Grandiose Aspirations

Looking back at what I wrote for today's in-class prompt makes me wonder how well we know Oswald (as presented in Libra) even though we've spent quite a bit of time with him. From the beginning of the book, I kind of realized that he has grandiose ambitions--but never to the extent that we've been seeing recently. First of all, he defects and decides he wants to become a Russian citizen and is so sure of his decision that he gives up his American papers. He also spends large amounts of time working on learning Russian, but when he takes the test Alexi gives him, he fails everything except the urine test. Somehow, none of this appears to affect him, because he remains unfazed. Then, he realizes he actually wants to go back to America, but of course, he has practically forced his papers on the Russian officials. And then there's his book--he thinks that people will eventually read what he has to say in his "Kollection" with great interest.

All of these things make obvious Oswald's delusions about his own importance, particularly within the larger scheme of things. It also makes the reader question the whole plan, what with Mackey and Parmenter getting suspicious of various people and whether or not they will follow through. It's also interesting that they chose Oswald as their main hitman because he seems to me very unpredictable. He lashes out (in a physical way) at his wife seemingly randomly. If I could choose three words to describe him, I'd probably say unpredictable, deluded, and dangerous. Why they would rely on someone who has an agenda of his own is the mystery; if they want everything to be in place without any room for error, Oswald isn't the guy they're looking for; he makes his own fake identification and has an investment in this--most likely to do with his own self-perceptions. In any case, there's no way this plan can end well.