Oswald's Sense of Superiority in Don DeLillo's Libra


In Don DeLillo’s Libra, Lee Harvey Oswald is portrayed as a boy and man who believes he is more intelligent than everyone around him, a narcissist. Oswald sees himself as misunderstood from the start of the story because no one around him can be on the same level as him. Throughout the book we are able to see this strong conviction through his interaction with others, his treatment of his family, his own self perception. DeLillo shows Oswald as someone intellectual above everyone else. That belief affects how he talks about communism, how he treats the people around him, and how important he thinks he is, makes him easy to use and unable to see his own flaws.

Oswald’s attachment to communism is one of the most obvious ways his, "I’m one step ahead of everyone else", mentality is highlighted. While he is in the Marines, he constantly talks about communism as if it is something only intelligent people are able to grasp, and he treats anyone who disagrees as inferior to him. When he says, “The idea of Russia impresses me,” and is asked what that idea actually is, he shuts the conversation down by telling the other marine to “Read a book”, and then telling the other marines about his intelligence, only to be shot down, "Then how come I'm smarter than you are," and in response gets, "You're also dumber" (DeLillo 82). What stands isn’t how committed Lee is to communism but how little he can actually explain it. He is more interested in sounding informed than being understood by others and when that fails, Lee falls back on petty insults to protect his sense of pride.

This previously mentioned mindset that Lee encapsulated was what made his mind so malleable to people like George de Mohrenschilt, who guided him to assassinate JFK without telling Lee about the whole conspiracy. Not only was Oswald vulnerable to manipulation, but even more so because he was blinded by the feeling of being special or “chosen”. These feelings of wanting to be “chosen” are also supported by the ways he liked to act alone throughout his life. Lee’s willingness to do something to be special is what made him rise up as the perfect candidate for the conspiracy to frame the murder of JFK on, as a man working alone with no co-conspirators. Lee’s independence from other people was also shown in the novel when his mother mentioned writing about him, but felt offended by this idea, and denied her from doing so, saying that he had to write about his life, and not from her point of view. This not only shows the independence Oswald creates for himself, but also highlights his assumption of himself, that he is better and more knowledgeable than the people around him.

Lee's personality and assumptions of himself are ultimately his downfall that makes him the CIA patsy, because these larger organizations in the novel find Oswald to be the perfect personality to coerce him unknowingly into becoming the framed murderer, who did actually do the killing, but for their bidding.

Thanks for reading my post! -Ava Roberts




Comments

  1. MitchellDecember 18, 2025 at 2:31 PM

    The period where Lee is a Marine who walks around the base quoting Marx and Engels and talking about Lenin and Trotsky is indeed fascinating, and he does like to flaunt the fact that HE understands (or believes he understands) this stuff while others miss the big picture. At its core, it's a rather immature "I know something you don't know!" kind of attitude. But at the same time, I see him using that "communist" identity simply to assert that he is different, that he doesn't buy into the same narrative that everyone else does, that he is an independent thinker with an analysis. It makes him "edgy" to be a communist in America during the Cold War--and I tried to emphasize in class just how unusual, nonconformist, and truly edgy this position was at the time. What's funny (and there's always a funny side with Lee) is that no one really takes him seriously as a Marxist revolutionary--whenever he shoots his mouth off about the USSR or Lenin, they just make fun of him, call him "Oswaldovich," give him a wedgie. He wants to be taken seriously, and it turns out that's a tough thing to try to compel OTHERS to do. So there's comedy when his self-image as edgy commie guy bumps up against a bunch of marines just calling him a doofus.

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  2. Katie RasmussenDecember 19, 2025 at 12:44 PM

    Lee is a total try-hard, but he really commits to the bit. He isn't just being a "pick me," he legitimately believes these things enough to lie to his mom and come up with complicated schemes to immigrate to not one, but two communist countries. You mention that Lee wanted to be alone as long as he could be "special," which I agree with, but I he does also want other people's attention: he wants other Communists to know who he is, and in the epigraph he says that happiness comes from taking part in the general stuggle of the outside world, not from one's personal life.

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  3. LenaDecember 22, 2025 at 10:32 AM

    Hi Ava, I agree that a common theme of Libra is Lee's obsession with superiority and feeling special, which ultimately makes him the perfect candidate to be lured into assasinating JFK. Adding on to this, I think that DeLillo often intentionally furthers this depiction by poking fun at Lee or making him seem silly for the things he says and does. Although Lee might think he is better than everyone else, DeLillo certainly doesn't!

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  4. Olly EarlsJanuary 12, 2026 at 9:42 AM

    Great post Ava! Lee Harvey Oswald's sense of self is definitely one of the most interesting and even haunting aspects of this novel. It is so uncomfortable to gain such a nuanced understanding of his inner worldview vs his outer presentation, but doing so brings up many important points. His motivations are narcissistic, but not far removed from the motivations of many people we see everyday. At the end of the day, he just wants to be known, or make an impact, and turns to lying, exaggerating, and ultimately crime to find this.

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  5. ZoeJanuary 13, 2026 at 6:37 PM

    GOOD JOB AVA! Its a little funny to look back on moments in the book where Oswald is trying to grasp onto his pride, he has a strange understanding of who he really is and often times her contradicts himself. I agree that the central theme of Libra is Oswald's weird obsession with himself, he puts himself on a high pedestal. But DeLillo recognizes Oswalds tendency to make others inferior to him, and almost mocks him for it.
    Great Job!

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