White Noise
"White Noise," published in 1985 by Don DeLillo, explores themes of mortality, consumerism, and the pervasive influence of media in contemporary life. The story follows Jack Gladney, a professor in a department dedicated to Hitler Studies, who grapples with his obsession with death and his family's attempts to navigate existential fears. The narrative takes a dramatic turn when a chemical spill, referred to as an "Airborne Toxic Event," leads to Gladney's awareness of his own contamination and the uncertainty surrounding his fate. This incident heightens Gladney's insecurities, prompting a cycle of consumption as he seeks to find security through material possessions and information. The novel cleverly examines the role of television and media in shaping perceptions of reality, as Gladney and his family indulge in trivial debates amidst the backdrop of a society inundated with commercial noise. As the story unfolds, the characters are forced to confront the unavoidable reality of death, and Gladney's journey culminates in a fragile acceptance of mortality. "White Noise" has been recognized for its cultural significance, winning the National Book Award and becoming a staple in literature courses, solidifying DeLillo's status as a prominent American novelist.
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White Noise
Identification Postmodern novel
Author Don DeLillo
Date Published in 1985
The novel brought DeLillo’s works to a wider audience and defined the postmodern experience in America.
Key Figures
Don DeLillo (1936- ), major American novelist
White Noise (1985) opens in a mildly comic fashion as professor Jack Gladney, chair of the Hitler Studies department, looks out his office window and watches families arrive in their vans and unpack hordes of possessions for arriving students. Gladney is obsessed with death, his own and his wife’s, and his life is constructed around attempts to evade the inevitable. His obsession reaches its apex when he and his family attempt to escape after a chemical spill labeled as an “Airborne Toxic Event.” Gladney learns that he has been contaminated and that the dosage is likely fatal, but the doctors cannot predict when his death will occur.
The incident exacerbates Gladney’s rampant insecurities, which he masks with repeated spending sprees, believing that possessions will confer security and fulfillment. Thus he and his family are the ultimate consumers—of food, clothes, and TV news and shows. The irony, of course, is that goods and a large physical stature (Gladney admires heavy people, believing that bulk staves off death) cannot insulate him from the inevitable.
Television is yet another of Gladney’s evasions; the set is constantly on, and the house is awash in commercial jingles, lines from comedies and various talking heads, and volumes of misinformation. Much of the novel’s abundant comedy emerges from family debates in which one erroneous “fact” is traded for another with smug assurance by each of the conversants. The family especially enjoys watching news coverage of catastrophes, gaining a false sense of power because of their seeming immunity from such perils. However, once Gladney is exposed to toxins, the sense of dread has a definable identity.
The novel’s title emphasizes that the characters are surrounded by unseen or unrecognized forces, the most obvious of which are the waves of radio transmission and the radiation from television and other sources. Even the toxic event is “airborne,” a cloud that is perceptible but the contamination and effects of which are hidden. Just as the characters are surrounded by noise and one another, they are surrounded by the inevitability of death, which Gladney grudgingly comes to terms with at the novel’s close when he witnesses his infant son’s miraculous escape from an auto accident. Gladney lacks the comfort of religion but struggles to find some replacement for faith in order to face his mortality.
Impact
White Noise, Don DeLillo’s eighth novel, became an instant popular and critical success and won the National Book Award in 1985. Since its publication, the novel has been a mainstay in university literature courses and the subject of considerable scholarly research. Reassessments of DeLillo’s oeuvre now rank him as one of America’s foremost novelists.
Bibliography
Bloom, Harold, ed. Don DeLillo. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2003.
Kavadlo, Jesse. Don DeLillo: Balance at the Edge of Belief. New York: Peter Lang, 2004.
Lentricchia, Frank, ed. Introducing Don DeLillo. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1991.