We've compared a lot of characters in different ways this year in History as Fiction. For example, Dana draws many parallels to Billy Pilgrim in the way both travel back in time. Or perhaps we compare Coalhouse Walker to Hinckle Von Vampton as each toils without rest to achieve their respective goals. Libra presents more history than fiction, and as such, character comparisons are different and in some cases more difficult to manifest. I certainly can't think of a character from the other four books that matches George de Mohrenschildt. A couple Mumbo Jumbo characters could possibly be compared with the conspirators of the assassination, but I think the most clear-cut comparison is that of Lee Harvey Oswald and Mother's Younger Brother from Ragtime.
Perhaps the main point of comparison is that Oswald and Younger Brother are young men trying to find their identities and what they believe in. Mother often worries about her brother's stability, as does Lee's mother in the Bronx when she finds out he hasn't been showing up at school. Furthermore, each character has many different involvements. Younger Brother begins the novel following Evelyn Nesbit around but eventually encounters Emma Goldman who somewhat shapes him for other causes such as those of Coalhouse Walker Jr. or Emiliano Zapata. Lee somewhat knows what his passion is, as he obsesses with Marxism and thus is led to Russia (and later Mexico and Cuba), all of this after serving in a marine camp in Atsugi. So both characters jump around different places and people.
But I think it's the personality of the two that makes them most alike. Both of these people tend to keep to themselves when they aren't involved with another pursuit. Younger Brother is portrayed as lost, introverted, and maybe in some sort of existential crisis, evidence coming from when he could have told Coalhouse of his intentions of justice and progress toward a better day, but instead simply says, "I know how to blow things up". Lee keeps to himself, dodging school, riding the subway, wandering around the Bronx Zoo, and often playing the role of the confused youth who is maybe a bit troubled and in search of an outlet for his passions. There's something to be said about the way characters with close relations react around these two characters: Mother often worries about her brother the way Marguerite Oswald does about her youngest son.
And perhaps the most striking similarity: both, as they develop physically and emotionally, are waking to America, to the injustices and the things they would rather set right about our country. Lee believes the capitalist system is unreasonable, while Younger Brother has to take a stand against the injustices of the exclusive American Dream and how it wasn't necessarily available for all.
