HISTORY AS FICTION

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Jason's Coming of Age

     I know this is a broad topic, but I thought it was important to address Jason's broad coming of age in this book, and, more specifically, the ways in which we can tell. His behavior changes a lot from the beginning to the end. At the beginning, we can tell that he is uncomfortable, immature and scared to speak up, even when other people are hurting him. However, he goes through many growth experiences throughout the book that open his eyes, the most notable of which being his interactions with Eva. She points out many interesting things to him that he hadn't noticed before, and kind of exposes all of these things that Jason has been keeping locked up inside of himself (like his stammer and the "hairy barbarians").      One of the biggest changes we notice in Jason is the fact that he stops using the word "gay" to describe things, and even sometimes uses words that he would have described as "gay" before (like "beautiful" when he'...
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Triggering the Atonists

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Oswald and Ruby, Ruby and Oswald

 When we started reading the part of Libra  on Jack Ruby, something immediately stood out to me: the eerie similarity between Ruby and Lee. They're obviously different in a lot of ways (Ruby is trying to take out loans from the mafia, whereas Lee is advocating for communism and the advancement of communist ideals in the United States).  The similarity, however, lies in their personalities and the way in which they are viewed by the world. They are both guys with really bold ideas who think they are important in the grand scheme of things, but with huge insecurities. Everyone else around them views them as a joke, and the serious actions they take (Lee going to the Soviet Union or Ruby beating the guy up) aren't really seen as that important. No one thinks they are actually a danger or at risk of really acting on their words, which is really interesting when you think about what they both end up doing. Obviously, Oswald ends up assassinating John F Kennedy and Ruby ends up...
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