White Noise By Don DeLillo Essay, Research Paper

Just how much does television shape our perception of the world around us? Don

DeLillo’s post modernistic novel, White Noise, offers one view concerning the

huge impact television has on our lives and how it shapes our observations of

the world. The television in this book is portrayed almost as a character due to

its importance in the individuals? lives. White Noise contains the message

that the amount of television coverage determines the importance of an event. An

example of this is when the refugees from the toxic cloud feel let down when

they only rate ?fifty-two words by actual count- no film footage, no live

report" (161) in the news. A man ponders, ?Isn?t fear news?? (161).

Jack’s ex-wife, Tweedy, is shocked to find that the passengers of a plane which

almost crashed "went through all that for nothing" since "there

is no media in Iron City" (92). To the characters in the novel, only media

coverage brings an event into existence. Television shapes the characters?

behavior in White Noise. During the ?airborne toxic event?, the Gladney

family attempts to keep up with the currently reported symptoms caused by the

event. The symptoms that Steffie and Denise suffer from during the toxic spill

are forgotten immediately after they are told by the television that they should

be experiencing the effects of ?d?j? vu?. The submissive obeying of the

citizens of Blacksmith illustrates the controlling power of the television. The

characters try to think as the television has told them they should. They feel

betrayed when certain aspects of their lives do not fit in to their beliefs

based on what they see in the media. Jack complains to his wife, Babette,

"these things happen to poor people who live in exposed areas. … I’m a

college professor. Did you ever see a college professor rowing a boat down his

own street in one of those TV floods? … These things don’t happen in places

like Blacksmith" (114). Because Jack has only seen disasters on television,

he cannot imagine the airborne toxic event happening to him in reality. The

characters? expectations are defined by the influence of the television in

White Noise. Television also impacts the characters’ powers of imagination, and

makes them imitate what they view. An example of this is when a random woman on

the street only appears as a ?real? person to Jack after he pictures her

"in a soup commercial" (22). One important function of television in

the novel is to manipulate the characters? minds. The loss of reality is

another negative effect television is responsible for. This is best seen in the

example where the Gladney family comes across Babette’s face on TV, as the local

station is televising her posture class. At the sight of her, Jack and the

children are immediately speechless and confused. They feel that the short-lived

image has been somehow transferred to Babette. Jack states, "she was

shining a light on us, she was coming into being, endlessly being formed and

reformed as the muscles in her face worked at smiling and speaking, as the

electronic dots swarmed" (104). The non-permanence of her image on

television also emphasizes Babette?s own mortality. At first Jack wonders

whether he is watching "her spirit, her secret self, some two-dimensional

facsimile released by the power of technology" (104). To her family,

Babette appears "distanced, sealed off, timeless" (104), taking on the

characteristics of the television. It seems as if the real Babette is not as

important as her image of ?electrons and photons? (104) on the television.

Television is used as a family bonding time for the Gladney family. On Friday

nights, Babette has made it a rule for the whole family to watch together while

eating take-out Chinese food. She believes that, ?the effect would be to

de-glamorize the medium in their eyes, make it a wholesome domestic sport. Its

narcotic undertow and eerie diseased brain-sucking power would be gradually

reduced?(16). Communication takes place through the television rather than

through human interaction. The family only comes together while watching

disasters on television. Jack?s colleague?s reasoning for this bonding

activity is, ?we?re suffering from brain fade? we need a catastrophe to

break up the incessant bombardment of information (66)?. Another co-worker

states that ?a forest fire on TV is on a lower plane than a ten-second spot

for Automatic Dishwasher All (67)?. He suggests that commercials have a

greater impact on the viewers than a disaster. Our society is desensitized to

tragedies, such as murders, and not fully impacted by them due to everyday media

coverage. Murray, a professor of popular culture, offers a altered outlook on

television, unlike his students who refer to it as another form of junk mail.

His belief is that television is only a problem if ?you?ve forgotten how to

look and listen? (50). Television, he claims, provides ?incredible amounts

of data (50)? in our lives. Murray asserts that television has a positive

effect on people only if the viewer feels as if he is experiencing reality

unique to his own thoughts and feelings rather than what the TV tells him to

believe. The distinction between the real and the unreal is blurred in White

Noise. Jack Gladney?s world is modeled after the images he views on

television. A quote in the text states, ?for most people there are only two

places in the world- where they live and their television set (66)?. For many

people, their real life and the one they view through television seem to blend

together at times. Jean Baudrillard?s theoretical perspective of simulacra,

from his article ?Simulacra and Simulation?, can be incorporated into the

use of the television in White Noise. Simulacra occurs when an imitation, such

as television, is more ?real? than reality itself. The concept of reality is

overrun by simulations. Baudrillard explains, ?the ?real? is produced from

miniaturized cells, matrices, and memory banks, models of control- and it can be

reproduced an indefinite number of times from these (632)?. He goes on to

state that the reality that has been constructed, through television for an

example, is ?no longer really the real, because no imaginary envelops it

anymore? it is a hyperreal, produced from a radiating synthesis of combinatory

models in a hyperspace without atmosphere (632)?. Television represents a

fictional ?real? life that attempts to become our ideal life. Baudrillard

states that technology causes the boundaries between the real and unreal to

break down, causing what he calls a ?hyperreality?. The white noise, or

constant background, of the television constantly influences how people think,

behave and perceive the world around them. Don DeLillo?s novel, White Noise,

does an excellent job of showing how technology shapes our lives and creates

simulacra, or a false reality.