Note: Pick one of the following four prompts about White Noise (Jack (J.A.K.) Gladney and Heinrich, The Most Photographed Barn in America, Try a Toyota Supra, and The Cradle of Misinformation) and write a well thought out, analytical response. 200-400 words, due by midnight on Monday 4/4.
1) Analyze the following quote from Ch. 4 in the context of the novel at large thus far:
“I am the false character that follows the name around” (17).
In Ch. 6, Jack and his son from another marriage, Heinrich, have a conversation about the weather. Well, Jack attempts to have a simple conversation about the weather, and Heinrich turns it into a phenomenological debate. Here’s an excerpt:
“Just give me an answer, okay, Heinrich?”
“The best I could do is make a guess.”
“Either it’s raining or it isn’t,” I said.
“Exactly. That’s my whole point. You’d be guessing. Six of one, half dozen of the other.”
[…]
“It’s the stuff that falls from the sky and gets you what is called wet.”
“I’m not wet. Are you wet?”
“All right,” I said. “Very good.”
“No, seriously, are you wet?”
“First rate,” I told him. “A victory for uncertainty, randomness, and chaos. Science’s finest hour” (24).
At the end of the chapter, we have this scene of Jack lecturing about Hitler:
“When the showing ended, someone asked about the plot to kill Hitler. The discussion moved to plots in general. I found myself saying to the assembled heads, ‘All plots tend to move deathward. This is the nature of plots. Political plots, terrorist plots, lovers’ plots, narrative plots, plots that are part of children’s games. We edge nearer death every time we plot. It is like a contract that all must sign, the plotters as well as those who are the targets of the plot.’
“Is this true? Why did I say it? What does it mean?” (26).
There’s no need to frame this prompt further.
A “name” is defined as “a unit by which a person is known” or “a person’s reputation”. Jack’s reputation in this novel is that of a “Hitler Studies” expert. As the founder of “Hitler Studies”, the reader would assume that he would be the outright authority on the subject and have all the credentials needed to teach the course or hold a conference. This, however is not completely true, we learn later in the novel that Jack, as the “most prominent figure in Hitler Studies” (31) can’t even speak or understand any German, which is a prerequisite for students to even take his class. In fact, Jack makes it known that “the least of [his] Hitler colleagues knew some German” (31). You would think that the founder of Hitler studies would at least be able to understand German. Jack has successfully been hiding his disgrace for years but a problem arises when he becomes aware that a Hitler Studies convention will be held on his campus with actual Germans in attendance. If not for this Jack might very well have continued his career without putting forth any true effort in learning German. We also learn that when Jack first established Hitler studies he tried to change his image so he could be “taken seriously as a Hitler innovator” (16). He added an extra initial to his name, was told to gain weight, wanted to grow a beard, and the list goes on. In his own words, “Hitler gave [him] something to grow into and develop toward” (17). All these elements (not knowing German and his new name, J.A.K.) together create within Jack a “false character” that tries to keep up with the perception others have of him.
ReplyDeleteHeinrich, like his father is a very complex character, from his name to his entire attitude. Heinrich never looks at things from a simplistic outlook, as shown in the excerpt from the book in the prompt and when Jack asks him if he wants to go spend the summer with his mother. He has an odd relationship with an inmate that he plays chess with through the mail. His relationship with this inmate is very eerie, since he seems to be able to relate on some level as to why the inmate committed the murder that got him sent to prison. He appears to be isolated from his family and appears to be isolated from the society his family is completely engrossed in.
Ryan Trull
ReplyDeleteIn our dealings with other people, names, labels, and identifiers and the ways that we present these ideas are the only things we can use to articulate, well, anything. Through this section there are numerous points where DeLillo touches on the psychological twinging due to the appearance or perspective shone on an object or idea. Relevant to the Ch 4 quote, Jack is advised that a less attractive appearance would serve well to give Jack a positive appearance. In the super market scene it is noted that the produce and the packaging for products are rather vibrant and eye catching. This kind of advertizing is done to subliminally trigger mental processes that draw you to the product. Murray calls all the things advertisers use to tantalize people as having a sort of psychic draw, which is almost exactly what it is. An illusion to increase the joy or desirableness behind a product and in the end, Jack as -the- Hitler studies guy is a product.
Jack seems reluctant to take on this new persona at first but is quick to accept it. Through his conversations with Heinrich, this is exemplified through the almost foiled mentality of his step-son; Heinrich approaching from an almost nihilist perspective of "There is no definite truth, only truth of convenience." Despite this idea, Jack realizes that these convenient truths exist for a reason and are the basis of human interactions. As such, this is likely why he is so willing to accept the facade of J.A.K. .
Kathryn Martin
ReplyDeleteJack has a desire for things to be plain and simple. He wants a straight answer from his son because he does not like ambiguity or mystery. When Heinrich does not give him a definitive answer he turns to sarcasm in an attempt to mask his frustration. He also reveals his previous wife were involved in covert operations, whereas Babette is uncomplicated and straightforward. He likes those qualities in her, which shows he likes simplicity. Jack did not like that his ex-wife was involved in plots, it made him feel uneasy. They make him uneasy because he fears death, and that fear makes him fixate on it. He wonders whether he will die before Babette, or if she will die before him. His statement: “All plots move deathward” illuminates his discomfort with that which he does not understand. Death is unfathomable because a person cannot really know what awaits him after death. He wants things to be simple and understandable, like Babette. He cannot understand plots if he is not a part of them, and they are rarely simple. Death may be simple, but it is not understandable. It is something he from which he feels he needs to be protected and distanced. When he attends Murray’s lecture about Elvis he says the crowd which gathered after Hitler’s death did not do so to honor him, but to cushion themselves. They did not want to feel the weight of death. While he talks about death during this lecture, he does it in a solely academic way. He distances himself from that which scares him.
Emily Avery
ReplyDeleteOnce again we see this concept of identity and putting on a mask. Jack is advised that his name, Jack Gladney, is not suitable enough if he “wanted to be taken seriously as a Hitler innovator” (16). Thus, he, with the chancellor, create a new identity for Jack to be known as, a one J.A.K. Gladney. Further, the chancellor implies to him that gaining weight and keeping a more unkempt appearance will help his career. At the end of chapter 4 when he declares that he is “the false character that follows the name around” (17) he is saying that he has submitted to the chancellor’s advice and has become a different person in order to maintain a certain appearance to go along with his reputation in the Hitler Studies department. This quote also suggests that Jack is a different person entirely and that for the moment he is wearing a mask as if to keep the allusion of what people to expect the founder of Hitler Studies to be.
Heinrich seems to be unlike most teenage boys in that he seems more mature and aware of the world, which may also go along with his receding hairline at only 14 years old. The conversation with his father about the rain seems like a typical conversation on Heinrich’s part, from what we’ve seen of him elsewhere in the novel. These sort of “subjective truth” and “what is time” topics that Heinrich brings up stirs up something in Jack as it gets him thinking about time, and therefore death. He brings that up with his class in a conversation about plots, which ends in Jack confusing himself (and probably the class) with a strange lecture about how all plots move toward death. We can infer that his subconscious is probably concerned with his own death, because we know that he has thought of death before, specifically pondering whether he or his wife will die first.