a perfect characterization of Oswald lol. Adding on to your examples, I think another accurate example is how Oswald acts in custody after JFK's assassination. He, while being objectively aware that he had been set up in a bigger plot of another plan, still happily claims to be the lone gunman just to be famously (I guess it should more be infamously/notoriously) remembered by history.
ReplyDeleteWow, you found a much better-quality version of that Oswald photo than I had in class the other day--we can clearly read "Militant" on the journal, which only adds to the "performative" qualities of this infamous image. I entirely agree that there is a performative aspect to Lee's studies of Marxism, and the ways in which he likes to throw his purported communism into people's faces to see how they will react. "I'm a communist, I'm defecting to Russia--deal with it!!" But as with pretty much everything about Lee Oswald, there is also a deep undercurrent of sincerity and real dedication to his self-inflicted Marxist studies. He has reasons for his discontent with capitalism, given how he and his mother have been living, and he sincerely believes he can find answers to this discontent in critical analyses of capitalism and how it marginalizes people like him and his mother. He also puts in loads of time laboring over these dense texts when no one is looking, and he seems to find genuine edification in the ways Marxism gives him a lens through which to understand and critically analyze the society that has defined him.
ReplyDeleteThis is a hilarious observation. It's already funny to analyze Lee's personality in his time, but modernizing it is even better. As someone who didn't know much about Kennedy's assassination prior to reading Libra, I always thought of Lee Harvey Oswald as a super serious intimidating guy, but after seeing Delillo's depiction of him, he's kind of a funny character. He very much seems like someone you would laugh at, and even call performative. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHi Sophie, this is an accurate and funny interpretation of Oswald! So many of the decisions Lee makes seem to be solely for the purpose of wanting attention and the feeling of superiority. Another moment that I think fits well with your characterization is when Lee, after trying so hard to get into Russia, is promptly told to go home, resulting in him trying to kill himself. This, too, is a great example of Lee feeling like nobody gets him. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThis is a hilarious yet surprisingly accurate characterization of Lee Harvey Oswald! This idea that he's "not like other guys" is indeed one of the driving factors behind his narcissistic, attention-seeking behavior. And doing so much to get his Russian wife, showering her with affection, then dropping the facade and abusing her once he gets bored, is peak performative male. He's obviously a deeply troubled character, but your exploration of his identity in this post does a good job of bringing the humor under the surface of Lee's story to the foreground.
ReplyDeleteHey Sophie, I think your characterization makes perfect sense--Lee's very sense of himself is to perform for a larger audience, through his writing and the way he commemorates himself throughout his life. It's kind of fun to apply the idea of performative males to him, and I think you did an excellent job--especially between the picture of Lee with the guns and a performative male-- both have books for example that depict what they believe in. Great job!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Sophie! I definitely wouldn't have seen Lee Harvey Oswald in this way, but now that you have pointed it out I see what you mean. He plays a character throughout much of the novel, specifically for the purpose of approval and attention. Although his actions were far more drastic than wearing baggy jeans and carrying around a matcha, he does fit into this archetype quite perfectly. Good job making this connection!
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