“White Noise” by Don DeLillo is a postmodern novel told by a man named Jack Gladney. Jack is a professor at College on the Hill and is married to Babette. He is a professor of Hitler studies and has four stepchildren; Heinrich, Denise, Steffie and Wilder. The novel shows a year in the life of him and his family and centers around the fear of death and dying. DeLillo writes in a circular manner, as the novel always ends up going back to someone’s fear of death and the unknown. Death is shown throughout the novel, as it is always lurking in the background waiting to strike. Each character deals with and thinks about death differently. Jack is absolutely terrified about his own death and the death of others around him, Babette avoids any mention of it, Heinrich is very logical in terms of death, and Murray is fascinated by it and tends to see it everywhere. One of the themes or motifs of “White Noise” is the fear of death and dying; this relates to the purpose of the novel as DeLillo is trying to show that while one can be afraid and try to hide from death, we all eventually die alone.
Visual:
Attribution: By Thousand Robots Thousandrobots (talk). [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Here is a link to a YouTube video of Delillo: http://youtu.be/1Vdpd8A5sTg
I didn't think about Murray as being fascinated with death until I read your paragraph, I guess that is why he knew so much about it. You have a good beginning here. Good luck with the rest.
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