In terms of how death is presented in “White Noise”, it seems to read as a 20th century, modern American version of “Anna Karenina,” with a family moving about its daily routine and going through the motions of life as we all do. The disastrous events serve as the shock to the system of routines, and all the characters respond in both an awed and terrified way to them. In once sense there is a feeling of being at the mercy and whim of the unseen forces of the earth and this unknowablity is part of what terrifies both Jack and Babette. This idea is represented in the novel with the airborne toxic event. The sudden changes in movement of the cloud, the new and terrifying symptoms being reported over the radio, and the need for the characters to quickly adapt to new safety routes in a traumatic situation leads Jack to observe that the event is as “a parade of fools” (121). It is this helpless and defenseless feeling of being at the mercy of change that causes both Jack and Babatte to have feelings of dread at different points in their lives. Jack mentions this as a familiar state of mind, describing it as “the old defenseless feeling. Small, weak, death bound, alone” (224). Accompanying these feelings is the presence of the clock and the looming and relentless progression of time. Jack describes staring at his alarm clock, stating how he “watched the number change, the progression of digitals minutes odd to even” (224). The reader feels the ominous presence of time as something which can’t be controlled or stilled, and that will eventually bring about death and demise to everything.
On another level, the disasters are always accompanied by a sense of awe and fascination at the awesome powers of the earth that can kill and destroy. In one instance, Winnie describes to Jack what it might be like to see a grizzly bear in the wild and how mixed feelings of terror and fascination would be present in such a situation. She states that the sight of the bear would give “a renewed sense of self, a fresh awareness of the self….you rediscover yourself” (229). This sense seems to be present in all the characters consciences as they come into contact with disasters or the mere idea of them. It is as if this sense were imbedded with in them, something that is pre-language which is merely apart of being human.
Near the end of the book, Murray mentions how Leo Tolstoy was terrified of death, stating “Tolstoy himself struggled to understand. He feared it terribly” (282). The characters in “White Noise” deal with similar fears and nagging questions that seem unanswerable which the characters of Levin and Anna encounter in “Anna Karenina.” Like Jack, Levin spends the whole novel constantly assessing and questioning himself and his life, leading him to be in a lost and depressed state. While Anna seems to merely react to her life’s situations and tries to fend off and ignore looking too closely at her feelings, thoughts and actions. By the end of the story, Anna commits suicide and Levin has a spiritual awakening. The reader gets the impression that Levin develops this faith in life because he actively tried to understand himself by dissecting and questioning his life, where as Anna was merely reacting to situations and was eventuality overwhelmed. As “White Noise progresses”, Jack seems to be more active in trying to understand what his fear is and continually talks to other characters about it. At one point, he acknowledges that “Fear is self-awareness raised to a higher level” (229). Perhaps what DeLillo is suggesting is that we need to try and understand our death and fear of it instead of trying to ignore it.
Work Cited
Delillo, Don. White Noise. New York, Penguin, 1998.
Friday, November 20, 2009
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