[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

Kennedy is more tolerable if we can perceive his killer as tragic rather than absurd." 360
Ultimately, Oswald is more anti-hero than hero, but Mailer argued that Oswald was a
tragic figure -- an idealist who had pretensions of creating a better world but was
repeatedly frustrated in his life, reduced to living a menial existence in both the Soviet
Union and in his homeland, the United States.
Mailer's work is divided into two parts: the first begins somewhat disconcertingly
with details about Marina's family and looks at Oswald's life in the Soviet Union. The
second part describes Oswald's life in the United States, including his childhood and
service in the Marine Corps before his defection. The first part detailed the private lives
and sexual history of both Marina and Oswald during his stay in Minsk. Mailer even
provided information about Oswald's flatulence: "He was always spoiling the air with
gases." 361 Mailer emphasized this part of Oswald’s life at first because he considered it
the key to understanding his personal and political tribulations and the transition from a
young defector to hated presidential assassin. Mailer demonstrated the dashed hopes of
an idealistic man who believed in Marxism but found Soviet life to be dreary and
degrading. Mailer’s examination of Oswald’s marriage also revealed that he was largely
a failure in the personal sphere as well, with a nagging wife who had no illusions about
the man she married.
In the personal sphere, Mailer showed how Marina’s difficult family and social
life during her years living with her stepfather in Leningrad helped undermine the
360 Mailer, 198.
361 Mailer, 216.
161