Psychological Comfort in Don Delillo´s White Noise Essay

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 Delillos 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†¦show more content†¦In essay Big and Bad, Gladwell has implied the way the mass media influence people; a experiment of university of Pennsylvania is presented, Dogs were restrained by a harness, so that they couldnt move, and then repeatedly subje cted to a series of electrical shocks. Then the same dogs were shocked again, only this time there could easily escape by jumping over a low hurdle. But most of them didnt, they just huddle in the corner, no longer believing that there was anything they could do to influence their own fate.(448) In other word, those dogs are lost hope and the motivation to think since they give up doing it. There are so many advertisements on the television today saying that they represent the truth, without any consideration for the audiences. However, more or less, we are influenced. Whats more, the effect of hindered thinking has brought humans back to primitive level, where Gladwell says But at the reptilian level they think that if I am bigger and taller Im safer.(442) Compare to Babettes idea of getting used to the effect of mass media, thinking SUV is safer would actually be a result of such idea. Since they spend long time watching TV, people have already got used to be a listener who most likely settled for the fate and distanced away from the true sense of a normal human being. As the time they want safety, theyShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of White Noise By Don Delillo765 Words   |  4 PagesIn 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