Texas Face

The climactic chapter of Libra in which Kennedy is assassinated is chockfull of imagery. This is one of the reasons I love this chapter. In only a couple dozen of pages, DeLillo has inserted so much meaning. One of my favorite images that DeLillo uses in the chapter is the “Texas face.”

As Lee prepares to shoot the president, he takes a moment to take in the sights of the motorcade. At this point, he is still cocky and hasn’t thought things through, and is thus overly optimistic. As he watches the president’s car pass, he sees the governor:

He spotted Governor John Connally in one of the jump seats, a Stetson in his lap. He liked Connally’s face, a rugged Texas face. This was the kind of man who would take a liking to Lee if he ever got to know him. (DeLillo 395)

Later in the chapter, as Lee is starting to realize that he has been put on and is actually in danger after having fired the shots, he imagines another Texas face:

He was already talking to someone about this. He had a picture, he saw himself telling the whole story to someone, a man with a rugged Texas face, but friendly, but understanding. Pointing out the contradictions. Telling how he was tricked into the plot. What is it called, a patsy? He saw a picture of an office with a tasseled flag, dignitaries in photos on the wall. (DeLillo 401)

In this passage, with Lee arguably starting to see the situation with less of his narcissism and optimism, you can see his worry. The image of the “Texas face” strikes me because it so accurately captures how Lee thinks and acts throughout the book. He starts out thinking nothing can go wrong, and then he is proven wrong. A lot of the Lee’s character can be summed up in these two short passages.

Interestingly, and as a bit of a side note, DeLillo makes it very obvious that these passages are to be thought about in conjunction. In addition to the image of the “Texas face,” DeLillo also adds images after both of these passages involving cartons and books. Immediately after the first mention in this chapter of the “Texas face,” DeLillo adds the sentence, “Cartons stamped Books” (395). After the second passage, he writes, “Books stacked ten cartons high” (DeLillo 401).