Societies Sick Entertainment Don Delillo

Juan Arreola

Professor Godbey

Eng 102

April 1, 2014

Societies Sick Entertainment

Death and violence is not something experienced everyday, but is seen on a daily basis. Not always witnessed by someone near the accident, but it is usually watched on their computer or on their television. Violence seems to be one of the most common issues in many of today’s society. Acts of murder are feared and are avoided by anyone in their right mind. With this in mind, how can people watch murders on the TV screen, but will do anything at their power to avoid death. No one wants to die, but they find entertainment in other people’s deaths. Don Delillo’s Videotape reveals how humans have a tendency to watch terror and death due to a desire to numb one’s own fear of death and for personal entertainment.

Don Delillo has a specific message in his story about a young girl witnessing a murder through a camera and a man watching over and over as a form of entertainment. Don Delillo’s story Videotape begins with a young girl in a car on the high way, on what seems to be an ordinary day. However, while she innocently video tapes the stranger in the vehicle behind her, the stranger is suddenly shot in the head by “The High Way Killer”. The girl continued to tape as the man’s life was unexpectedly taken away. Moreover, the narrator of the story is a man, also in the story, watching this exact footage and obsessing over the fact that the man’s life was ended so abruptly. How is it that people are able to watch other humans die or being harmed? Watching horrid videos either on the internet or on the news of real happenings says something about society. Don Delillo writes,” You keep on looking not because you know something is going to happen-of course...

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...e and had millions of hits. Just shows how our society is. In the story Videotape the man watches the man getting shot over and over. He has an odd curiosity for death just like many people in this world do, because we are all afraid of death. We all want to know how we are going to die. Seeing other people die gives us a sense of what death is like and how it could be like for ones self. We watch it to see how a person acts when they are slowly dying or when they are about to die. Just like the man was waiting and watching for the drivers death. Death can happen so unexpectedly and people are afraid of it. By watching or reading incidences of murders society becomes less sensitive to it. This exposure through media demonstrates decreased sensitivity and increased curiosity in death and violence. Don Delillo’s Videotape reveals this aspect of society.