American Consumer Culture: "White Noise"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Don Delillo's novel, "White Noise", which sarcastically comments on modern American society, specifically the education system and the consumer culture. The paper discusses the main character of Jack Gladney and how he seeks to align himself with commercial and Hollywood archetypes devoid of any substance.

From the Paper:

"The extent of Jack's consumer foundation and his commercially visual thought process, along with its affects on his career and by extension, the education system, is again delivered in the monotonic but specific tone of Jack's thought process as he describes his class. "They were all Hitler majors, members of the only class I still taught, Advanced Nazism, three hours a week, restricted to qualified seniors, a course of study designed to cultivate historical perspective, theoretical rigor and mature insight into the continuing mass appeal of fascist tyranny, with special emphasis on parades, rallies and uniforms, three credits, written reports" (Delillo, 25). It reads exactly like the course description would be advertised to the students, rather the "customers" of the institution. It's an advertisement to those who are paying large sums of money to the university for its education. Furthermore, Jack speaks of "mature insight" but then goes onto say that his course emphasizes the "parades, rallies and uniforms" of Nazi Germany. What mature insight can one achieve from observing the images of Nazi Germany without speaking about what they actually did while wearing their uniforms. There is no mention of the genocide; aggression, racism or destruction the Nazis should be remembered for. Jack does not mention of the evil nature of Adolf Hitler."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Delillo, Don. White Noise. Penguin Books. New York. 1986

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• Essay # 50940 : "American Television in the 1980s"
• Book Review # 126980 : "'White Noise' and Consumerism"
• Analytical Essay # 126694 : "Consumer Culture in Advertising"

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