White Noise

A detailed Summary of White Noise

In Don Delillo' s novel White Noise, consumption as a form of easing anxiety and affirming self is portrayed through the depiction of the characters. By tracing the development of this characteristic of contemporary culture, Delillo writes of the routines humans rehearse, almost subconsciously, everyday, through the representation of Jack Gladney and his family. Through his divergent view of the world, the author seems to exhibit a subtly negative outlook on certain matters of contemporary culture, although Delillo' s intention is not to be critical. He is simply trying to describe the beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes of our culture through the characters that he creates.

Through the eyes of Jack Gladney, the main character that teaches Hitler studies at the College on a Hill, Delillo portrays the common routine of many people in contemporary culture. This college professor is in the middle of a mid-life crisis. He has no idea of who he is and he hides his emptiness behind thick, dark framed glasses, a scholarly university instructors' robe, and mastery of his academic interest of choice, "Hitler studies". He sees death everywhere he looks and attempts to defeat its inevitability in obsessive compulsive ways. Mr. G

Babette and Jack have a haunting fear of death and who will die first. Together, they tried to hide the fright from one another, but after one long conversation Jack informed Babette of his fate, that he was going to die before her. Her reaction was a behavior that Jack had never witnessed Babette do before. "She climbed on top of me, sobbing. I felt her fingers clawing at my shoulders and neck. The warm tears fell on my lips. She beat me on the chest, seized my left hand and bit the flesh between the thumb and index finger. Her sobs became grunting sound, full of terrible desperate effort. She took my head in her hands, gently, yet fiercely, and rocked it to and fro on the pillow, an act I could not connect to anything she' d ever done, anything she seemed to be."(pg. 203) At this point, Babette has come to the realization that no form of consumption is going to ease the anxiety that she has for death. In performing that tantrum, one that Jack had never seen before, Babette is revealing her interior feelings not only to Jack, but also herself. Together, they begin to understand that material matters will not keep death from coming.

ladney hoards old, worthless, sentimental objects. He memorizes the most minute trivial facts about Hitler. He strives for order, neatness, and predictability in all aspects of his life. The search for order saturates every aspect of his life, down to which kind of cereal he buys. His family life is in shambles and his wife and children cohabitant the same home, yet there is little real contact between any of them. The family TV is the central point in the home and serves as a buffer to reality. To the Gladney family,"Bad things", happen on TV, to people in California, not in their little community. When an industrial accident brings Jack face to face with real danger, Jack is forced to examine his own analytical thinking. He is forced to tak

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Approximate Word count = 1279
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels