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Analysis Of White Noise By Don Delillo

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In "White Noise" by Don DeLillo, postmodern anxiety is expressed throughout the story in the way we, as readers, interpret the text. There are several examples of postmodern anxiety being presented and felt in the story. Feeling of anxiety can also be felt throughout the story from following Jack on his journey to adapt to the uncertainty of his death. There are many elements of postmodern anxiety being in this story mainly because of the author Don DeLillo. Don DeLillo was part of the "Paranoid School" of American fiction, which was novels that represent massive institutions or conspiracies in which characters could not hope to shape their own lives (Pfeifer 2). Don DeLillo focused most of his writings on the forces that control life. He …show more content…

Your genetics, your personals, your medicals, your psychological, your police-and-hospitals" (DeLillo 710). This is an example of the technological anxiety that DeLillo focused so much of his writing on. Computers control everything and everyone's life in the modern world. Since computers control everything, that means people have been reduced down to nothing more than just data on a screen. Jack's life and death are based on what a computer tells him about the data received. The computer is the main cause of anxiety and fear throughout the entire story, for everyone, especially Jack. Anxiety is shown in Jack's internalization of the words and gestures of the SIMUVAC employee. DeLillo wrote, "He made a silencing gesture as if something of particular morbid interest was appearing on the screen. I wondered what he meant when he said he'd tapped into my history. Where was it located exactly? Some state or federal agency, some insurance company or credit firm or medical clearinghouse? (DeLillo 709). The computer gives the man all the data and prognosis for Jack. To make sense of the confusing situation that he is experiencing, Jack starts to over analyze every minute gesture and lack of words coming out of the man's mouth. The story "White Noise" by Don DeLillo was written during the postmodern period. Don DeLillo focused most of his novels on how human beings seek the comfort of a totalizing order amidst the onslaught of

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