White Noise Essay

White Noise

The fear of death is undoubtedly the most feared topic in human existence. In White Noise, that fear is so strong, it becomes the controlling factor in the lives of Jack and Babette Gladney. Both of them are in such a constant battle to overcome death and their fear of it, they let life slip right by and never get the chance to live that life to its fullest. Death and the Gladneys morbid fear and fascination with it are present throughout the entire book, going so far as to lead Babette into experimental drugs and adultery to overcome that obsessive fear. And ultimately, the fear of death came very close to creating it.

Post modernity treats death with little or no regard, and exploits the definition of mortality as seen by todays industrialized modern world. White Noise is the bizarre story of how Jack Gladney and his mismatched family illustrate the postmodern ideas of religion, death, and popular culture. Deaths influence over mentality, consumer lifestyle, and media manipulation is present throughout the entire book, taking precedence over almost everything else in the Gladneys lives.

The two characters most preoccupied with death are undoubtedly Jack and Babette Gladney. As early in the book as pg. 15, Jack is asking: Who will die first? He states that the question comes up from time to time, like where are the car keys. The question is so common for him that he wonders if it is as elemental as breathing, suggesting that the notion is always there. Jack feels death looming as a tangible, menacing presence, and he fills his life with meaningless drivel and small talk to drive the thoughts out of his head. In a way, he uses consumerism to escape the torment of deaths reality.

The consumerism is evidenced in Jacks actions throughout the book, and he is validated by Murray J. Siskind, who views the supermarket as a kind of rebellious utopia, seeing it as a place that radiates immortality and offers respite from the fear of death. This is clearly illustrated on pg. 37 38. Siskind is explaining his views of the supermarket to Babette and says: This place recharges us spiritually, it prepares us, its a gateway or pathway. Look how bright. Its full of psychic data. Everything is concealed in symbolism, hidden by veils of mystery and layers of cultural material. The large doors slide open, they close unbidden. All the letters and numbers are here, all the colors of the spectrum, all the voices and sounds, all the code words and ceremonial phrases. It is just a question of deciphering, rearranging, peeling off the layers of unspeakability... We don't have to cling to life artificially, or to death for that matter. We simply walk toward the sliding doors. Waves and radiation. Look how well-lighted the place is. The place is sealed off, self-contained. It is timeless... Here we don't die, we shop. But the difference is less marked than you think,

John N. Duvall, author of "The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in DeLillo's White Noise," believes that "Murray's interpretations become Jack's convictions; Murray's speculations, Jack's experiences" (143). Drawing on Murray's prophecy, Jack embraces Murray's analysis as a conviction and relies on the supermarket as a form of security, a place where colors and names remain consistently located, and a place where he can ultimately elude death.

This is the first example of using consumerism to triumph over mortality. The thought pattern is repeated later on pages 83 84, when Jack takes his family shopping to overcome feelings of inadequacy that were imparted on him by Massingales comment that he looked like A big, harmless, aging, indistinct sort of guy. This gave him a desperate need to make himself feel as though he were somebody important. The shopping excursion was a prime example of how we numb ourselves to our deepest fears, such as death, loss, or inadequacy. It also illustrated how the medias crass insensitivity to that plays into our need to self-medicate by becoming part of a bigger whole. Jacks response was to go to the mall and become the giver and benefactor that he felt his family wanted and needed. His reasons for being there are evidenced by his claim: They were my guides for endless well-being I shopped with reckless abandon I began to grow in value and self-regard. I filled myself out, found new aspects of myself, located a person Id forgotten existed. Pg. 83.

Jacks methods of overcoming the reality of his mortality are quite a bit different than how Babette copes with the same issue. Babette is quieter about her fears, almost as though death will come quicker if she talks about it. So she quits smoking and begins chewing sugarless gum to appease her kids and herself. She begins teaching people how to sit, stand, and walk, as though correct posture and good grooming will ward off death. She makes it a point to have family time with everyone, whether they are up for it or not. Ultimately, however, her fear of death and dying is not quite as strong as her fear of being alone. She states repeatedly that she wants to die before Jack because she cant stand the idea of being alone.

It seemed that Babette was more preoccupied with her fear of death than death itself. She wanted to die first, but it bothered her that she was so afraid of that death. Her fear drove her to the point that she sought medical help in the form of experimental research, and when it looked as though she might be denied that help, she offered her body as payment for the treatment. She was willing to risk severe physical damage to herself in exchange for not being afraid of death, signing waivers for the firm agreeing not to hold them liable in the event that she suffered severe brain damage. Then she took it a step further and committed adultery as a means to save herself for her husband and family.

Babettes guilt and worry about her infidelity led to her confessing her actions to her husband, creating a quiet rage that began to burn in him for many reasons. Jack began to feel abandoned, paranoid, as though there were some conspiracy or plot against him to keep him from being happy or content with what he had. Although he doesnt really speak of his rage, it is clear that the family, especially Babette, feels it and lives in its presence. This is seen on page 256, when Jack is denying his anger towards Mr. Gray and Babette calls him on it. She tells him: You dont have to say it. Youre a male. A male follows the path of homicidal rage. It is the biological path. The path of plain dumb blind male biology But in the meantime I will not help you find this man or his medication.

Jack starts focusing on his rage towards Mr. Gray almost as an escape from his fear of death. It seems to give him purpose, like he cant die as long as he has unfinished business. It becomes a question of whether he is going to be a killer or a dier, and eventually, his obsession with death precludes everything else, including his wifes infidelity. On page 277, his conversation with Siskind exemplifies how he is using his homicidal tendencies to overcome his own death after finding out he has Neoprene D. poisoning in his bloodstream. Siskind sums it up when he says: In theory, violence is a form of rebirth. The dier passively succumbs. The killer lives on Strength accumulates like a favor from the gods The dier accepts this and dies. The killer, in theory, attempts to defeat his own death by killing others. He buys time, he buys life Its a way of controlling death. A way of gaining the ultimate upper hand You cant die if he does. He dies, you live.

Eventually, after finding and shooting Willie Mink, Jack confronted death. He gave the gun to Mink almost in hopes that Mink would kill him. He was disappointed when death did not come as he had predicted, and he suffered only a minor flesh wound instead. It was almost as though all of his fears about death were released at that moment and he discovered that they were unfounded because death was not as looming a presence in his life as he had previously thought. All the technology of the hospitals kept Mink alive, forfeiting Jack the victory that only a killer experiences as his dier acts appropriately and gives up the gratification that the killer is seeking. It is also as though, in Mink not dying, he pushed Jacks own death a little closer in his future.

Death is an ancient fear that has attacked the mentality of mankind since the beginning. For years people have treated death as a farfetched occurrence, and White Noise exemplifies those desperate attempts through postmodern imagery. According to Don DeLillo, death is an assailant that creeps its way into the subconscious of society but is prevented from tainting the gratification of life by way of the postmodern army- technology. And in the end, immortality can be found in the supermarket.

Works cited:

Duvall, John N. "The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated

Mediation in DeLillo's White Noise." Arizona Quarterly 50.3 (1994):

127-153.

Don DeLillo, White Noise Penguin Books, 1999