American Consumerism: Don Delilo’s White Noise

However, because of what white signifies, we can assume she is also using it to protect herself metaphorically from all the fear and hatred out in the world that is driving her crazy. Especially when she tells her son to “tell [her] when it’s over” (93). By ‘it’ she means the war, because that is the true source of all the violence and worry that causes the mother to want to be alone. The mother demonstrates how fear causes isolation because she expresses fear when she is startled by the dinner bell and it leads to her isolating herself with the white curtain.

White Noise: The book, White noise, by Don DeLillo, illustrates a vivid usage of an idea, white noise, at the very end of chapter 8, when it states, “Neutrinos go right through the Earth,” Heinrich said into the telephone” (DeLillo, 34) which demonstrates exactly what the author of the book is trying to expand on. DeLillo is ending off his 8th chapter like so for a reason, which can very well be because it allows us, as the reader, to think freely. The main purpose of doing this is to enhance the reader and to allow them to be in his shoes while telling the

Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise is an example of what happens to people when they are unable to embrace their free will and fail to give their lives enough meaning to override the notion that death is inevitable. Existentialism maintains that a person’s authentic existence is made meaningful through their own choices; however, when a person focuses on their anxiety or existential dread, they develop a fixation on their own death that immobilizes them in their quest for a meaningful life. While many people are aware of their own death and may fear it, most do not to the extent that DeLillo’s protagonist Jack and his wife Babette do, employing coping mechanisms to avert their

Death is inevitable; it should not be feared but instead accepted, and this is the main idea and theme explored in Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death.” In the poem, Death is personified as a gentleman who “kindly stopped [stops] for me [her]” (Dickinson 2), “slowly drove [drives] … know[ing] no haste” (Dickinson 5), and with whom she stops at a “house that seemed [seems]/ A swelling of the ground” (Dickinson 17-18) or in other words, her grave. To begin the poem, the fact that Death is represented as “if he were a human being” (Evans 15) implies that it is humane. This contributes to the idea that death is not to fear. Later on, it can be concluded that this person has control over her as she describes how she “had put away / My [her] labor, and my [her] leisure too, / for his civility” (Dickinson 6-8), which implies that “everything that had once seemed so important and distracting now recedes in importance” (Evans 17), and how he “slowly drove [drives] … know[ing] no haste” (Dickinson 5), which gives “no clear sense of the underlying purpose of the journey or its ultimate destination” (Evans 16) and thus implies that only Death knows the path and destination of the journey. Both of these examples contribute to the fact that Death completely controls a person against its will and that it is inevitable. Finally when “we [they] paused before a house that seemed / A swelling of the ground” (Dickinson

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” (Mark Twain). This quote from the famous American writer is the basis for what became one of the hardest ideas to comprehend, death. Death has always been a complex term, causing one to struggle with what the true definition is. It is also hard to wrap your mind around what does it truly mean to die. These are the questions we long for the answer. Whether we acknowledge it or not, death has always been feared by many. Death remains an impossible question, one that has been unexplained since beginning of time. Even though dying is a natural, we as a human race still fear it. What can be done to defeat this never-ending battle? According to Montaigne’s “To Philosophize is to Learn to Die” and Cory Taylor’s “Questions for Me About Dying” we can overcome this by living to the fullest, living with no regrets, living a legacy, and lastly not fearing the inevitable. If you want to conquer the question of life, live in the moment.

Though this can be considered romantic to an extent, it is the vigour, seriousness and enthusiasm Babette and Jack discuss who will die first that evokes the sense of cynicism. Through this cynical conversation the paranoia is seen as that anxiety and fear of death pervades their thoughts. The discussion of death this blatantly in the novel does provide a sense of critique and insight into the postmodern American as with the emergence of technology and popular culture, a level of desensitisation of a once taboo subject occurs and Babette and Jack act as examples of this. Both characters “help us to redefine death as something other than a terror, and enjoyment of this requires some detachment on the part of the individual. It has also been argued that we may be more accepting of death, dying, and the dead because of our frequent exposure to these phenomena through our popular culture.

Death is probably the most feared word in the English language. Its undesired uncertainty threatens society’s desire to believe that life never ends. Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise tells the bizarre story of how Jack Gladney and his family illustrate the postmodern ideas of religion, death, and popular culture. The theme of death’s influence over the character mentality, consumer lifestyle, and media manipulation is used often throughout DeLillo’s story.

The theme death has always played a crucial role in literature. Death surrounds us and our everyday life, something that we must adapt and accept. Whether its on television or newpaper, you'll probobly hear about the death of an individual or even a group. Most people have their own ideas and attitude towards it, but many consider this to be a tragic event due to many reasons. For those who suffered greatly from despair, living their life miserably and hopelessly, it could actually be a relief to them. Death effects not only you, but also those around you, while some people may stay unaffected depending on how they perceive it.

As a country, Americans love to shop. Whether in malls, grocery stores, on the Internet, or elsewhere, the culture of buying is deeply ingrained in American culture. Fueled largely by advertising and the current credit system, America’s consumer culture is depleting our planet’s finite natural resources and polluting our environment. Consumerism has instilled in Americans an artificial, ongoing, and insatiable desire for mass-produced and marketed products, and the money with which to buy them, with little regard to their actual usefulness or necessity. This constant desire to acquire more possessions is poisoning the planet, as it can never be sated and thus results in the never-ending exploitation of the Earth’s natural resources, and

White noise is a very comprehensive novel that relates to many different themes and has a very set foundation on which the author builds upon. White Noise, consists of a chorus of background sounds that “hum” throughout the narrative, thus justifying and supporting the name of the book. The supermarket is filled with a multitude of different sounds and effects, commercials and bits and pieces from the television punctuate throughout the story, and characters within the story such as Babette hums in order to fill the empty space of silence. Jack looks upon the world within the story as a foundation of dissonance, such as a stream of sounds. Jack looks upon this foundation as partly human, and partly artificial. Jack and Babette that contemplate the idea of death and that perhaps death is nothing but an terrible, never-ending surge of “white noise,” and so this “white noise” permeates and is conveyed into the narrative and becomes a huge chunk of it, just as how death had became a natural part of every other conversation had by the characters. This shows that the idea of death had hit the characters in a very soft spot. These noises are not simply overshadowed through life, but they are rather a major component of life and the concreteness through which each and every single day is made. Themes of fear, use of technology, and tension between reality and artificial substance is made throughout the novel.

“The world…is crowded, not necessarily with occupants and not at all with memorable experiences, but with happenings; it is a ceaseless flow of seductive trivialities which invoke neither reflection, nor choice but instant participation.” (Oakeshott) The idea of the lacking of realness is one of the major themes carried out throughout the novel White Noise by Don DeLillo, especially through the device of the television.

A person should live life without fearing death and think of death as a pleasant rest. In the poem Bryant says, "When thoughts/Of the last bitter hour come like a blight/Over thy spirit,"(8-15). This quote implies when a person fears death he should listen to nature. He also states, "So live, that when the thy summons come to join/The innumerable caravans, …Thou go not, like a quarry-slave

Death is a vapor that seeps through the fissures of life, plunging its way into a person’s existence. Throughout White Noise, Don Delillo uses death to invoke a harrowing fear Jake Gladney and others alike strive to elude. From power to drugs, the terror drives characters to shroud their life with distractions and shields. Jack's influence and power as the chairman of Hitler Studies gives him a sense that a person can be larger than death. Babette’s defense is drugs, attempting to eradicate the fear consuming her. However, these attempts to liberate themselves from fear was ineffective.

Don Delillo utilizes satire of the postmodern novel to critique issues which continue to plague American society. Although Don Delillo’s novel White Noise is complex and full of implicit meaning, the protagonist Jack Gladney communicates the central idea of the narrative, “All plots tend to move deathward. This is the nature of plots (Delillo 26)”. The novel does not take on a linear storyline for most of the novel but there is more impact in its collection of vignettes. The majority of the novel portrays Jack’s daily routine which effectively illustrates the pervasive nature of the materialistic society Delillo creates.

Consumerism is a phenomenon that has been dominant in all societies for an extremely long time. It causes people to excessively purchase goods and consume things excessive to their actual needs. “A consumer is a person or thing that consumes” (Dictionary.com). Consumerism can be defined as a belief that an expanding consumption of goods is an advantage to the county’s economy. Today people are practically brainwashed to buy more than what they need in order to keep the economy afloat. No one thinks twice about why they are buying things or maybe even what they need. Consumerism has a big impact on our country, good or bad.