Death and Dying in DeLillo's White Noise Essay

That’s the thing about death: it sneaks up and robs a person of their life, taking away all of their happiness. People indulge themselves in the idea of fearing death rather than facing it. Death is an unknown territory where no survivors have ever came back to share their experience. The US Army Private, Roy Scranton’s article “Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene” shines hope where he explains how fear can be conquered if the idea of dying is accepted. It is fear that paralyzes people from moving toward the idea of death. If people started to embrace the present, they will understand the inevitability of death and start discrediting fear.

In “On Natural Death,” Thomas appeals to the readers by contemplating the subject of death with an academic approach that includes facts, data, and information. Thomas successfully transforms death from an awkward, emotional subject to a more comfortable intellectual one. This engages the readers by placing contemplation of death and dying within the confines of a more manageable and rational context. His gradual exhumation of death eases the audience into pondering the subject in the absence of emotional stress. The essay transitions from the death of an elm tree to that of a mouse. This is followed by Thomas giving a significant amount of attention to a scientific explanation of death, and then finally the description of the near death experience of a human. This use of an academic appeal moves the audience to a comfort zone with the subject of death and circumvents the common response of avoidance. The reader is simultaneously desensitized to the gravity of subject matter and given permission to consider death and dying without the normal societal negative stigma associated with the subject.

In “The Last Stop” Brian Cable gives his rendition of what death is like and how we as human beings cope and handle it. Cable started the essay with his own view of death. In the first part he says, “Death is a subject largely ignored by the living. We don’t discuss it much, not as children, not as adults, and not even as seniors.” (104) Cable then gives a description of the mortuary he visits to interview a funeral director and its licensed mortician. He describes the building as, “a bit like a church, tall, with gothic arches and stained glass.” (104) He goes on to say that “it was not what I expected. I had thought it would be more like Forest Lawn, serene with green lush lawns and meticulously groomed gardens.” (104) However, instead

Death, besides being present in the form of the characters' mortality, also dominates much of the conversation, such as the brief discussion of an order of monks where they "got up at

Death is a topic that unites all of humanity. While it can be uncomfortable to think about, confronting death in unavoidable. “Dying” addresses that discomfort and universal unwillingness to consider the inevitability of death. Pinsky’s use of imagery, symbolism, and tone create a poetic experience that is like death, something every reader can relate to. In “Dying,” Pinsky describes how people are oblivious and almost uncaring when it comes to the thought of death. Pinsky is trying to convince the reader that they shouldn’t ignore the concept of death because life is shorter than it seems.

The theme death has always played a crucial role in literature. Death surrounds us and our everyday life, something that we must adapt and accept. Whether its on television or newpaper, you'll probobly hear about the death of an individual or even a group. Most people have their own ideas and attitude towards it, but many consider this to be a tragic event due to many reasons. For those who suffered greatly from despair, living their life miserably and hopelessly, it could actually be a relief to them. Death effects not only you, but also those around you, while some people may stay unaffected depending on how they perceive it.

“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. It 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 humanity are shallow protections against the reality of life and death.

By biological logic, we human beings will face death sooner or later in our life and death has its very own ways to approach us - a sudden deadly strike, a critical sickness, a tragic accident, a prolonged endurance of brutal treatment, or just an aging biological end. To deal with the prospect of death come different passive or active reactions; some may be scared and anxious to see death, some try to run away from it, and some by their own choice make death come faster. But Viktor Frankl, through his work Man’s Search for Meaning, and Bryan Doyle; in his essay “His Last Game” show us choices to confront the death, bring it to our deepest feelings, meaningful satisfaction. To me, the spirit of the prisoners at deadly concentration camps, Frankl’s Logotherapy theory of “. . . striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.” (99), as well as the calmness of Doyle’s brother on his last ride, like an awaken bell, remind us of how precious life is, how we should find the significance in every act of living, determine to live a meaningful life at any circumstances; hence, when death comes, we can accept it without anxiety nor regrets.

People die everyday all over the world. In United States, people use hundreds of different words to describe death. Generally, people that grow up in the United States tend to view death as a taboo subject and are seen as a topic that should be kept behind closed doors and contracted with an individual or family. A belief system that so many individuals hold to be true has been shaped over the past century. In this culture, death has become something that is enormously feared and as a result, some people stop living their lives to his or her highest potential because of their fear of dying. The effect that death has pertains to individuals of all ages, gender and ethnicities. But unfortunately, how death is viewed it has become more and

In this book that tries to understand the cultural connotation behind the rhetoric of escapism and its noun of the escapist, the author tries to correlate the word’s significance with the growth and evolution of human character as well as the connection of death itself. Her argument revolves around the notion that there are various types of escapism and some of which include the traditional and dynamic type. The traditional form of escapism focuses on the idea that a character is trying to escape his current situation but comes to the realization that death is the only end goal and thus begins questioning the different systems that transcend death. The dynamic form focuses on the speculation that characters who seek death willingly are, in

In the play “everyman” death is depicted as something that is terribly feared as no one seemed ready for it, death is perceived as something that takes one away from the pleasures of this world.

In White Noise by Don DeLillo, the human fear of death is shown on almost every page. The book consists of nothing but white noise in a world that distracts people from their fears. To Jack, the bigger you are the less you have to be afraid of dying. His obsessions for Hitler serves as a distraction and a comfort for him from this fear. In an interview, Matters of Facts and Fiction with Anthony DeCurtis, Don DeLillo also talks about the reasons behind Jack Gladney’s attempt to calm his fear of death through his work in the Department of Hitler Studies. The human fear of death is also shown by the way Jack and the other people act during the Toxic Event. In Could it Happen in America?, Melinda Beck talks about technology created the toxic event

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.

We live in a world marked by a culture of death. the constant manifetations of ruptures with one itself as lonelines, sadness, with no sence, unstopping search of false

“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.