Libra

I'm really liking Libra. It's fun how the narration skips around from snapshot to snapshot--most quite vivid an creatively described. (I like his descriptions of the subway. Subways are very aesthetically distinctive places.) It's a little confusing, but I actually feel like the way that Delillo intersperses Lee's readings and thoughts with real-life experiences at various unspecified moments captures the distance that Lee keeps from the outside world--and the reality he finds in his books--very well.
"Richard Carlson as Herb Phil-brick, ordinary citizen, member of the Communist Party, undercover agent for the FBI. She tapped her fingers on the palm of her hand. Rise and shine. He saw a guy sitting backwards on a motorcycle, smoking a cigarette and looking into space," In this passage you can really feel that Lee's experiences (in this case his mother waking him up) are simply an insignificant nuisance; a brief distraction from his fantasies of joining a communist group and jumping across rooftops in dark clothing.
This description sort of makes him sound delusional, but honestly, I like little Lee. He seems like a smart guy. He's a little tortured and eccentric (and arrogant and inconsiderate), but sympathetic to be sure.
We watched a video in history composed of clips of news coverage during Kennedy's assassination. Just going off of vibes, Lee Harvey Oswald seemed like a pretty normal guy. I don't think anyone else in the class felt this way, but he seemed pretty intelligent, and somehow the most modern in his attitudes of anyone in the movie. You know how news people from the 60's have weird accents and seem kind of artificial? He wasn't like that. In fact, he seemed much more sane than he comes across in the book. He just kept asking for a shower and complaining that the cops were denying his rights. Maybe he was too calm, I don't know, but he certainly wasn't overtly insane.

The main way in which I haven't been charmed by the kid is his strange attitude towards his mother. He seems to hate her, which I don't understand and I'm sure she doesn't deserve. He also has a weird need for control, and the grinning while he's being punched is unsettling. And he may be interested in Marxism mostly for personal reasons (desiring fame, seclusion, what-have-you), rather than genuine social concern. But doesn't everyone believe what they believe for personal reasons on some level?
Anyway, there are some troubling aspects to his character, but I feel like the point that DeLillo is trying (and in my opinion succeeding) to get across is that Lee, however flawed, is not really at fault (I mean Lee the character, not Lee the person. The book doesn't seem to take its theories too seriously). He's just a pawn. Weirdly enough, the people scheming don't seem so at fault either.  They don't intend to kill Kennedy. (Although honestly I think that intending to lie to the entire American public in order to galvanize them against communism is almost more sinister than killing a single man. That's large-scale oppression, and given the awful things that have happened in this country and in others in the name of the American fight against communism, it's pretty unacceptable.)

A little observation: It says no one knows why Heindel goes by "Hidell" and then, a couple pages later at random the author throws in, "Hidell means don't tell". I don't know what to take from this other than the fact that secrets are a big theme in this book.

Kindred

There's something about Rufus that's--I don't want to say sympathetic because he's been doing terrible thing after terrible thing, but... like Mr. Mitchell was working hard to say tactfully in class, he's not as easy to hate as he could be. I think that this is due to the fact that he's exactly like a child, even though he's biologically been an adult for more than half the book. He throws temper tantrums, he wants his Mommy back and fears his Daddy and gets really attached to people. He still goes by Rufe. His whole role in the story is to be the incompetent fool that Dana keeps having to save and trying to educate: a very child-like role.
And we forgive children for a lot of things that we don't let adults get away with. Kids are allowed to be selfish and whiny and unpleasant. In World Since, we've been watching this movie, Kramer vs. Kramer, about two parents getting divorced. Their five year old can be really inconsiderate to his dad, who tries his best to take care of him after the mom leaves. But we don't blame the kid, we're just like, "aw, he's having a hard time and he doesn't know any better." So the same feeling tends to sort of apply to Rufus, at least in Dana's eyes, maybe not to all readers. He's had a pretty hard life (though not as hard as most of the characters in this book) and he acts like he's ignorant, so she's inclined to forgive him.

Sarah's an interesting character. I like the perspective Butler takes on her evolution into an Uncle Tom like character-- that it's unfortunate but understandable. "Uncle Tom" has come to refer to slaves that were too loyal to white plantation owners (and really to anyone who participates in their own group's maltreatment). It's a reference to the book Uncle Tom's Cabin, which, though an anti-slavery novel, is now famous for its problematic depiction of content slaves (many of which then became famous slave stereotypes). And actually maybe a better term to use would be "Mammy-like character", because the female domestic slave's name was Mammy in Uncle Tom's Cabin.  When Rufus calls her "Aunt Sarah", Dana is a little bit disturbed and thinks, "Aunt Sarah? Well, that was better than Mammy Sarah".
Sarah's not content as a slave, but she's opposed to escape attempts, at least after Luke is sold off for "just (going) ahead and (doing) what he wanted to"(138). I just like how Dana is at first disappointed in her for having this point of view and then comes to understand it.
We always hate peers that buy into messed up, oppressive systems at our expense. For example, in schools there can be some vitriol toward try-hards, brown-nosers, suck-ups. I assume that this bad-blood, at least in some circumstances, comes out of a feeling that those people are out-competing normal kids by working harder than they should be or caring too much about the boring stuff adults like. And it's easy to buy into this mentality. Like, who likes scabs? I don't like scabs in the abstract. But if you were actually put, firsthand, into a scab's situation, you'd probably have some sympathy. Scabs are in a tough place. My mom's union is actually considering a strike and she's worried about it because not getting paid enough is bad, but not as bad as being fired. Even though she wants them to succeed, she's not sure if she'd strike with them or not. Safety is appealing, and honestly, whether you're a striking worker, a rebellious pre-teen, or a slave, if you don't actually have a chance of changing the corrupt system holding you down, it could be smart to try to just make the best of your situation. Now the thing is that some slaves did escape, so trying wasn't pointless. But I can see why Sarah would feel that way, and after escaping and being brought back, so can Dana.