Break this World's Shell

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy has only one real appearance in Libra, but despite that, he holds a powerful presence in the narrative. John was the first president to readily make good use of the medium of television to communicate with the public, often through his live press conferences, and accordingly in Libra much of the populace is presented as having opinions on him (“John F. Kennedy and the Press”).      A certain fraction of the women in the novel are portrayed as being attracted to Kennedy: for example, Brenda Jean Sensibaugh, a stripper at Jack Ruby’s nightclub, has a discussion with another stripper on which of the Kennedy brothers they would rather have sex with Similarly, Marina also fantasizes at one point that she is making love to Kennedy instead of Lee, the narration describing his presence floating  out of the radio and the television. Marina wonders what it must be like “To know you are the subject of a thousand longings.” (p. 324, DeLillo) Thi...

 Three women who all faced rape or the threat thereof on the plantation. Sarah lives through rape at the hands of Tom Weylin, and recounts her experiences to Dana. All of her children are sold off except for Carrie, who is disabled. Recalling this fact makes her display a “Quiet, almost frightening anger” (p76). Dana views Sarah as an Uncle Tom, or a Mammy, earlier in the book. The young Rufus calls her “Aunt Sarah” (p86) which Dana reflects on as being better than Mammy. Sarah is considerably more perceptive of the more vile aspects of Rufus’s personality than Dana is, at least at first.  Ironically, although Dana accuses Sarah of having been cowed into submission, she in turn is seen as being too white by Alice, who calls her “white [n-word],” in an outburst. Dana’s knowledge and what is perceived as preferential treatment by the whites also leads more generally to people disliking her (such as in Lisa’s case) or, later on, the assumption that Rufus is raping her. Although D...

 I think that generally Ishmael Reed takes a very iconoclastic approach to Christianity, aligning it with the Templars, the crusaders, and the Wallflower Order (the central antagonists of the book) and making its existence in the ultimate form a mere disguise for Atonism. I think this is meant to be a satirical caricature of Christianity and monotheism as a whole, similar to the arguments about the significance of Abdul Sufi Hamid’s lampoons as was discussed in class. This interpretation is furthered by Reed’s own words in an outside interview: “I’m not against Christianity. I only want to humble it, like it says it ought to be.”[1]  Reed’s portrayal of Christianity, and to a greater extent monotheism, is wide-reaching in and beyond the novel: Moses, an important figure in all the Abrahamic religions, is depicted as a cultural appropriator, an ancient Elvis who commits the original sin—under Set’s goading—of reading the book in its Petro aspect. Outside of Mumbo Jumbo, Reed’s ...

Sarah is extremely separated from the family at first, though, and this very much remains the case: they don’t even know her last name, and they seemingly don’t know her first name either before Coalhouse mentions it—the boy, who always notices more, “realized he meant the woman in the attic” (p155). Her rejection of Coalhouse coming to see her is the most that she says to the family, over months and months. Even after she grows closer to them, she doesn’t feel like she can tell any of them about her plan to petition the Vice President on behalf of Coalhouse. Even outside of the family, she is noted to have no connections to the Black community downtown, and to be a “transient element” who came here from out of town. This shows Sarah’s continual isolation, and the lack of knowledge on part of the writer is similar to how Coalhouse is treated with uncertainty.  Coalhouse’s courtship of her is sweet—he is originally what prompts her to speak, he visits her and brings gifts to both he...