Imagined Meeting with Lee Harvey Oswald
Stating the reason for choosing a particular historical figure
Biography facts of Lee Oswald`s life
Description of my meeting
Conclusion
There is no doubt the novel “11/22/63” written by Stephen King is implicitly recognized as one of his best books not only by millions of the writer`s fans but also by serious literary critics. The assassination of President Kennedy was the most tragic event in the American history of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, the mystery of it has not yet been disclosed. If a miracle had happened, I would have talked to Lee Harvey Oswald. I am inclined to believe that this person appears to be one of the most controversial historical figures. Being inspired by the King`s masterpiece, I would definitely choose to meet this man and ask him myriad questions.
I would also like to meet Lee Harvey Oswald because his biography contains a lot of intriguing and interesting facts. Before the assassination Oswald had been living in the USSR for two years in Minsk, where he worked at the radio factory. There he met Marina Prusakova and soon married her. According to Marina, when she met the man, Lee Harvey spoke Russian perfectly and she took him for a local resident. When the Soviet authorities allowed Oswald to return to the United States she went with him. At this very moment I would ask Lee how an ordinary 22-year-old US lad who was engaged in a marine fleet was fluent in Russian language. Some historians are convinced that Oswald appeared to be a CIA operative.
Lee called himself a “scapegoat” meaning that he took the blames for others. If one believes in such a theory, it turns out that Oswald is an innocent victim. Some people state that knowing his biography, it is difficult to believe that he was involved in the conspiracy. Others claim that taking a closer look at Oswald`s life, his identity, relations with the surrounding people, disparate political treatises created by him, it becomes abundantly clear that he could have killed the president on his own.
Two days after the Kennedy assassination the main suspect was shot at the police station by the owner of a night club with criminal ties Jack Ruby. The day before that incident Oswald was questioned the whole day, but no records of these interrogations were provided later. A few hours after the Oswald's death the FBI closed the case of the assassination attempt. Such turn of events raises a lot of questions and cannot be passed over in silence.
Talking about Stephen King`s novel, I would confess that my possible meeting with Lee Harvey Oswald would not occur according to the same scenario described by the author in the book. Travelling to 1960s before talking to the possible killer of Kennedy I would wander through the streets, meet local people, and take a bus or a train to travel further in order to understand the laws and social order of those times better. I wish I could meet Lee in the informal surrounding and explain that I came from the future and my purpose was to shed light on that extraordinary November day. Of course, I suspect that he would not tell me the names of instigators. Then I would just want to know what he felt on a moment of being proclaimed as the most powerful man in the world. I wonder whether he did not hesitate about his deeds, was definitely sure concerning the correctness of his actions and later repented.
I consider a chance of going back in time to be an unsurpassed opportunity to make something clear firstly to me, but it goes without saying that I do not pretend to be called a hero in trying to prevent a catastrophe. Stephen King stated that “we never know which lives we influence, or when, or why” (352).
References:
Stephen King . 22/11/'63. Milano: Sperling & Kupfer, 2011. Print.
