Lee

I previously mentioned that I was interested with Lee's character, but otherwise indifferent, not especially sympathetic but no sense of dislike was present either. I did like his mysterious smile. Anyway, as the book has progressed, Lee has become more and more complicated and an ever "rounder" character. I found myself gravitating towards his situation sometimes and other times, I just couldn't do anything but shake my head and marvel at his stupidity. 

For example, in the earlier sections of the readings, when Lee decided to defect to the Soviet Union with his "top secret" military information, you could tell that he put some serious thought and effort into his decisions and it wasn't a whimsical fancy. Later though, I really began to lose some sympathy for him--in my eyes, he viewed himself as a very important figure, but when he realized he wasn't getting the attention he felt he deserved, he reacted petulantly by slitting his writsts. I mean, the scene in which he shot himself was ridiculous almost to the point of hilarity but the only reaction slitting his wrists got from me was: idiot. 

During class, we had an interesting discussion about whether or not we felt sympathy for him. Well, to answer that question, I'd have to give my description of Lee's character as the story progressed. I certainly didn't hate him or wish him dead, but I didn't really like him either. I still believed he was a complete moron because.... well, there are simply too many examples. For instance, when he chooses to have a picture taken for his family, he chooses to pose with his guns. Why his guns of all things?! "Look, here's Daddy and here's his favorite gun!" I really just didn't understand him. Perhaps I'm just dense, but a lot of this book just had me scratching my head. 

Near the end of the novel, after the shooting of President, Lee shot a cop--in cold blood. As Iain pointed out, he had no real reason to do this. The cop had every right to be suspicious, and his suspicions were only fueled on further by Lee's absolute refusal to cooperate. Again and again: ughh, Lee, why are you stupid!? Still--I didn't really want to see him dead.

Later, following Jack Ruby's infamous public shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, I found myself thinking: that's sad... Lee was still so young. Which is totally strange, since I spent mostly the entire novel thinking how much of an idiot Lee was. Amazingly enough, DeLillo had managed to flesh out JFK's assassin to the point that I no longer thought, "Yeah, that son of a bitch got what he deserved!" I mean, this man killed the President of the United States, but DeLillo had manged to shape him into a very human, very real character that was not an animalistic, crazed killer... Well, maybe a little crazy...