Don Delillo's White Noise And The Dismantlement Of Filters

Her language become more and more crude, especially when she mentions how her “flesh seems to bond to the seat” (181). The reader can easily detect her ever-mounting anger with the situation she has put herself in and what at first seemed like a heroic act ends up being one leading to pure defeat. As an extension to this idea, Ehrenreich shows the reader how certain hardships can make it difficult to try new things. In multiple instances throughout the essay she uses crude language to display her disgusted thoughts and sense of hopelessness, but it can be seen specifically in the introduction. The introduction is based off of her entire experience; after her jobs at Hearthside and Jerry’s. She compares the environment at Jerry’s to a human body, and not in a very pleasant way: “The kitchen is cavern, a stomach leading to the lower intestine that is the garbage and dishwashing area…” She also uses descriptive items of food to depict its scent, combining strange and appalling odors such as “decomposing lemon wedges [and] water-logged toast crusts” (179). These phrases themselves create a negative image of the restaurant, commanding the readers to question how she could have possibly been forced to work in such horrible conditions. Ehrenreich’s rough language effectively shows certain emotions brought out by the transition from writer to waitress, a white collar to a blue collar job, and the hardships that it brought.

Throughout life, one is faced with many experiences, and how one deals with those experience shapes one’s life. Laurie Channer’s Las Mantillas and Margaret Atwood’s It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers share the same theme of action versus inaction, however they define it from opposing perspectives. Action and inaction are complete opposites thus leading to completely different results. Whether taking action or remaining passive, strong feelings occur that can impact one’s life. Distance is also a huge factor in whether a person takes action or not, which is explored in both texts. While Channer’s Las Mantillas emphasizes the positive impact taking action has on an individual and society and Atwood’s It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers critiques the effects of inactivity, both agree that when faced with injustice it is vital to take action for one’s beliefs.

She distastefully compares the kitchen to bodily organs, stating that “the kitchen is a cavern, a stomach leading to the lower intestine that is the garbage and dishwashing area” (179). When she makes this comparison, Ehrenreich gets the reader to associate the kitchen with foul organs such as the lower intestine. As the reader makes the association between the familiar, repulsive organs and the unfamiliar behind-the-scenes Jerry’s kitchen, Ehrenreich can more deeply convey the dirty nature of the kitchen. Along with metaphors, Ehrenreich uses evocative diction; she remarks that “the garbage and dishwashing area . . . issue bizarre smells combining the edible and the offal: creamy carrion, pizza barf, and that unique and enigmatic Jerry's scent - citrus fart” (179). Words like “carrion”, “barf” and “fart” connote feelings of disgust, repugnance, and revulsion. By evoking these strong feelings in the reader, Ehrenreich gives her audience a taste of the unattractive nature of the blue collar

“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

A series of shots being fired in the near distance can be heard. A crew of ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks are seen speeding down the streets while blaring their sirens to warn people to move out of the way rapidly. Then, crowds of people are seen running down the street franticly. Sounds of earsplitting yells fill the air. Their eyes are filled with tears of fear and terror. They look as if they were running for their lives. There is a wave of worry and curiosity that washes over everyone’s face as they stand there from a distance watching it take place. There was a sense of wanting to run towards the chaos to see what was going on. But the panic of the people running gave off the feeling of “Warning! Do NOT come this way!” What

Life is made up of lines. Lifelines, timelines, lines in the grocery store, plot lines, etc. Lines encompass many different aspects of life. Every person follows a different set of lines, guarding a few exceptions like birth and death. In the book White Noise by Don DeLillo readers get to experience different lines in the characters lives that may or may not correspond to readers own lives. The book White Noise even starts out by mentioning a line. The first line of the book remarks on the “long shining line [of station wagons] that coursed through west campus” (DeLillo 3). The author chose to first introduce readers to the story through the use of something as simple and intriguing as a line and it captured attention right away. The book

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.

Dystopias are a special type of genre that give the ability to step into an alternate reality. Though one wouldn’t necessarily want to be forced to be living in a dystopian society, it enlightens the possibilities of what could happen in the future. The tools used to help create a dystopian image are always darker, since it’s generally not a light subject, suspenseful and slow music with deep tones of voice are key to pull together these types of stories. In a book, the gloomy moments are told with heavy and descriptive words with deep meaning in the context. In a movie as the story unfolds, there are changes in lighting, colors, and depth. Within this essay, the works of Ray Bradbury, Veronica Roth, and Louis Lowry will be

The novel Dark Inside written by Jeyn Roberts is a fantastic apocalyptic themed novel. It is clearly evident how the three literary devices Inciting Incident, Point of View and Conflict shape the reader’s vision of the story. The Inciting Incident of this book creates a dramatic visual image as an effective hook into the story for the reader based on their interest, the Point of View from which this story is written in gives the reader a better understanding of the story and the effective use of Conflict in a book rises suspense and interest in the

White Noise by Don Delillo and Santa Land Diaries by David Sedaris both provide criticism on contemporary American life in different ways. Delillo presents complex characters who have issues adapting to the new wave of change their environment presents every day, while Sedaris recounts a factual moment in his life that also presents a change in his environment, but his is by choice. However, in this essay the focus will be primarily on the argument that David Sedaris and Don Delillo critique modem American culture in Santa Land Diaries and White Noise by using cynicism and by identifying the blurring of fantasy and reality. The Oxford Dictionary defines a cynic as “a person who raises doubts about something and a person who believes that people

With all the background noise within society drowning out what is of genuine prominence, what is it that citizens should tune in to? In Adrianna de Barros’s Blinding Lights, she analyzes the detrimental repercussion of this irritant and the distractions that it (the media) constructs. Through the use of vivid imagery and sensory overload, Barros’s poem functions as a social commentary on the inimical effects of being absorbed by the constant flow of media coverage.

DeLillo's novel is almost obsessively concerned with appliances: TVs, radios, microwaves etc. They are omnipresent, not only in the characters worlds but within the narrative itself. DeLillo repeatedly interrupts his narrative with sentences like "The TV said: And other trends that could dramatically impact our portfolio" (61) or "MasterCard, Visa, American Express" (100) or "That chirping sound was just the radiator" (94). Just as Jack's world is one suffused with such objects, so too is the narrative, a technique which DeLillo uses to force the reader into Jack Gladney's world. Objects play a dualistic role in Jack's familial life. Jack tells us that

Don Delillo utilizes satire of the postmodern novel to critique issues which continue to plague American society. Although Don Delillo’s novel White Noise is complex and full of implicit meaning, the protagonist Jack Gladney communicates the central idea of the narrative, “All plots tend to move deathward. This is the nature of plots (Delillo 26)”. The novel does not take on a linear storyline for most of the novel but there is more impact in its collection of vignettes. The majority of the novel portrays Jack’s daily routine which effectively illustrates the pervasive nature of the materialistic society Delillo creates.

Stories have attained people’s attention by being classified as a comedy, romance, suspense, etc., but what hustles readers to the end is the reason why they picked a story that is more commercial fiction or literary fiction. Commercial fiction drives readers away from the real world, while literary fiction deepens the reader’s awareness of life. “The Destructors” by Graham Greene is a short story that stresses the tension between social classes following the aftermath of World War II. This realistic fiction grasps historical context to reveal the purpose of the destruction of a house. The Wormsley Common Gang’s new recruit, Trevor “T.” proposes to destroy Old Misery’s house during the time Old Misery is out for Bank Holiday. As soon as the gang agrees with T.’s proposal, the action takes place, but before it is completely destroyed Old Misery comes back. Old Misery’s unexpected arrival leads to some slight changes. At the end a truck driver destroys the house by driving his truck from the car lot. “The Destructors” is a piece of literary fiction because it utilizes a complex character, develops suspense with the character’s actions, and conveys a serious theme through the use of symbolism.

The consumerism present in White Noise manifests through the constant interjections of branded products’ names throughout the work. For instance, DeLillo presents the necessities of “Waffelos and Kabooms… Dum-Dum pops… [And] Mystic mints” (DeLillo, 1). Meanwhile, synthetically produced foods with destructive effects do not have any uses, whether necessary or practical. Consequently, the products become the ultimate form of commodity, each truly “[A]n object of human wants” (Marx, 19). These desires clearly act detrimentally to the consumer, not only through the unhealthy aspects of such foods, but also as addiction to brands causes the public’s ignorance to the true aspects of the capitalist system, in particular the rise of the corporate