Essay on The Death of Identity in DeLillos White Noise

The Death of Identity in DeLillos White Noise In addition to addressing the premonitory electricity of death, the title of Don DeLillos White Noise alludes to another, subtler, sort of white noise - the muted death of suburban white identity. College-on-the-Hill is not only an elite academic promontory, but also a bastion for white flight in which Jack Gladneys family has taken refuge. Instead of John Winthrops clear City-on-a-Hill morality, DeLillo presents us with J.A.K. Gladneys muddled postmodern inheritance of J.F.K.s civil rights legacy. Racial identity no longer demarcates a simple binary between whites and Native Americans, but complicates a nation in which all races stake a claim towards American nativity.†¦show more content†¦Paradoxically, Jack can only gain this knowledge by embracing his ignorance, a fitting complement to his obsession with death, the great unknown for which science, intellectualism, and religion all concede defeat in explaining or conquering. The most obvious form of racial classification in the novel emerges when Jack confronts the visual hodgepodge of a new, multinational society: What kind of name is Orest? I studied his features. He might have been Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Central Asian, a dark-skinned Eastern European, a light-skinned black. Did he have an accent? I wasnt sure. Was he a Samoan, a native North American, a Sephardic Jew? It was getting hard to know what you couldnt say to people. (208) For Jack, the immediate importance lies within the cross-referencing of race, the permutational mixing-and-matching Jack performs on color and nationality which fosters his conversational anxiety. Several other keys to this anxiety lie within Orest Mercators name. Orest may take his first name from Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, who avenged his fathers death by killing his mother and her lover. The Classical allusion repositions Orest as a mythological origin who blends both Greek myth and Biblical allusions (by returning to Eden and confronting the serpent) with his indeterminate lineage. The binary extends to theShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Don Delillo s White Noise1664 Words   |  7 Pageshis work. The title of DeLillo’s eighth novel White Noise brings forth many assumptions towards the overall meaning of the book. If one was to generally interpret the meaning, â€Å"white noise† is produced when sound waves are joined together creating a c onstant buzz. This buzz can produce a relaxing or an overwhelming feeling, depending, if it refers to a repetitive noise one is trying to avoid or perhaps noise one is trying to embrace. With this being said, DeLillo’s White Noise is set in the twentiethRead More Narrative Technique in DeLillo’s White Noise Essay4184 Words   |  17 PagesNarrative Technique in DeLillo’s White Noise American literature has evolved extensively over the course of the history of the republic, from the Puritan sermons which emphasized the importance of a solid individual relationship between the individual self and the omnipotent God to the parody of relativism we find in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. One of the recurring concerns of American fiction, though by no means restricted to American writing, is the position of the self with regard to the otherRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of The Novel 1480 Words   |  6 Pagesirony to offer critics of society and to display how society should not fear dark and somber things. DeLillo sprinkles irony all throughout his story using it even at the most serious of times. He uses it to show how the characters should not fear death and how the characters ignore danger when â€Å"the smoke alarm went off in the hallway upstairs, either to let us know the battery had just died or because the house was on fire† (8) and they did nothing a bout the possible imminent danger. DeLillo alsoRead MoreTelevision Language of White Noise Essay1736 Words   |  7 PagesTelevision Language of White Noise Television, in our culture, is by far the most dominant medium of communication and stimulation. The fears, the joys, and the horrors of the world are all channeled through television. As seen in the Rodney King police beating videotape, television can incite in a population sheer and utter rage and dark hostility. That same footage; however, can also detract from the very anger it incites. After countless times of viewing the footage, in a never-ending SimulacrumRead MoreDon Delillo s White Noise1239 Words   |  5 PagesDon Delillo’s White Noise is a novel set in twentieth century Middle America. The story follows the life and journey of Jack Gladney, a teacher of Hitler Studies at a liberal arts college, and his family through their lives, which are invaded by white noise, the constant murmur of American consumerism. The narrative follows these characters as they struggle to survive, distracting them from their sense of reality. White Noise explores a host of charactersâ⠂¬â„¢ deep underlying fears and uncertaintiesRead MoreElements of Postmodernism in Ishmael Reeds Mumbo Jumbo, Don Delillos White Noise, Toni Morrisons Beloved and Thomas Pynchons the Crying of Lot 496348 Words   |  26 Pagesconstituencies that modernisms exaltation of unity and grand narrative often obscured, which can easily be observed by reading and analyzing some of the most important works of American postmodern fiction. Works such as Ishmael Reeds Mumbo Jumbo, Don DeLillos White Noise, Toni Morrisons Beloved and Thomas Pynchons The Crying of Lot 49 are only a few of many which contain all or some of postmodernisms most distinguishable elements. Throught these four novels one can perceive the concepts of potmodernismRead More Death and Dying in DeLillos White Noise Essay779 Words   |  4 PagesDeath and Dying in DeLillos White Noise      Ã‚   Among other things, Don DeLillo seems completely preoccupied with death and the arduous task of living with the knowledge of death in his novel White Noise. Acceptance of our finite, fragile existence over time is certainly not a phenomenon unique to a single civilization or historical era. Rather than discuss the inescapable mortality that connects all humankind with broad, generalized strokes, DeLillo is concerned with the particular (peculiarRead MorePostmodernism in White Noise by Don Delillo and Rabbit, Run by John Updike2560 Words   |  11 Pageschange in the world, as evidenced by consumerism in the books Rabbit, Run by John Updike and White Noise by Don DeLillo, gives a false sense of security to the protagonists of the two books thereby blurring the reality they are in and destroying them in the end. *** Don deLillo’s White Noise: Postmodern elements Most postmodern books have been published after World War II. First published in 1984, White Noise by Don deLillo explores the emergence of technology, popular culture, and media in the eyesRead MorePerception of the World and False Images from White Noise Essay2144 Words   |  9 PagesPerception of the World and False Images from White Noise Don DeLillos award-winning novel White Noise takes the idea of the supremacy of false images to the extreme. Through various scenarios, such as the airborne toxic event and the Dylar dilemma, DeLillo critiques contemporary societys over-dependence on false images. The characters in the novel that exemplify this over-dependence appear humorous on one hand, yet tragic on the other. The humor comes from the novels charactersRead MorePostmodernism in Literature5514 Words   |  23 Pagesfeatured characters stuck in inescapable situations attempting impotently to communicate whose only recourse is to play, to make the best of what they have. As Hans-Peter Wagner says, Mostly concerned with what he saw as impossibilities in fiction (identity of characters; reliable consciousness; the reliability of language itself; and the rubrication of literature in genres) Becketts experiments with narrative form and with the disintegration of narration and character in fiction and drama wo n him