Revise Essay

Shiman Zhang

Professor Matthew Bond

Engl 001C

5th June, 2021

Conspiracy theme in Libra

Libra is a historical fiction novel that gives his account of the assassination of John F.

Kennedy that was written by Don DeLillo in 1988. This novel primarily follows the life of a

character known as Oswald, from his early years up to his death. The novel combines both

fiction and history in an amazing form of symbiosis. The author has a very unique presentation

style of the fictional story represented as a historical thriller. The author uses the inspiration of

actual historical events and characters to develop a plot around them on what might have

happened in December 1963 in Dallas. Throughout the novel, the author is attentive to ensure

that politics and history play through by intermingling functional and real characters, and actual

and imagined events. Therefore, the main theme in this novel is the conspiracy that surrounds the

president’s assassination.

Don DeLillo is not a stranger to conspiracy, as he has written several other works with the

same themes including great jones street (1973) and running dog (1988). Several scholars have

tried to cover the importance of the conspiracy themes in the novel and our communities.

CHNANI et al. (50) believe that the conspiracy theme is a real-life interpretation in the

postmodern society that no longer believes in religion, although they want a desire to bring the

world into order. DeLillo uses the novel Libra to illustrate the absence of truth in this age of

knowledge and information and the problems it brings about. In the novel, he uses Kennedy’s

assassination to show how our culture yearns for closure and plots. Willman, (410) states that

when the society does not believe in the authorities or government, they create sorts of

conspiracies that will explain the situation. DeLillo illustrates a false dichotomy that brings about

illusions of security and therefore leading to an inadequate explanation of events. In the novel,

even with all the theories and documents, the characters are not closer to knowing the truth. The

character Nicholas branch reinforces the theory of conspiracy. He states “If we are on the

outside, we assume a conspiracy is the perfect working of a scheme. Silent nameless men with

unadorned hearts. A conspiracy is everything that ordinary life is not.” (DeLillo, 440)

Coale, (15) points out that our culture loves variety, possibility, and mystery, however, we

continue to search for answers and knowledge. DeLillo takes readers away from narratives that

provide answers and therefore offering a chance of possibility and chance to reign. Nicholas

branch is a character who plays as a theorist and researcher and is contracted by the FBI to find

answers about the assassination. As the novel starts, we are made to believe that branch also

believes that there is a chance of conspiracy. Branch comes to the conclusion that there is no

enough amount of evidence to prove whether Kennedy’s assassination theories were true or false.

DeLillo introduces the element of chance into the conspiracy surrounding Kennedy’s

assassination to show that there are things that are always out of our control. The most important

aspect of the conspiracy theme in this novel is how it shows the overall effect of conspiracy in

our communities and culture. Libra through the theme of conspiracy shows us how it has

impacted our communities to a level that we have cultural paranoia. Not getting the solutions or

answers about the events that happened in Dallas, leaves us with theories and conspiracies

pertaining to the assassination, but also leading to the creation of fear and paranoia in the

American culture in their everyday lives.

Coale (10) defines paranoia as a state of fear but also demonstrates that accounts of

paranoia usually spreads or grows. Oswald is a character that represents the way people in the

community spreads paranoia to the population at large. Oswald himself is in a state of paranoia,

representing the symptoms of the American culture. He not only embodies the social

antagonisms such as struggles in class or the fantasy conception that most Americans have but

also the social contradictions about consumer capitalism. Oswald is a character that does not fit

the psychotic model but represents a paranoid, consumer, and the average citizen in the

American culture. When looking at Oswald as a representation of a paranoid citizen, it can be

seen that conspiracy ultimately leads him to various meanings and outcomes. When Oswald was

in prison he was starting to realize that he had paradoxical freedom. It seems that he was now

able to rewrite his future. However, he is shot and killed and we may never trace if he could.

Participants of the American culture are always involved in writing their histories. As it can be

noted through the character Oswald, we want to take control and develop a plot that will give us

meaning and answers. Looking at the life of Oswald, the author was able to show the kind of

uncertainty and paranoia that comes about with conspiracy. Rankin et al. (156) state that if we

are unable to break away from the search for truth, then we will be caught up in a life driven by

paranoia, uncertainty, and anxiety.

In the novel, we meet with the character Win Everett, who is a conspirer planning to create

a story that shows that the president was not assassinated. We are also introduced to her daughter,

Suzanne who must rely on clay dolls so that he may get some comfort. Suzanne had learned

techniques that would help her to detach from her family, by creating another family that will

meet her needs. It can be noted that just like Oswald, she has paranoia and tries to renarrative her

life. Win has no idea that her daughter is living a life of paranoia. The author uses Suzanne’s

story to show that paranoia and conspiracy are not only limited to active players. The author tries

to show how paranoia can continue to spread throughout society even to those who are not active

participants. We are able to see how collective narratives in society can be dangerous to our

well-being as societies. The dangers of such narratives can be seen through the story of the little

girl Suzanne and how personal accounts and conspiracies can affect or cause paranoia and fear in

our societies.

This discussion shows how the importance of the theme of conspiracy in the novel Libra. It

shows the implication of conspiracy to the everyday life of Americans. We live in a society

where everyone has a desire to order or create versions of history or conspiracy narratives that

ultimately lead to paranoia and fear in our society. As illustrated through the characters Suzanne

and Oswald, we script our own identities or realities we may be estranged and detached from the

real world around us and therefore making us be paranoid. DeLillo was very keen when writing

Libra to ensure that the theme of conspiracy flows all through the novel. He also shows how

conspiracies in our societies can lead to are paranoia culture, where people are paranoid and

always lives in fear.

Works Cited Page

CHNANI, ABBAS BASHAR HASSAN. Don DeLillo ve George Orwell’in Seçilen

Romanlarında Laikleşme. Diss. 2021.

Coale, Samuel Chase. Paradigms of paranoia: the culture of conspiracy in contemporary

American fiction. University of Alabama Press, 2019.

DeLillo, Don. Libra. Éditions Actes Sud, 2018.

Rankin, James. "The Contingency of History: Pragmatism and Approaching Historical

Truth in Don DeLillo's Libra." CEA Critic 81.2 (2019): 153-163.

Willman, Skip. "Traversing the Fantasies of the JFK Assassination: Conspiracy and

Contingency in Don Delillo's" Libra"." Contemporary Literature 39.3 (2018):

405-433.