Contradictions between Human Civilization and Natural Environment and White Noise by Don DeLilo

Unlike most of the persuasive essays needed many “power” words to persuade readers, R. Crumb’s comic, “A Short History of America”, reflects the change of the natural, ecological landscape to urban area without using any words. Nevertheless, his drawing deeply shows us the down side of the urbanization and we human-being are destroying our indispensable nature. We are going the exact opposite direction to a better life; we are going to live in the life where we totally rely on technology and advanced, luxurious materials. Humans will never be satisfied and keep changing. However, while we’re keeping changing, have we ever asked: What are we doing to our nature?

One particularly unfortunate trait of modern society is our futile attempt to use technology to immunize ourselves against the fear of death. The failure of technology in this regard is the general subject of Don Delillo''s book White Noise. Throughout this novel, technology is depicted as the ominous messenger of our common fate, an increasing sense of dread over loss of control of our lives and the approach of inevitable death in spite of the empty promises of technology. In this essay I will examine Delillo''s portrayal of technology and its role in our society.

In modern society, the outstanding technology has brought human to a bright new age that people are more likely to value the materiality. Then more problems are raised from the technological development and further implicated with human emotions and basic desires. For example, in Don Delillo's novel "White noise", the fear of death is emphasized and given a new definition that fits into this lopsided modern society, which is overwhelmed by all kinds of information from mass media. People unconsciously dedicate more onto the stories that media made up for them, distracting the awareness of death by focusing on the mass media culture that as a ramification from this modern society. Eventually, people are swamped by those "plots" of mass

DeLillo throughout White Noise establishes a society that dismisses and even mocks the idea of practicing and gaining peace from one’s religion. Principally, White Noise embodies the subject of religion through a vast and ambitious scope; religion offers answers to the unknown yet the novel’s characters, primarily Jack and Babette, exemplify the modern world’s inability to integrate their fear of death with the acceptance of any information about it that religion can offer. White Noise exemplifies the notion that although religion may still be relative in modern society, it is not the traditional religion that takes precedence. Instead, it is the distorted “American” religion that individuals forge deep connections with. DeLillo employs prominent elements of religion in his work, such as the reverence and adoration. Except now, in White Noise, these elements were used to examine the consciousness of the American culture; pushing the boundaries of a religious

“Life...Made better”, this is promising the slogan for Dash In convenience stores. It is a promise that stopping at their store will improve your life. It is a promise that you are not lying to yourself every time you step through those glass doors. In the book White Noise by Don DeLillo, readers experience the story of this kind of lie and it’s consequences. The story follows an introspective college professor and his dealings with his fear of death. It does so against the background of a busy family life, full of colorful characters. White Noise highlights the truths of humanity in a satirical fashion, expertly weaving the American dream into the troubled psyche of the main character, Jack. White Noise reveals that the modern tools of

Pollution has become a serious political issue. Humans that live among nature prevent damaging effects like pollution from occurring because nature is their habitat that they want to protect. This simple difference in lifestyle and in attitude already majorly distinguishes the two groups of humans. Ego is not the only factor in destruction, however. The lack of awareness about the consequences of destruction of nature causes destruction of nature. Well-known consequences like pollution exist, but there are some that are not as obvious. In the Indian fable “Numskull and Rabbit ”, the forest creatures describe how the lion’s murderous nature is not only ending lives, but is also preventing the birth of future lives as a result. An example of this mass destruction is evident in the second image from the movie, where cages full of jailed chickens that are hoarded like they are just objects are about to become poultry for human sustenance . Core principles of evolution state that reproduction of a species is imperative to their survival. If a species has a reduction in population, then the food chain becomes unbalanced, which can impact many species negatively. Humans who live among nature are more aware of their environment and how it impacts their lifestyles, so they are more careful in making sure that they do not injure its natural order. The destruction of nature is caused by simple

People seldom take the time to stop and really think about the impact that this development has on the environment and the effect it has on life itself. Inconveniences to those of a community tend to become the focus of developers’ agendas. Building new parking lots and four-story car garages so people can park their cars closer to their destination, as the thought of a long walk seems too much to bear. As more areas are developed, nature’s balance is disrupted, causing the destruction of animal’s natural habitats, reduction of plant diversity, and over-cultivated soil. A community created by man, often at the expense of the environment, supplants the beautiful and life-sustaining environment created by nature. The urban progression has destroyed the natural habitat of many plants and animals, dramatically altering the atmosphere in the

The following quote reveals the outcome and effect of modifying creations made by mother nature, “sinkholes broke out, opening in people’s backyards, full of hot steam and carbon monoxide” (Briceno); proving that modifying establishments made by nature can injure humanity. The people living in the area were killed or had their personal belongings destroyed. Also, not so long ago, Mexico suffered a 7.4 magnitude earthquake that destroyed several of people’s homes and unfortunately killed hundreds of people. Nonetheless, the author is trying to confirm that this all goes back to us to the people. We contribute to the environments global warming that leads to certain

Don DeLillo's award-winning novel White Noise takes the idea of the supremacy of false images to the extreme. Through various scenarios, such as the airborne toxic event and the Dylar dilemma, DeLillo critiques contemporary society's over-dependence on false images. The characters in the novel that exemplify this over-dependence appear humorous on one hand, yet tragic on the other. The humor comes from the novel's characters behaving like cartoon characters who continually get hurt, but keep coming back for more. The novel's characters keep getting hurt by false images, yet continue to believe in them, causing the reader to smack his or her head in astonishment.

In these urban areas, natural gases such as carbon dioxide are released warming Earth even more than before. Although these urban environments like megacities are creating lifestyles for humans to live in, they are also creating climate changes and biodiversity affecting the environment in the South Pole. Wall-E’s environment portrays Earth as dry, dusty, lifeless and a smoggy atmosphere. Through these observations, many can see the destruction that humanity has done to Earth especially through companies like Buy ‘n’ Large. In addition, the fact that there is little to no water at all on Earth in the film displays one of the effects of urban environments reducing the amount of water while increasing the amount of droughts. Not to mention, urban areas also contain concentrated energy areas which leads to the inference that these areas also have negative effects on human and animal health, therefore causing the people in the film to

   Among other things, Don DeLillo seems completely preoccupied with death and the arduous task of living with the knowledge of death in his novel White Noise. Acceptance of our finite, fragile existence over time is certainly not a phenomenon unique to a single civilization or historical era. Rather than discuss the inescapable mortality that connects all humankind with broad, generalized strokes, DeLillo is concerned with the particular (peculiar?) late Twentieth Century cultural and psychological mechanisms that attempt to define, recast, or obscure the relationship between the self and death. Technology, he asserts, has fostered a material culture of consummation, of insatiable appetites

Death is probably the most feared word in the English language. Its undesired uncertainty threatens society’s desire to believe that life never ends. Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise tells the bizarre story of how Jack Gladney and his family illustrate the postmodern ideas of religion, death, and popular culture. The theme of death’s influence over the character mentality, consumer lifestyle, and media manipulation is used often throughout DeLillo’s story.

Environmental problems are something which belongs to nature or known as “Mother Earth” [13]. Nature was created to help people survive from gathering foods until build a house. This phenomenon happens continuously without thinking how much damage that nature has because human’s fault. Nature gradually becomes worse and animal’s life in danger. People who are aware of the importance of nature react. Those people do several ways to save the environment. Although these efforts can return back the environment, these efforts only can be hold temporarily. This problem happens because those people who are aware of the environment only slightly; for remaining, there are people either do not know or do not care about the nature. People’s efforts

“The world…is crowded, not necessarily with occupants and not at all with memorable experiences, but with happenings; it is a ceaseless flow of seductive trivialities which invoke neither reflection, nor choice but instant participation.” (Oakeshott) The idea of the lacking of realness is one of the major themes carried out throughout the novel White Noise by Don DeLillo, especially through the device of the television.

The decline of the environment due to natural and human exertion is known as the degradation of the environment. The natural weather occurrences such as heavy rain, flooding, storms, earthquakes, volcanoes etc. are not administered under human control. These meteorological phenomenon’s wreak devastation on the environment from time to time causing the land to become unsuitable to cultivate. On this subject matter, the human population does not contain the power to stop the wrath of Mother Nature. Rather, we are forced to sit back and watch. Nevertheless, humans engage in a crucial role towards the degradation of the environment in which we live in. Unavoidably, the degradation of the environment is a rising and utmost worldwide subject. I accept that the root cause to environmental degradation is the excessive use of resources on our land utilized by the processes under capitalism. As Jensen wrote in Endgame, “The global industrial economy is the engine for massive environmental degradation and massive human and (nonhuman) impoverishment.