How a Manipulator Pushes the Manipulated Over the Edge
One of the most interesting characters to me throughout this novel Libra has been David Ferrie with all his eccentricities. Throughout the story Ferrie attempts to control Lee Harvey Oswald and push him towards becoming his lackie and joining the plan to assassinate President Kennedy. Ferrie seems to adapt mannerisms of a sort of hypnotist, twisting and pulling at Oswald's brain to confuse him until he finally conforms to the plan. Oswald has presented as a mentally weak character throughout the entire novel, and it is fitting in the reader's mind that he can be controlled so easily. Even though the reader may think that Oswald is merely a fool, the tactics that Ferrie uses to finally capitalize on the seeds he planted long ago are quite interesting and I would like to analyze them.
Ferrie opens their final conversation before the shooting with a common technique used by manipulators: gaslighting. Ferrie pressures Oswald with the repetition of the president's caravan route, insistent that Oswald has seen it before (DeLillo 383). This tactic fits two needs of Ferrie. It successfully conveys the needed information that Oswald would surely need to have memorized, but also sets him uneasy to weaken his mind for the second strike. The dual meaning behind this psychological attack frame Ferrie's brilliance in a wise but unstable manner. The past interactions that Ferrie and Oswald have had expose Oswald to this gaslighting as the levels of trust needed for Oswald to not immediately dismiss Ferrie's move have already been built.
The appeal to Oswald's motives that Ferrie makes next is one of the smartest moves he makes. Throughout his whole life, Oswald has doubted his own ability to enter history, as it is something that he has always highly valued and believes is his ultimate goal. His whole life has been a multitude of coincidences, which Ferrie uses to warp Oswald's understanding of reality. Ferrie explains that "there's no such thing as a coincidence... It happens because you make it happen" (DeLillo 384). Ferrie flips Oswald's understanding of his past upside his head, leading directly into his next move, where he explicates how Oswald's motives must now be flipped too. "You wanted to enter history. Wrong approach, Leon. What you really want is out. Get out. Jump out. Find your place and your name on another level" (DeLillo 384). This final leap is what I believe to be the final piece needed to fully tip the scales of Oswald's mind. His reality upturned, he centers around Ferrie's ideas, ultimately arriving at the decision to commit to the plan that was laid out to him.
I found the tactics that DeLillo wrote Ferrie to use to be quite realistic. It seemed as if I could picture their exact happenings occurring in real life, as if Ferrie really was a terrorist with the ability to coerce mentally unstable people to commit unspeakable acts. He left me confident in his ability to warp someone's mind and ultimately achieve whatever he wished.
I hope you have enjoyed my blogs,
Collins Rosch
Hi Collins I agree with you. DeLillo's depiction of Ferrie is perfectly fitting for the depiction of someone attempting to manipulate someones thoughts. Willie touched on this in his blog, the way Ferrie relates to Oswald is the main thing that really gets Oswald to follow whatever Ferrie says. Oswald is lonely and always searching for direction, this involuntary (although sometimes it can seem voluntary) isolation is what leaves him to be so easily manipulated. Ferrie can simply agree with some of Oswalds points of view and ways of thinking and Oswald already feels like he can trust him. I think this is due to the fact that Lee is so obsessed with being seen, and related to. I dont think he truly wants to be a person who is always alone, I think he just finds himself in that place and doesn't know how to get out of it. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI agree that Ferrie is an incredibly interesting speculative character the way he is constantly planting the seeds of Oswald's decision to assassinate Kennedy. In a sense, he is entirely responsible for the way Oswald turns out if we choose to believe the book and give it credit. His ability to make Oswald feel bigger than himself, feel like he is a part of something greater, and as though he was chosen by higher power to complete this task is what makes his manipulation so effective on someone like Oswald who yearns to make a mark on history.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you also wrote about Ferrie's character as the main manipulator of Oswald, it was easily the topic that intrigued me the most in our in-class discussions. Ferrie's gradual manipulation was something so unsettling and disquieting, especially with how subtly it's framed until so much later. It just made me look back and re-read to pore through all the Ferrie interactions for any little comments, insinuations or suggestions. Everything from his behavior to the photo I saw of him online, Ferrie just gives me the chills
ReplyDeleteGreat post Collins! I also wrote about how David Ferrie manipulated Oswald. I like that you said he warped Oswald's perception of reality, because he totally did. He fed him delusions of grandeur and fate, and Oswald was just the type of guy to be really susceptible to that type of stuff. Ferrie worked subtly, and it was a very realistic interaction.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most surprising moves that Ferrie makes, to my mind, is that odd moment when he admits that even he is not in complete possession of the plot--that he too is being used by the real plotters. After detailing to Lee how everything is set up--he just needs to meet up with their guy at the movie theater (actually Wayne Elko with his pistol and silencer waiting to eliminate Oswald), and he is on his way to Galveston and eventually Havana--Ferrie shifts and remarks, "That, or they kill us both in Galveston" (something to that effect--book not handy at the moment). It seems like a wrong move at first, to admit that maybe they're BOTH being set up. But I think it is brilliant, in that twisted kind of brilliance we see in Ferrie, as it places him on similar footing as Lee, gains his trust a little more, makes him believe Ferrie is telling him all he knows.
ReplyDeleteAnd it DOES seem like (in DeLillo's version) Ferrie has been duped by Mackey and the rest: he insists that Oswald be taken to Cuba safely, and Mackey assures him that's the plan, immediately before telling us that in fact "Oswald dead" is the plan. Ferrie seems genuinely worried that he might be setting Lee up for a fall. He ultimately has no control over the plot or Lee's fate, but part of his manipulation entails the implication that he knows more than he does, and controls more than he does.
I like how you show how the methods Ferrie uses allow him to get into Lee's head and pretty easily manipulate him into actually pulling the trigger. I don't remember who it was but I remember a quote from somewhere in Libra about Lee being "a Ferrie project", which kind of makes sense considering how manipulative Ferrie is with Lee. Ferrie doesn't even seem concerned with Lee's constant disappearances and unpredictability, he just seems to believe that coincidence will take care of it in the end. It's unclear that Ferrie's even confident Lee will actually do it but he still is very good at getting into his head.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! Ferrie's manipulation of Oswald made me wonder how much crazy stuff the cia has done in subtle ways that are hard to prove like manipulating a gunman in conversations that are never recorded. There were so many subtle things that Ferrie did in order to manipulate Oswald, and it was a very chilling thing to read.
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