CURRENT VERS White Noise

 

TERM 4 YEAR 10 INDEPENDENT READING OR VIEWING RESPONSE

 

Your name:                Noah Nishihara

Author/Director:       Don DeLillo 1984

Title:                           White Noise

 

 

1.         In one or two paragraphs, summarize the plot.

 

2.         Write about one character in two or three paragraphs. Describe the character. Why did you like or dislike this character? How did the author or film maker make you admire or dislike the character? How does the author or director use the character to develop ideas in the narrative?

 

3.         Choose one event in the story, or a scene in the film. Write two or more paragraphs in which you describe what happens and explain why it is important to the narrative. Explain how the event develops the story’s ideas.

 

Achievement Standards	Grade
1.2 Ability to explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used to represent different ideas and issues in texts.   1.4  Ability to select evidence from  texts to show how events, situations and people can be represented from different viewpoints.
MsBourlioufas’s comment

4.         In two paragraphs, explain how the author or director keeps you interested in the book as a whole. Explain the effect of two of his or her techniques. Use specific examples in your explanation.

 

5.         Write a paragraph or two about what you learn about yourself and others from this narrative.

6.         Would you recommend this book to other readers? Why/why not?

 

White Noise/Panasonic Review

J

ack Gladney teaches Hitler studies at College-on-the-hill and lives with his wife Babette, and his children Heinrich, Steffie, Denise, and Wilder in a town called Blacksmith. The novel begins with packed station wagons arriving at the campus filled with students while Jack observes it. After numerous philosophical everyday life descriptions, the main complication is introduced in the form of an ‘airborne toxic event’.  The outcome of this event in which a train derails is that toxic chemicals are released into the air and are absorbed by Jack. Jack then begins his obsession with death. The second complication is introduced in the form of a ‘psycho-pharmaceutical’ by the name of Dylar which is being taken by Jack’s wife Babette. The provider of this unlicensed drug is referred to with a fake name and has made Babette pay for the samples of the drug. With restless activities becoming prevalent in Jack’s behaviour, his father-in-law brings him a gun. After being told of the location where the drug provider stays, Jack finds and shoots the person responsible. Jack is shot in the process but escorts the man he shoots to the nearest hospital. Jack quickly cures his worries about death, health, and safety when he observes Wilder, the youngest child, cross a highway on a tricycle.

Jack Gladney, who has a full name of J. A. K. Gladney, teaches and holds the position of chairman of Hitler studies, which is invented by him. The author has given him an understanding of himself as a fake figure, and makes it clear to readers also. An example of this is choosing to make him be a professor of Hitler studies who cannot speak German. He describes himself as ‘I am the false character that follows the name around.’ This ‘name’ comes from his previous ‘agreed that I should invent an extra initial and call myself J.A.K. Gladney, a tag I wore like a borrowed suit.’ This does not help readers to admire him at all. In addition, he says ‘I was living in short, on the edge of a landscape of vast shame.’ His jealousy of the doctor (drug provider) (‘homicidal rage’)and curiosity of the Dylar drug as well as the urge to use it are all factors which allow us to understand him as a character in the story but only work to make us dislike the character. He is not to be admired or despised.

Many of his actions are directly related to his subtle but consistent fear of death caused by his exposure to Nyodene D. Through his narration and the structure of the novel, we are given an image of what life is for Jack. White noise, combining both artificial and natural sounds sweep over Jack, and it is what the novel talks of. Dialogue and characterisation is used to develop ideas in the narrative. He asks the rhetorical question ‘Who will die first? This question comes up from time to time, like where are the car keys.’ His method of speech is straightforward.

The ‘Airborne Toxic Event’, so called as the gas of toxic poisons rise into the air from a derailed train carriage,causes the greatest complication in the novel. It begins when Jack finds Heinrich, one of his sons on a ledge of his house, using binoculars to view the event of the derailment and the cloud. The family repeats ‘nausea, skin irritation, and sweaty palms’ as the symptoms of being exposed to this poison, as they hear it on the radio. Jack continuously repeats that the wind will not blow the gas towards their house. When his familyquestion him on why he is so confident, he only repeats that ‘it will not because of the fact that this town is not that sort of place’.

This event marks the beginning of a problem for Jack, something which will reduce his life and work down to the core, where Jack is actually suffering from the knowledge of his impending death, caused by this cloud of toxic chemicals. This event shows that we are living in worlds we have ‘desperately’ created and tried to maintain, and we do not allow random uncontrolled events to ruin this world. Jack cannot accept it; we see it in his indifferent actions. We are ever concerned with our survival, as well as any events that bear resemblance to clouds, either mushroom clouds or volcanic eruptions. We live in the relative safety of our houses and cannot bear to accept change.

Don DeLillo captures our interest in White Noise through the use of descriptive language, though rarely entering the magical realism realm; instead focusing on real objects of everyday life. Even from this passage, which recurs near the end of the novel, we can see that the vivid images of a frustrated, exploring man really comes through. ‘I went home and started throwing things away. I threw away fishing lures, dead tennis balls, torn luggage… The more things I threw away, the more I found. The house was a sepia maze of old and tired things. In another passage: ‘I went after the padded clothes hangers, the magnetic memo clipboards. I was in a vengeful and near savage state… I was working the bathrooms, discarding used bars of soap, damp towels, shampoo bottles with streaked labels and missing caps.’ Describing the main character’s new obsession of throwing old stuff out signifies a change in his thought; the actions are brought about by being told of his 30 year limitation to live. His sudden focus-shift brought about by doctors and engineers of computer health machines causes this action. Even the descriptions of himself are realistic: ‘… slowly focused on a familiar object. It was Wilder, standing two feet from the bed, gazing into my face. We spent a long moment in mutual contemplation.’ His description of children are tender and kind, using words suited to them.

Dialogue used in White Noise convey the thoughts and feelings of the characters as they engage in conversation. Their pauses, views of the scene, particularly the sunset that is miraculous ever since the poisonous cloud, is effortlessly engaging, although the characters rarely ever come to conclusions or tell Jack what he wants to hear. His university colleague, Murray mentions ‘That’s what it all comes down to in the end,’ he said. ‘A person spends his life saying good-bye to other people. How does he say good-bye to himself?’ as they part after their long walk. Random sentences are inserted at the end of long chapters: A woman passing on the street said, “a decongestant, an antihistamine, a cough suppressant, a pain reliever.” In other passages, DeLillo uses ‘The voice from above said…’ quite randomly to signify noise. The voice is actually from a television set that is upstairs as mentioned in ‘The TV upstairs said…’ Jack’s son Heinrich is also a character who takes death openly and answers a question about visiting his mother as: ‘Who knows what I want to do or anyone wants to do?... Isn’t it all a question of brain chemistry… all this activity in the brain and you don’t know what’s you as a person and what’s some neuron that just happens to fire or misfire. Who would answer questions in such a fashion? Some answers are provided within the dialogues, through a character, Winnie Richards. Her advice is to make ‘death seem less strange and unreferenced so that your sense of self in relation to death will diminish along with your fear.

White noise, or Panasonic, is just noise in general, some created electronically, others from real people. The company Panasonic states that their word is created from ‘Pan’ and ‘Sonic’ meaning ‘bringing sound our Company creates to the world.’ There is an element of overwhelming the world with sound, something which may be happening now, with or without ‘Panasonic’ itself. The founder of the company, Matsushita, even showed anger at the decision to unify the ‘Matsushita Electric’ brand into Panasonic, leading to the National brand being used up until around 2008. Initially, my interest in this book grew from reading a passage he wrote about Heat. This single word was stated in the beginning, and DeLillo then went on to elaborate about the cities and the buses, the people, something which I related to well enough due to his vivid description. Then I learned that he had originally wanted to name his book ‘Panasonic’ but couldn’t do so. Although the novel never went near to the company itself, it was his descriptive language, his plot filled with seemingly unimportant events and major disasters, his dialogue that seemed to lead to somewhere but then dropped off, that truly kept my attention.

For anyone who wants to read and think about death through curious, funny, and original texts with a family type background, this book would be a suitable choice. For myself, the many philosophical discussions, mainly involving Jack and another character were the most intriguing. Jack’s quote ‘All plots tend to move deathward’ seemed to reflect the novel itself, but was not spoken after deep thought on Jack’s part.Other memorable terms include Waves and Radiation, Airborne Toxic Event, and Dylarama. Each of them are titles for sections of the novel. No one tries to bother with symbolism and psychic data; there is no need for observing ‘Energy waves, incident radiation’. We should ‘take things for what it is, with clear vision; no awe or terror.’ This should be the case for death as well. Events of risking death can also dramatically alter perspectives like Wilder did in the epilogue. What Wilder (the youngest son of Jack) does is cross the highway on a tricycle showing no fear whatsoever. Jack then mentions how he visits the site of the crossing regularly with his wide and Wilder to observe sunsets. Jack also stops taking calls from his doctor. It seems that he is no longer afraid of death. In the novel at least, the troubles are all resolved and we walk away with a lasting impression of calm and the importance of ourselves in the life we live.

N.N. Tuesday, 29 November 2016