Psychological Comfort in Don Delillo´s White Noise

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Recommended: Effects of modern technology on 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 media for getting away from something that are ironically weaken their basic abilities in life.

Those advertisements and news on the television has the major impact into human's brain on reducing the ability of thinking. In Don Delillo's novel "White Noise", Babette has made a rule of her family to watch TV to be immune of the negative effect of mass media. "She seemed to think that if kids watched television one night a week with parents or stepparents, the effect would be to de-glamorize the medium in their eyes" (16) In fact, the behavior that she does would only draw a vague line in children's brain, which merely hocusing the ability of feeling in the real world. This main focus of teaching people to be mean and tough as the best way to survive seems doubtful, where Jack thought "The evening in fact was a subtle form of punishment for us all... Denise used these occasions to counsel the younger girl on toughness, the need to be mean in the world, think skinned." (16) Human beings are emoti...

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...e more the death will overwhelm them.

However, regardless what the subjects are, the definition of them are changing as the era changes. By listening too much negative information from the mass media, people's abilities of thinking, feeling are losing gradually. Babette's naively idea on challenging the whole family of preparing for the world; people's self-comfort move of buying SUV for "safety"; Jack's family buying their own satisfaction and the conversation between Jack and Murray on taking position on viewing death; they all mislead by the lopsided balance of their physical and psychological life. All those "plots" that cause those people to form the wrong perspective in life, are hocusing people from finding the truth of themselves as though providing people the psychological comfort from materiality; and it becomes the most common life type in this society.

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