Living In The Chink Of Death

White Noise is a classic novel written by Don DeLillo, which has been well acclaimed since its publication and helps its author win the National Book Award in 1985. It is about the daily life and a special accident experience of the Gladney family, the father, Jack, the mother, Babette and their four children. This novel is of not many plots but is mostly of the conversations on different scenes and of their daily experience. Probing into the daily experiences and some opinions of the characters, readers could find out that this novel is a vivid reflection of an American society in the postmodern society, where people are under the influences of many prevailing thoughts. This may explain why the novel is well received among the public.As the book's early title is "The American Book of Dead", it suggests that this book deals mainly with the basic philosophical meditation of human beings-the fear of death. Living in the contemporary society where people can get almost everything from the supermarket and have most of the desires satisfied, they still have to conquer the fear of death just as their primitive ancestors did thousands of years ago. And in this novel, the author displays the characters'fear of death with great efforts. The topic of death always emerges without any forebodings and is sometimes embedded irrelevantly in different episodes.At the same time, it is quite obvious that this work is full of consumption scenes. Consumption, more than the traditional one, constitutes a great part of the characters'lives. So many critics analyze it from the consumption theories. If we delve into the motives of consumption, it could be found out that there is some link between such activity and the fear of death.And this thesis holds the viewpoint that in White Noise consumption is a way for the characters to avoid the fear of death. The characters try their best to evade the fear of death through indulging themselves in the activity of consumption. However, they can not get rid of such fear which is embedded in the texture of human beings with the help of consumption. The only way is to accept it and live composedly with the knowledge of the final ending of one's life.This thesis consists of three parts. Chapter one deals with the viewpoints on the fear of death from the perspectives of Ernst Becker in his book Denial of Death and the frequent emergence of fear of death in this novel. Human beings believe that they, as a form of advanced existence, are almost as holy as the gods in the world, standing high above all other creatures. But their corporeal existence confuses them by the inevitable advent of death. And in this novel, the protagonist, Jack, and his wife refer to the topic of death frequently. The relevant topic with death emerges from time to time and cannot be avoided.Chapter two discusses means of alleviating the fear of death in this novel, consumption of goods, academic studies and religion, love and technology. Different forms of consumption, the consumption of goods, of academic studies and even religion provide a sense of power and control over one's life and offer the consumers identities which they are denied in their lives. In the process of consumption, they feel full and gain a sense of control to fight against the feeling of helplessness at the presence of death. Love, parallel with sex, becomes another source of power for people to fight against the power of the fear of death. As a symbol of being perfect, one will be as holy as the religious icon in the eyes of his or her lover so that he or she would be taken as somebody aloft to provide certainty and be a measure against the unsatisfying reality. Besides, technology, which is supposed to provide a scientific explanation for everything, becomes another source of certitude. But these means are of unsolvable problems.Chapter three deals with the hyper reality created by these problems, which worsens the situation of the characters and becomes the roots of the problems for them in the novel. They are not purchasing for the use value of the commodities but for the signs carried by the products, in which way they are deprived of their subjectivity. In consumption of goods and academic studies, they are consuming signs for the sake of the signs taken by these goods during the symbolic consumption in a hyper real world. They are not themselves as before but are a combination of these signs. The hyper reality created by abundance and signs take the place of the real world. Besides, technology imposes the separation between death and individual with the promise of immortality and the camera eye, depriving them of the most human elements which distinguish human from other animals. And the spreading effect of media makes it more important to be recorded by media than to live by oneself. The power of media serves as an example of the hyper reality created by technology in this novel.In conclusion, it is pointed out that all these means with the help of external forces are doomed. Consumption of goods, academic studies and religion, or technology, or the power of love will not solve fear of death once for all because these means are not solving problems from their roots which are deep in the heart of human beings. The solution lies still in the inner world of human beings, which is to accept the fear of death and the finitude of life.