There’s a complex relationship between consumer goods and the characters in this novel. Further, TV and radio ads insert themselves into the narrative as if they were characters themselves; often advertisements (mostly catch-phrases, jingles, etc) appear as dialogue within an ongoing conversation. Consider Ch. 17 (though it happens throughout the novel, not just in this chapter), when the catch-phrases “Try an Audi Turbo” and “Try a Toyota Supra” pop up on in a conversation about, well, nothing really.
Analyze the role of consumer goods, TV, radio, and commercial advertisement in White Noise.
Jason Richert
ReplyDeleteWhen analyzing the role of consumer goods and the various modes of their advertisement in “White Noise”, one must consider what is being advertised and through what means are the goods being promoted. The answer to both of these questions is technology. The novel’s fixation on technology is almost overwhelming at many points in the story. The characters in the story are so fixed on the technology that they fail to see what life would be like without their consumer goods. The character’s obsessions with consumer goods allow them to temporarily escape the reality of death. More so than escaping the reality of death is the ability of technology to distract the consumers by convincing them that these products will somehow make life longer and more fruitful. Not only does technology expose people to goods that mask the reality of death, it also exposes people to death from afar. Death is seen on the television as an observable, quantifiable phenomenon that is not attached to each person. Rather, it allows the characters to see death at a safe distance from their own location. Technology’s two-fold ability to separate the characters from death surely speaks volumes about what Delillo was trying to convey.
Sarah Brumfield
ReplyDeleteConsumer goods seem to play a huge role in Delillo’s White Noise. At the very opening of the book Jack watches station wagons file into the college and students unload all types of things that Delillo actually takes time to name, obviously indicating that they are important to more than just the students, but to the entire novel. Throughout the first 17 chapters of the novel Jack and Babette and Murray go to the supermarket quite a few times. Jack and Babette buy the same things we all do, the things in pretty wrappers that seem to say “I taste the best” or “I am made better than the plain things”. They go by the hype from the commercials and other things they see inside the store. On the other hand, Murray only buys the things in plain white rappers that say exactly what is inside. He is going outside of the consumer hype, unlike most of the modern world. People in the story seem to escape reality of what truly matters by buying things that they believe are important, or will be important. I don’t exactly know where I stand on the escaping death by buying things stance. But, I do believe that buying things puts us into a super version of ourselves. When Jack and his family go to the mall he goes to buying things he did not go there for just to do it. It makes him feel good, makes his wife and kids feel good because he has the money to do this. This is probably what leads to so much debt in American citizens.
Adam Mier
ReplyDeleteThe relationship between consumer goods and the characters in DeLillo’s "White Noise" is a very technology-oriented relationship, in that the most prominently advertised items are the latest and greatest technological advances and that the main method of advertisement is through technology. The characters’ obsession with technology plays a role that is demonstrated in two ways, each way with its own form of portrayal. The first, and more obvious method is the characters’ seeming to subliminally want to push death away by means of said advertised technology. The other, less noticeable way is the appearance of beauty because of technology. An example of this would be the toxic chemical spill that happened near the school. Although it did cause the area to become inhabitable for some time, reinforcing the first use of technology in the novel, it also, according to Jack, caused the sunsets to be much more beautiful in the area. This phenomenon kind of supports the whole pushing death away theme in that the characters take a moment out of their lives to just appreciate something beautiful, even though it is man-mad and not naturally occurring. These consumer goods also appear to have a sort of “feel-good” effect on the characters in the story. Prime examples would be at the very beginning of the novel when the station wagons come by and drop off all of the items for the students, or when Jack and his family go to the mall at the end of chapter seventeen.
The novel opens by having the students returning from the summer break. A long stream of station wagons lined up on campus "loaded down with boxes of blankets, boots and shoes, stationery and books, sheets, pillows, quilts... bicycles, skis, rucksacks, English and Western saddles, inflated rafts" (DeLitto 3), all of which are consumer goods. This sets the tone for the novel: consumers need goods! People are consumers, and are easily influenced by what they see on television and what they hear on the radio. Media causes consumers to think they need products. Media sneaks into the minds of the characters and shifts their wants. It also causes masses of people to flock to attractions in order to go with the flow. Even at the “most photographed barn in America” (DeLitto 12), the visitors cannot just enjoy visiting it, they have to bring special lenses, and tripods in order to capture the spectacle. They don’t see the barn for what it is; they see it for the quality of photo. Later on in the novel, Jack asks his children to make a list of what they want for Christmas. When the kids were allowed to scope out what they wanted, Jack sat back and “was not to be bothered with tedious details” because he “was the benefactor” (DeLitto 84). Jack was “the one who dispenses gifts” (DeLitto 84). Jack had great joy from this power. The characters in the novel often interact at the grocery store. Murray purchases generic products with bland labels, while Jack’s family (Gladneys) purchases large amounts of groceries with colorful labels. The two different sets of groceries reflect the lives of the consumers who bought them. Murray buys plain groceries, and he lives alone in a small house, while the Gladneys have a larger family with many different personalities. The products they buy mirror the characters that buy them.
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