Despite the whole kerfuffle of allegedly assassinating JFK on his own, I kind of feel for Lee Oswald. He is a sympathetic character who is just screaming for attention. From the very beginning we are given a look at how Lee has grown up. Living in a squalid apartment with a mother he dislikes, Lee takes to going to the zoo and keeping an inner monologue running assuming every move he makes will be historic. He has such a warped exalted view that in a twisted way, Lee is the most relatable character in all of the books we have read this semester. We can't deny that at SOME point in our (young) lives, that we haven't thought that maybe one day our actions may be considered historic. Although we may not share the angst and plotting Lee experiences, there is something so relatable about how he hopes to be remembered some day.
Part of the desire to be remembered has to do with the fact that his father abandoned him maybe making him feel as if no one even knows Lee exists. This might be why he is such an attention hog, doing anything to stay in the spotlight. When he is no longer "famous" in Atsugi, he departs going to Russia in hopes that he will be greeted as a hero, something Lee has never experienced. Yet, when the novelty of being American wears off, he has no choice but to come back home hoping his time spent in Russia makes him famous back home. Regardless, I think it is fair to say that everything Lee does can be attributed to his abandonment issues.
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We see this grasping for an alternative "father figure" at a number of points throughout the novel: Alek Kirilikov, George de Metterschnidt (sp?), and even David Ferrie. And note that the first thing he does when he arrives in N.O. is to look for his father's grave.
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