However, this approach also includes the possibility of providing insight into the mind of the author. This analysis will show how four psychoanalytic concepts, the Oedipus complex, the mirror stage, narcissism, and the tri-partite theory of consciousness, the help to explain White Noise. In Chapter 6, Jack Gladney has a surprisingly contentious argument with his son, Heinrich, concerning the rain. In Chapter 10, Jack has another tense conversation with Heinrich.
He begins by asking his son about the chess games that he plays with a convicted murderer in prison, and follows by asking his son if he wants to visit his biological mother in the summer. Who knows what anyone wants to do? How can you be sure about something like that? How do you know whether something is really what you want to do or just some kind of nerve impulse in the brain?
When the family temporarily moves to a camp, Heinrich forms an ad hoc classroom and begins to lecture a crowd about the nature of the toxic chemical, Nyolene.
Jack recognizes that this is an important development for Heinrich. According to Lacan, this critical stage in development takes place between six and eighteen months and is part of the identification process Jack may be a person that has separated from this stage with a sense of discord and a pervasive sense of uneasiness. Both Jack and Babette operate through a suppressed, silent, and overwhelming fear of death, and those they appear to be somewhat identical versions of each other they even both teach.
Both take radical steps to deal with their fear of death. In addition, they parent a child that seems to reach maturity as he patterns his behavior after the teaching activities of his parents.
Thus, not only to Babette and Heinrich mirror Jack through their attempts to teach, but they receive confirmation of their identity through these actions. The psychoanalytical approach leans heavily on the work of Freud, and he developed a theory that helped explain the difference between healthy and pathological versions of narcissism.
The former assists with the formation of the self and helps build functional relationships, while the latter destroys Freud , which is seen in the myth of the Greek hunter who drowns after falling in love with his reflection. It is this unhealthy type of narcissism that is seen not only as Jack watches students arrive at the college, but through many events and conversations. Jack imagines himself to be an important lecturer at the school, wearing sunglass to every lecture and changing his initials to appear important.
However, like his friend Murray, he seems to focus on triviality, such as the fact that Hitler took piano lessons, was a sketch artist, and had a close relationship with his mother DeLillo He even takes German lessons to prepare for a gathering of Hitler experts, but only masters enough of the language to deliver a prepared speech and then spends a significant amount of time hiding.
His professional identity is essentially a sham. Further, he has deluded himself into thinking that he can protect his family from the challenges of modern life. After the Airborne Toxic Event, Jack attempts to move his family to safety, and unwittingly exposes himself to a deadly chemical. He eventually learns that he was unable to provide his wife with the safe relationship that could protect her from her fear of death when she reveals she obtained an experimental drug.
Jack finds the man that gives her the drug, and believes that he has the right to shoot him. Although Jack decides to take the wounded man to a hospital, both of these actions are explained by his inflated ego. At first, he is a "punisher," and then he comes a "savior. On the surface, Jack and Babette appear to deal with their fatal fears successfully. However, both take drastic measures to deal with their fear: Babette trades sex with Willie Mink to obtain the drugs that mitigate her irrational fears, and at least part of the reason why Jack shoots Willie concerns his own fear of death.
But perhaps the fear of death is part of a larger concern of Jack and Babette Gladney that explains other actions: the fear of living a meaningless and trivial life, a fear most likely magnified by the tension that results from apparently misguided attempts at helping their community.
Babette volunteers in her community by teaching adult education lessons, but her classes focus on pedantic subjects like posture. Ultimately, the actions of both adults to attempt to lead meaningful lives appears frustrated. These fears could also be present in the mind of the author, and perhaps the novel represents a response to his own fear of death and related desire to avoid a meaningless and trivial life. Each of the elements can be found to a degree in the novel, and thus, the psychoanalytic approach appears to be suitable to an analysis of White Noise.
In the same way that the novel was viewed through the lens of the psychoanalytical approach, the deconstructionist approach will also be applied. The deconstructionist approach questions the ability of humanity to objectively know and communicate truth, and even suspects the prima facie intentions of the author, seeing in the text a complicated snapshot of the complex human experience.
Thus, this approach stems from the work of Nietzsche, and tends to take a critical view of the confidence in the human ability to understand and communicate universal truth. White noise Don DeLillo. Donate this book to the Internet Archive library. If you own this book, you can mail it to our address below. Borrow Listen. Want to Read. Download for print-disabled. Check nearby libraries Library. Share this book Facebook. Last edited by ImportBot.
August 12, History. An edition of White noise This edition was published in by Penguin Books in New York. Written in English — pages. The trials and tribulations of a profesor of Hitler studies. White Noise , Pan Macmillan.
Not in Library. Libraries near you: WorldCat. White Noise May 14, , Picador. Your Rating:. Your Comment:. Read Online Download. Great book, White Noise pdf is enough to raise the goose bumps alone. Add a review Your Rating: Your Comment:. Underworld by Don DeLillo.
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