Consumerism And Its Effects On Contemporary American Society:

Don DeLillo (1936-) is a famous postmodern American novelist, a social critic and cultural anatomist of contemporary America. So far DeLillo has published more than 10 novels, some of which are political. Because of the biting social criticism in his novels. DeLillo receives both harsh criticism and lavish praise from critics. George Will charges him with literary vandalism and bad citizenship. Jonathan Yardley regards him as a pamphleteer and dismisses the characters in the novels as puppets, existing to parrot DeLillo's own ideas. There are also more other critics who appreciate DeLillo's efforts and defend his political themes. Diane Johnson compares him to Dickens while Lentricchia thinks DeLillo belongs to the great tradition of Emerson, Thoreau, and Twain, who wrote savage critiques of America and now conservatives say best embody American values.White Noise, DeLillo's eighth novel, winner of the National Book Award in 1985. is a story that centers on the first-person narrator. Jack Gladney, and his family that live in an American town. It is a satire of the consumerist society, a criticism of American culture. Jack is a distinguished professor of Hitler Studies in an American college. But he does not feel safe in this position. He worries about his academic reputation, because as an expert in Hitler Studies, he does not know German. His wife Babette stays at home, taking care of six children from their previous marriages. The Gladneys and other people in Blacksmith live lives surrounded by white noise: the radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, the tabloids and TV babbles. The society in White Noise is one that advocates an ever-increasing level of consumption, and equates such consumption with personal well-being, economic progress and social fulfillment. In order to stimulate consumption every possible tool of propaganda like television, radio, and newspaper is exploited in the media-saturated society. Among different forms of media, television has proved to be the most effective tool for promoting consumerism. Television has penetrated most households and become a selling machine in the home: with advertising and programs showing lifestyles awash with products to whet the appetites of viewers for consumer bliss. Mass media benumbs the brain, and controls the mind with overwhelming commercial messages like Hitler. False needs are promoted to keep the system going and lock people into the materialistic realm for control and profit. In the shopping mall there can be heard commercial babbles from media. In the home there are bombardments of advertisements from television, radio, tabloids, and magazines. Shopping in the mall is like watching television whereas watching television is like shopping in the mall. Consumers are surrounded by brightly colored packages, high-tech products, and various consumer promises. No one can escape consumerism. Everyone is turned into a consumer through the manipulation of mass media. Even the high-cultural Jack finallysurrenders to consumerism and mass culture. White Noise ends with Jack and his family doing shopping in a supermarket where, regardless of age, people wait together, their carts stocked with brightly colored goods, at the terminals "equipped with holographic scanners, which decode the binary secret of every item, infallibly." (DeLillo, 326)In the consumerist society it is believed that consumerism provides the good life and personal fulfillment. But White Noise shows that it is not necessarily the case. Social problems of all sorts have proliferated. Fear, loneliness, emptiness, madness, and violence are widespread. What sort of a society is it that brainwashes people with consumer values? Media distracts people from values of life that do not involve buying and consuming products. Society is dominated by junk culture. Take a look at the station wagons of Jack's students, who come back to the campus after their summer holidays. The children of Jack and Babette from their previous marriages are TV addicts. They are greatly i...