For example, the first time you see it is right after Oswald's nickname Ozzie the Rabbit is explained. All you get is this one little line:
Seven pages later, it shows up again twice with very little explanation.
"Heindel was known as Hidell, for no special reason." (82)
"Hidell in a dark jacket with a pouncing tiger on the back."I thought this next paragraph would help me understand when I first caught sight of it as I read.
"Hidell means don't tell." (89)
"Take the double-e from Lee.
Hide the double-l in Hidell.
Hidell means hide the L.
Don't tell." (90)
But it didn't really help me all that much. I mean, seriously, if you take an ee+hide, you don't get anything that makes sense. And what does "Don't tell" have to do with it? Mystifying.
The next time this mysterious Hidell showed up I started wishing I had taken psychology and understood all of Freud's thinking. I feel like Lee, not really sure what ego and id really are but feeling like they must have significance.
"We live forever in history, outside ego and id. He wasn't sure he knew exactly what the id was but he knew it lay hidden in Hidell." (101).
And then yet another paragraph that seems to suggest an answer, but instead is more confusing. Clearly we have a reference to Jekle and Hyde, but exactly how that is being used I'm not sure. Perhaps Lee is considering himself both a jerk and a person who hides, and in that way he has a double personality. Or perhaps Jerke refers to his cellmate.
"Hidell means don't tell.And the last one I found in the reading seems to refer to Oswald getting closer to the East.
The id is hell.
Jerke and Hide in their little cell." (101)
"Hidell climbs the ancient creaking stairs" (109)
Perhaps you can tell that as I finished my reading tonight I was getting pretty curious about what this Hidell was and what is signified. So I googled it. And guess what, Alek Hidell was an alias used by Lee Harvey Oswald! So it is important somehow! Now I get to keep watching references to this and wondering what DeLillo is trying to say with these short, semi-random interjections about Hidell. Stay tuned for a possible follow up if I figure this out!
"Hidell creeps closer to the East" (134)
2 comments:
This is a really handy post, Sarah! I, too, was confused by all of the references to Hidell; for the longest time, I thought that Hidell was a new character. I guess I wasn't too far from the truth, though. To me, it seems like Hidell is the unconscious part of Oswald, what with all the talk about id and ego. I'll have to keep this information in mind as I continue reading.
Aishwarya
Okay, just a note for those reading this blog post. Wikipedia was indeed helpful for predicting what Hidell was supposed to mean. There is a line on page 199 where Lee tells his friends who think Lee sounds Chinese to call him Alek (that is, Alek Hidell). So we have it.
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