Bell 2
Tinasha Bell
23 April 2018
Mrs. Filer
Eng. 101 M13
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Born October 18, 1939, Lee Harvey Oswald was born, just two months after the death of his father (Waggoner 27). His youth was spent switching between living with his mother, his aunt, various relatives’ homes and living in many New Orleans Orphanages (McKinley 106). The only father figure Lee ever had in his life, Edwin Ekdahl, was his mother’s third marriage in 1945, which only lasted a few years and later ended in divorce. However, during this time in which his mother had been remarried, Lee’s two brothers, John and Robert, were sent away to Chamberlain-Hunt Academy, a military school in the fall of 1945. They had removed themselves from the family and it was Lee who was left all alone (Bugliosi 518).
When Lee’s brothers returned from military school December 1945, they were uninformed about the arguments and disagreements, and Lee “was far more upset by these conflicts” and “[had already learned] to keep his feelings to himself” (Bugliosi 520). Before the divorce in 1948, Lee had become the leader of small gangs among the boys in second grade (Bugliosi 521). Later in 1948, when his mother returned to work, Lee dealt with her neglect by skipping school often. For skipping school as often as he did though, Lee Harvey Oswald had an IQ of 118 (McKinley 106). At the age of twelve, Lee began to rebel against his mother, particularly shown when he slapped her when asked to do something (Bugliosi 528). When he was living with his older brother, John, and his wife Marge in 1953, he had threatened his sister-in-law with a small pocketknife with a blade. A truant officer that had become informed about his lack of his attendance to school even commented on Lee’s behavior as having a “vivid fantasy life, turning around the topics of omnipotence and power” (Gale).
In his freshman year of high school in the fall of 1953, Oswald dropped out of school (McKinley 106). At age fifteen, Lee discovered the ideas of Marxism in a pamphlet about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (Waggoner 28). In 1956, and seventeen years old, Oswald joined the Marine Corps, and in the fall of that year contacts the Socialist Party. While in Japan as a Marine in 1958, Oswald is court-martialed twice, for illegal possession of guns and for assaulting a commander. In September of that year, Lee is discharged from active duty in the Marine Corps (Interactive Timeline). Later in October 1959, Oswald was trying to become a Soviet Citizen and was in correspondence with the U.S. Embassy in attempt to forsake his U.S. citizenship. Finally until November 22, 1963, the day Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy, Oswald’s life was a downhill spiral. There was tension with his wife, unemployment checks, being between jobs, and the help of few friends (McKinley 107).
C- Evaluation Of Sources
The two most important sources to be evaluated are Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi, ...
