Analysis of White Noise by Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo’s White Noise is a post-modern American novel that revolves around Jack Gladney; the professor and founder of Hitler studies at a Midwestern college called the College-at-the-Hill. The novel has been credited as an accurate portrayal of the American way of life. Leonard Orr (2007 7) in Don DeLillo’s White Noise: A Reader’s Guide observed that White Noise is “realistic in its portrayal of American life than his other works.” Similarly, Jayne Anne Phillips (1985 n.p) in White Noise by Don DeLillo expressed a similar sentiment when she noted that the novel was timely, “precisely because of its totally American concerns.” In order to understand whether DeLillo chose the most appropriate title for his novel, this paper analyzes the literal meaning of the title in question, before focusing on its underlying, or hidden meaning with a view to demonstrate why the title is most appropriate for the novel.
In order to assess the use of the title, it would be appropriate to understand the meaning of white noise. Right through the novel, a number of incidents are attributed to white noise. In hindsight, it looks as though DeLillo just wouldn’t have been able to put his ideas across as a novel had it not been for the white noise. White Noise is the noise caused by the many frequencies that are of equal intensities. Since the novel presents an everlasting sound similar to this in the background, the use of this title does seem most opportune. For example, while the night is terribly quiet, a rush of white noise emanates from the highway nearby. Jack notes that as the “traffic washes past, a remote and steady murmur around our sleep, as of dead souls babbling at the edge of a dream” (DeLillo 4). The author’s choice of words, as demonstrated in this quotation, shows that traffic noise takes the form of a white noise. The word, ‘steady murmur’ for example, shows that the frequencies of the sounds of the vehicles wheezing by produces the sounds that are uniform and steady. This quote shows that white noise is indeed something that is static and problematic to the citizens of Blacksmith. The narrator expresses his displeasure of the noise when he says that the traffic noise disturbs the citizens’ sleep. Given that the murmur doesn’t end there, it is possible to argue that the citizens of Blacksmith never had peaceful nights.
Moreover, the American media presents white noise as something that is forever a part and parcel of the lives of the citizens of Blacksmith. It is white noise, notes Jack, that television, which contains a “wealth of data concealed in the grid, in the bright packaging, the jingles, the slice-of-life commercials, the products hurled out into the darkness, in the coded messages, and endless repetitions such as the chants like mantras,” a monstrous distraction (DeLillo 50-51). Instead of saying that technology has enhanced the lifestyle of the people of Blacksmith, DeLillo says, “Man’s guilt in history and in the tides of his own blood has been complicated by technology, the daily seeping falsehearted death” (Wiese 6). This situation creates a white noise as, instead of condescending that technology has helped the citizens of Blacksmith who have no other form of entertainment; technology has only added fuel to the belief that it has exposed his guilt to the world.
In addition to television, the print media such as the tabloids contribute to the existence of white noise. Be it at the supermarket, or in the community; be it the sound from the toneless public systems, or from the skidding of shopping carts; or be it from the noise from coffee-making machines, or the loudspeakers; or be it the loud sounds from children, they all contribute to Blacksmith’s “dull and unlocatable roar, as if of some form of swarming life outside the range of human apprehension” (DeLillo 36). In vividly describing some of the phrases like, ‘dull and unlocatable’ and ‘swarming life,’ it can be said that these phrases speak eloquently of a sound that is quite contrary to the general sound that people associate noise with. Therefore, these distinctly different sounds from these sources reflect the white noise.
In addition to the constant presence of the literal white noise, there is the non-literal noise as well, which is the ‘white noise’ heard throughout the novel. Within the context of the novel, white noise can be considered to be something beyond human control, and which when recurs often in the lives of the people, can be potentially dangerous but which, is something they can do little about. The prominent white noise that is omnipresent throughout the novel symbolizes death/the fear of death, and environmental disasters associated with technological advancements. Therefore, the white noises that are being discussed here are related and integral. The ever-present nature of white noise can be interpreted to mean white noise as an integral part of life. A careful reading of the novel reveals that just like white noise, death, and the fear of death, are ever present throughout the novel. For example, In describing Winnie Richard’s fear of death, Jack says, “No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die” (DeLillo 20). The fear of death, or lack of the fear of death, is very evident in the novel. The human brain is the extension of the mind, and when the mind becomes nervous and uneasy, it is bound to show on that person’s behaviour, which is controlled by the brain. Therefore, if a person is ready to face head-on like Babette, her brain factually believes that death is imminent, and so, to die would be natural. However, for Winnie, even though she has a brain similar to that of Babette, her fear of death drives her thoughts away from practicality to fear. “Fear is unnatural. Lightning and thunder are unnatural. Pain, death, reality, these are all unnatural. We can’t bear these things as they are. We know too much. So we resort to repression, compromise and disguise. This is how we survive the universe. This is the natural language of the species” (DeLillo 289). Fear is unnatural, it is created. It is only when someone understands what fear is does he or she expresses it in times of adversity. If fear is unknown, no one would show it. Therefore, when fear arises, people tend to distract themselves from it by being repressive and being in disguise. This is what Winnie tries to do in White Noise. Winnie’s actions are natural because these are things that people do in life. It is but natural for Winnie, like any other human being to fear death, and the fear of death is what keeps them going. Jack, for his part, is so obsessed with his own fear that he forgets to recognize the beauty of life.
Death and fear of death are constantly present in the minds and conversations of the characters and the society, which might be likened to the presence of the background noise throughout the novel. When Jack learns that he has the fatal chemical after his two-minute exposure to airborne toxic event, he immediately asks whether he is going to die. Jack and Babette, his wife, discuss their fear of death, which gradually degenerates into a debate on who should die first. This fear of death remains constantly present in their lives. Fear makes Babette respond to an advertisement calling for people with fear of death to volunteer in a secret psychobiological experiment. The view of death and white noise is consistent to that that, it is a part “of the white noise that seeps in with the sounds from the nearby highway (Orr 28). Similarly, the thoughts of death remarkably affect the life of the characters. Death resides in the backyard of the Blacksmith society. The fact that scientists have been working on a drug that could remove fear of death shows that this society is highly concerned about death. The fear of death is taking a central role in the lives of the citizens of Blacksmith. Mr. Gray; a scientist whom many consider to be unethical, developed a drug called Dylar, which can potentially remove the fear of death from the minds of the citizens. Gray is guilty of using the drug to test on unsuspecting subjects like Babette, with whom he sleeps to test it on. She offers herself to him so that she could try out his drugs to overcome the fear of death. This was done despite the caution he and other scientists received against trying it on human beings instead of on animals.
On his part, Jack tries to remove his fear of death by trying various things. For example, Jack establishes the Hitler Studies to remove his fear of death, and by extension, that of his students and the society as a whole (Kraus and Auer n.p). From the kind of explanation he provides for starting the Hitler Studies program, it appeared that the fear of death was a key motivation for Jack. Jack says that he came up with the idea of a department of Hitler Studies at the College-at-the-Hill, and that resulted in death as a subject. It is important to note that the course on Hitler Studies was designed in such a way to discourage future mass killings such as those committed by Hitler. Jack had attached himself “to the most horrible agent of death through the development of his Hitler Studies program” at the College-on-the-Hills (Orr 31). Orr argues that by introducing the most well-known merchant of death of the twentieth century, Jack enhanced his own resistance to death. Orr received support from Heller, who said that by studying Hitler, Jack would become more powerful than death and therefore, would be able to absorb himself from the fear of death. Jack taught Nazism, death, and crowds, noting that most of the crowds “were assembled in the name of death. They were there toform a shield against their own dying,” and adds that to become “a crowd was to keep out death” (DeLillo 73). Here again, the significance of the crowd can also be a pointer to the white noise. The significance is explicitly clear as a crowd, fearing death, would act hysterically, and the sound that they produced could be analogical to the sounds that of screeching wheels or turbo-charged engines produced. The inclusion of death as a subject in college as a program and the undertaking of research to develop a drug for the fear of death; and the woman giving up herself in order to be administered an unknown and untested substance, clearly shows the fear of death was deeply present in DeLillo’s White Noise society. These revelations clearly supports the observation that fear and the fear of death is a part of the larger white noise, which is central to this novel.
Potential ecological risks posed by technological innovations such as the railways, presents another important white noise that has links with death and the fear of death. Such white noises are not only disturbing, but fatal as well. The rail accident that gave rise to the airborne toxin presents a kind of white noise that is related to the advances in technology. The smoke billowing to the skies from the burning train containing the fatal substance identified as Nyodene D can be catastrophic. The idea of the inability of human beings to control the spread of this dangerous white noise is observed by Jack, who tells Heinrich, “I am not just a college professor, I’m the head of the department as well,” and so, “I don’t see myself fleeing an airborne toxic event” (DeLillo 117). However, as things get out of hand when the family has to join the rest of the town in fleeing, and the time comes for them to leave for safety, Jack and his family become susceptible to the toxic event. As the toxic event contrasts an ordinary American life to environmental risks, it fuels the fear of death that is already inherent in the Blacksmith society. In a nutshell, “White Noise looks not only at how narratives shape individual, social, and cultural identity formations, but it also examines how these narratives shape such formations (Wiese 3).
In conclusion, it may be said that the essay demonstrated that DeLillo’s title White Noise, is more than appropriate for the novel. In looking at the literal and non-literal meanings of white noise, the name does signify the inner content and plot of the novel. The use of various forms of situations ensured that white noise was forever present. In addition to the literal use of white noise, the analysis also showed that fear, the fear of death, and environmental disasters through technological inferences such as the airborne toxic event, were important pointers to the various forms of white noise in the life of Jack, his wife Babette, their children, Winnie, and the town folks of Blacksmith. In using various situations to express the varying levels of noise, DeLillo was able to use the sound of motor vehicles on the highway, and the fear, and the fear of death as expressions of white noise. Death isn’t a pleasant experience, and when one is faced with the prospect of death, there is a high level of commotions that go through their mind, causing frequencies that are inconsistent and which produces white noise. Considering all these aspects condescendingly put throughout his novel, it is appropriate to say that the title White Noise is apt.
Works Cited
DeLillo, Don. White Noise. New York, NY: Viking, 1985. 4-289. Print.
Kraus, Elisabeth, and Carolin Auer. Simulacrum America. Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House, 2000. N.p., Print.
Orr, Raymond. Don Delillo's "White Noise". New York [u.a.]: Continuum, 2003. 7-31. Print.
Phillips, Jayne Anne. 'Crowding Out Death'. Nytimes.com. N.p., 1985. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.
Wiese, Annjeanette. 'Rethinking Postmodern Narrativity: Narrative Construction and Identity Formation in Don Delillo’S White Noise'. College Literature 39.3 (2012): 3-6. Web. 17 Dec. 2014.
