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

mythologize JFK’s presidency. 115 In keeping with this theme, Manchester also quoted
Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough, who told reporters after the shooting that he believed
Kennedy was dead by saying “Excalibur has sunk beneath the waves.” 116
In his epilogue, Manchester expressly drew the connection between Kennedy’s
assassination and what he called “the noble victim” who is ritually murdered in
mythology from Arthur in Britain to Siegfried in Germany. 117 Kennedy’s death comes in
autumn, Manchester pointed out, similar to the deaths of the noble victim in mythology,
as people prepare for the winter and worry that spring will not come. This noble victim
served an emissary to the Gods, “to temper the wrath of the Almighty and assure a green
and abundant spring.” This “atavistic power” must be understood, he explained, “if one
is to grasp what happened to the memory of John Kennedy.” 118
In his rhetorical excess, Manchester might have added Jesus Christ to his list of
“noble victims” similar to JFK. In fact, Manchester at one point described the
assassination as “the passion of John Kennedy,” and the author also used the words
“martyr” or “martyrdom” several times to describe Kennedy’s death. 119 In addition,
Jacqueline Kennedy, according to Manchester, refused repeated suggestions that she
changed her bloodstained dress in the hours after the assassination, her clothes a holy
relic of sorts bearing witness to the martyrdom of the nation’s first Roman Catholic
president. The clothes reappear in the final pages of The Death of a President with
115 Manchester, 29.
116 Manchester, 172.
117 Manchester, 623.
118 Manchester 623.
119 Manchester, 169.
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