Ferrie's Manipulation of Oswald
Oswald’s emotional vulnerability is established at the very
start of the book, beginning with his troubled childhood and tumultuous family
life. Raised in a dysfunctional family, he experiences a lack of stability and
support, and as a result, he finds himself harboring a profound sense of
isolation and a search for belonging. This psychological need makes him
susceptible to those who offer him a semblance of purpose or direction. His
time in the Marine Corps further worsens his feelings of alienation, as he struggles
to fit in and achieve the recognition he so desperately wants. These early
experiences lay the groundwork for Oswald's later susceptibility to
manipulation.
David Ferrie in part manipulates Oswald by playing into
Oswald’s ideological fervor. Oswald's defection to the Soviet Union and his
adoption of Marxist beliefs demonstrate his desire to be part of something
larger than himself, a revolutionary cause. (You can’t blame him too much.
Growing up poor, Oswald pretty much felt personally victimized by the
capitalist system.) Ferrie understands this ideological commitment and uses it
to manipulate Oswald, presenting the plot against Kennedy as an extension of the
same revolutionary ideals Oswald holds. He frames the assassination as a
necessary act for the greater good, appealing to Oswald’s desire to make a
significant impact on history.
Ferrie also exploits Oswald’s psychological need for
recognition and importance. Oswald’s life is marked by a series of failures and
disappointments, from his inability to achieve prominence in the Marine Corps
to his unsuccessful attempts at integrating into Soviet society. Ferrie feeds
into Oswald’s fantasies of grandeur, convincing him that he has a crucial role
to play in a historic event. He often alludes to a supposed ‘greater force’ at
work, and uses ideas like destiny to trick Oswald into believing he is a part
of something greater than he realizes. A good example would be the location of
the presidential motorcade: It ended up being scheduled to go through Dallas,
Texas, literally right by where Oswald happened to work. Ferrie takes advantage
of the coincidence, leaning hard into the destiny narrative to convince Oswald
that he’s a part of something greater- that he doesn’t really have a choice in
the matter, because it’s all already laid out for him by some higher
power.
Ferrie generally held a strong personal influence over
Oswald. With his charismatic and enigmatic personality, Ferrie provided Oswald
with a sense of belonging and camaraderie, and they often spent a lot of
personal (maybe a little too personal) time together. As a result, Oswald grew
to trust him, opening his mind and allowing him to be even more susceptible to
manipulation and malicious influence.
Hi Hannah! I really like your post! I think it's clear to all readers of Libra that David Ferrie is manipulating Lee, but it's not entirely clear how, so I appreciate your delving into those aspects. As you say, both parties are perfect for their role. Lee is prime to be manipulated, given his background, and Ferrie's charisma allows him to be the perfect manipulator. Honestly, your descriptions of their dynamic reminded my of the Manson murders, and Charles Manson's ability to manipulate younger people who had run away from home as an older, charming man. Cool post!
ReplyDeleteYou really eloquently sum up Lee's complex in the first paragraph about his lack of stability and support, leading him to be more suspectible to manipulation. David Ferrie is very evidently manipulating Lee and we see the progression of this. By starting with smaller interactions, to later spending more personal time with him, Ferrie is quite literally taking up so much of Lee's life in which he can't even think for himself. This is clear when Ferrie is driving him to work, and he's bombarding him with points and not allowing Lee any space to interject or breathe. He often uses the tactic of claiming he knows Lee and indoctrinating him into his belief system. Just like how Ferrie doesn't believe in coincidences and thinks that things are meant to happen, we see Lee adopting this ideology later on as well. Great post Hannah!
ReplyDeleteGreat post hannah! I was hoping someone would talk about this because our discussion in class left me thinking about it. He truly was set up for failure - not to say he's excused for murdering someone - but from the beginning he was shaped into the perfect target for manipulators. Time after time his vulnerability was able to be prayed on and I think you did a great job explaining that!
ReplyDeleteAfter finishing Libra, I can't think of David Ferrie without thinking of his mafia counterpart: Karlinsky. To me, Libra is a book about power structures and manipulation leading to messy events more so than it is about the assassination of our former president. I'll be honest, I'm not personally that swayed by Delillo's narrative, but I am open to the idea that many murders were commited because figures like Ferrie and Karlinsky manipulate others into killing.
ReplyDeleteNice post! While reading your blog I had a feeling that the tactics that David Ferrie uses are pretty similar to how our parents/mentors often influence us (though, with a much more positive intention than manipulation/grooming). As young people, we need someone in our lives to reinforce/reshape our beliefs (about the world and about ourselves), make a mental leap into our future for us, to tell us what we are meant for/what we are capable of doing. As inexperienced, anxious little beings, we need an adult figure in our lives to encourage us to challenge ourselves and do important things, to pull us into a bigger picture of what we are capable of--occasionally with the same fervor and "you are special" strategy used by Ferrie. This goes to show how Ferrie very snugly fit into the mentor figure that Lee still needed and how susceptible people in their formative years are to external influences, both malign or benign.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to remember that pretty much ALL of the Oswald-Ferrie material in the novel is DeLillo's fictional invention: we have a handful of circumstantial scraps that suggest they COULD HAVE had contact of some kind during this time, but there is no direct evidence, and certainly no account of how those interactions might have gone.
ReplyDeleteSo this is an ideal example of how DeLillo uses the "tools of fiction" (as Hayden White puts it) in order to "do history": he uses the elements of Oswald's background that would render him so vulnerable to this older man's solicitous manipulations, and he constructs an eerily realistic version of Ferrie in full manipulator mode. We will never be able to do more than speculate as to how any such interactions may or may not have gone, and the conspiracy plot in this novel crumbles without these conversations. And yet, within the fictional frame, it's SUCH a persuasive scenario--it's hard to imagine these conversations in cars (to borrow Ivy's term) did NOT happen. They seem more realistic than some of the real-life incidents detailed in the text.
I think this is a great way of looking at Oswald as a person and a potential explanation behind his life choices. It is possible that his lack of belonging and acceptance makes him more vulnerable to others and allows himself to be easily manipulated by the idea of belonging to an important or greater cause. Ferrie happens to exude qualities that make him believable and trustworthy to Oswald. With his words and charisma, Ferrie is able to tap into Oswald's weak spots and convince him to do something that he might not have done if it weren't for that extra push. I guess we'll never know.
ReplyDeleteI think what is particularly fascinating is the way that Ferrie actually finds what cracks to exploit; out of all the issues that Oswald has, it seems that Ferrie finds the ones that are most effective in achieving his goals. How is it that he can somehow know of Oswald's desire to be a part of history AND THEN use it to his advantage by convincing him that this is the time, that this is the moment. Conversely, we could also say that he is just a very convincing person and general and that Oswald's biases reframe Ferrie's words but we note in the dialogues between the two of Oswald's lack of speech (and internal dialogue), especially in that scene of Ferrie driving him. Those conversations reflect Ferrie's complete dominance within Oswald's mind and its interesting how he achieves it.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! I think your analysis of Oswald and his vulnerabilities is really good and makes a lot of sense. I think Ferrie's manipulation of him made Oswald a more sympathetic character in some ways and it was an interesting choice from Delillo to make this the explanation of the assasination. I thought Yelim's comment was really interesting about how lots of social influences in our own lives are similar to Ferrie's manipulation, and it got me thinking a lot about free will. So many of our dreams, desires, and everything about ourselves are probably products of manipulatory advertising and propoganda. We can look at Ferrie's manipulation and its quite clear what he's doing, but when we ourselves get manipulated it's hard to identify.
ReplyDelete