Abstract
Libra is a novel written by Don Delillo and published in 1988. It deals with the life of Lee
Harvey Oswald in parallel with the plotters of the conspiracy which led him to be charged with
John Fitzgerald Kennedy's murder. This extract is the climax of the novel, the scene where the
President is shot in the head. How does this passage embody the complexity of the whole
book? This is what we will try to analyze first focusing on the chaotic atmosphere of the scene,
then on Bobby Hargis's point of view and to finish we will examine the media aspect.In this shooting scene, people are overwhelmed by panic. There is a man "already deep in chaos" (line 6), "a girl in a pretty coat running across the lawn toward the President'scar" (line 17-18) and in the end "People were down on the grass" (line 23). Hence the
protection attempts like "a man [who] threw his kid to the ground and fell on him" (line13-14) but also "the Governor, Connally, kind of sliding down in the jump seat and his wife taking him in, gathering the man in" (line 15-16) The same way a child was protected by his father, the Governor was protected by his wife. Whatever the family link, sex or hierarchical position, they go through the same ordeal and have the same human reaction. On the other hand, the
narrator refers to a "man [who] stood applauding" (line 5-6), which is ironical considering that
the President was at the same moment wounded in the throat from the first shot. There is also
an exception already obvious in its italics type "Put me on, Bill. Put me on" (line 8).
