Blog 4

Lee Harvey Oswald's Marxism seems to only go only so deep; we see him portrayed as this man of ambiguity over and over, yet his sentiments towards socialism seem to remain steadfast throughout the novel.

Oswald professes to be a socialist and for most of the novel, he is demonstrates this by trying to escape the capitalist grip of the US. In his journey, he has become (maybe in his view) a true Marxist, a dedicated revolutionary and from the very beginning, during his time in the Marines, he was reading Das Kapital... he certainly has his personal history to back up this conviction of his.

The issue regarding Oswald is that his socialism might just be a mask for his overall disdain and feelings of worthlessness in American society. Was his journey to the USSR pure escapism? What this question complicates may be how we draw conclusions of individuals like Oswald and how American society responds to individuals who feel marginalized by the system.

We know of Oswald's unhappiness—his difficult upbringing and the bullying that he faced as a social outcast: that much is clear. Motivations to a deeper disdain of his society is understandable but does Oswald's potential disingenuous pursuit of his "socialism" complicate how we view his other pursuits and/or more broadly, does an alternative, emotional, and/or superficial motive for studying and pursuing something like, for example, Marxism detract from the intention behind such an action?

Infinitely complex characters like Oswald ultimately require more than a simplification of their motives to an ideology... for somebody like Oswald, can we say that he did everything just because he was a Marxist or because he was purely manipulated by unknown forces or can we pin his desire to be remembered, to be a part of history as the cause of his violence and crimes?

For somebody like Oswald, the layers of desire overlap so much and devolve into a sort of ambiguous brown or grey—while it may feel at times useless to parse all his layers (that he cannot even confirm/deny/respond to!), it might actually be worthwhile in the end. Though we might not get a clean answer (nor would be able to know) of his own motivations, we should be reminded of the complexities that compile over time into a person and that, perhaps, we should detach ourselves from the straightforward, hegemonic answers that we are served.