Initial Thoughts on Lee Harvey Oswald

After watching Frontline's Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?, I have a new sense of what went through Oswald's head in not only the days leading up to the assassination, but in the months and years leading up to it that may have led to him wanting to kill the President. Up until watching this documentary, I had always just thought Lee Harvey Oswald was the man, who, with possible mental problems, had shot JFK in Dallas from a sniper as the President was driving by. I knew Oswald was killed shortly after being arrested, but I did not know by whom or that it may have had more to do than just because everyone was mad that he killed the President.

I am amazed at the weirdness of Oswald's life before the assassination. He grew up in an unstable home in New Orleans before joining the Marine Corps and becoming a very good sharpshooter. During most of his life, he had immersed himself in communist, socialist, and marxist literature. Eventually, he became an avid communist, defecting to Russia. He was watched closely by both USA intelligence as well as the KGB. Eventually, he had to go back to the USA, bringing with him a Russian wife. At one point, he attempted to assassinate General Edwin Walker, a man Oswald described as a fascist. Although barely missing his target, it showed Oswald's disregard for law and willingness to be rash and violent if he thought the circumstances called for it. Soon, he started pro-Fidel Castro organizations in New Orleans, angering many local Cubans who had fled their home to get out of the misery Castro had created. However, he also seemed friendly with a Cuban store owner and told him he could help the store owner overtake Castro. At some point, the Cuban found out about his pro-Castro involvement and an altercation ensued. He tried to get permission to go to Russia and Cuba but was denied in both cases. He even had ties to being an enemy of organized crime organizations. He was believed to have shot JFK from the 6th floor of the schoolbook depository in which he worked. While escaping, he killed a police officer. Oswald never admitted to killing JFK. He was killed soon after his arrest by a man who had strong ties to organized crime. This led to some speculation that the mafia hired Oswald to kill JFK and could not have Oswald admit to anything because it could reveal their intentions, so they killed him, but this was never proved.

This movie was a great one to watch to learn the background of Lee Harvey Oswald and why he may have killed JFK. I still do not really understand why he hated JFK specifically so much. Although he was a marxist and probably a communist, he never seemed to express any personal hatred for JFK. Naturally, the circumstances surrounding the assassination of this president comes with a ton conspiracies, especially considering Oswald never admitted to committing the murder and was killed before he could say much. There are even conspiracies as to who killed Oswald.

These conspiracies offer the prime opportunity to write a fictional narrative of the JFK assassination like Libra does. I am excited to see what the author comes up with to incorporate into the assassination considering the vast amount of conspiracies that exist. I wonder if he will use any old conspiracies and support it, or bring up a new one altogether.

Dana's Lost Arm

We know Dana loses her arm at some point in Kindred from the prologue when the injury is explained. It turns out, she does not lose her arm until her return to the present for the final time. Forever removed from the slave era in which she spent years protecting her great-grandfather Rufus, so he would be alive until the conception of Dana's grandmother, Hagar. If Rufus were to die, Dana could never have existed.

Although scientifically, the reason she lost her arm seems to be that it got sort of cut off by the wall in which her arm was split by upon return to 1976. However, I don't think that is a good reason why her arm was lost. There is something symbolic about it and how after spending years in the 1800s living as a slave in the south, part of her had to stay in the past. She couldn't have all those experiences, learn all those new things, meet all these new people, live the slave era, without paying a sort of price. Although Dana saved Rufus and kept him alive until Hagar was born and she could be born, she ended up killing him. Even though Rufus was rude and awful to Dana and other slaves over and over, I think his intentions were not bad, he was just the product of a bad environment. Dana, coming from an environment in which the behavior shown by Rufus was appalled, was understandably taken aback. I still think that the fact that Dana killed Rufus the first time he bothered her after Hagar was born was a little bit selfish. Although he was essentially about to rape her, he wasn't being violent, and the thought even crossed her mind that she could sleep with him and it wouldn't be that bad. But suddenly, seemingly on impulse, she decides that she would never sleep with him and he is being awful, so he kills him. Did he really deserve to die, considering he was not acting irrational in the era in which he lived in and the occupation in which he worked? I don't think he did. I don't think it was fair for Dana to kill Rufus soon after Hagar was born. The fact that she did showed that for all this time he was keeping Rufus alive solely for her own purposes so she could be born and, although it seemed like she did, didn't have any deep connection to Rufus.

When Dana returned to 1976 for the last time, her arm was cut off in the exact place where Rufus was grabbing her when she traveled back to the present. I think this is symbolic to the degree in which Rufus relied on her. She almost became an extension to him, saving him when he needed it, and trying to knock sense into him when he needed it. After he was shot by her, he clung to her so hard because he needed her more than ever at that time when he was near death. He clung to her so hard that he kept part of her in the 1800s with him.