Don DeLillo's "White Noise"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the SIMUVAC (Simulated Evacuation) episode in Don DeLillo's novel "White Noise" serves as a pivotal turning point in the narrative. The writer then points out that much of the rest of the narrative is haunted by the main protagonist's (Jack) obsession with his own impending mortality. The paper also investigates the concepts of reality and simulation in real life and concludes that the ultimate significance of the SIMUVAC episode in "White Noise" is that it effects the transformation of death from an abstract sphere to something that is very real in Jack's perceptive field.

From the Paper:

"This episode confirms Baudrillard's characterization of the mass media's deceptive role. While the media generates a strong desire in the masses for knowing the absolute truth, of attaining total objectivity in relation to information, it is actually the "truer than true which counts or, in other words, the fact of being there without being there. Or, to put it yet another way, the fantasy." The tabloid media can be thought of as an extreme representation of this desire for a truth that goes beyond truth, until it ultimately satisfies our hidden desire for escape from reality - i.e. fantasy."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Baudrillard, Jean. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London: Sage, 1998.
• DeLillo, Don. White Noise. New York: Viking, 1984.

More papers on Don DeLillo's "White Noise":

• Book Review # 126980 : "'White Noise' and Consumerism"
• Analytical Essay # 123288 : "'White Noise' and 'Jasmine'"
• Book Review # 99120 : "'White Noise'"
• Book Review # 100968 : "White Noise" by Don DeLillo and "America" by Jean Baudrillard"

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