A Death Fable:

Some critics complain that Don DeLillo is a serious and disturbing writer whotended to nakedly expose to the public the unpleasant and horrible scenes of murder,assassination, conspiracy, disaster and political machinations. Since its publication,his eighth novel White Noise has shocked the public with its subject of death anddisaster, aroused considerable controversy among critics, and was for a long timeconsidered to be a disturbing product. Although White Noise has gained great successand won the National Book Award, some critics still cannot forgive his explicit andterrifying description of death in the novel.In White Noise, DeLillo depicts in a vivid and detailed way people’s state ofliving under the control of simulacra in the postmodern American consumer society:living in a world dominated by simulations, people are scared to find that they havelost their authentic selfhood and are tortured by omnipresent fear of death. Peoplestruggle desperately to eliminate their fear of death, only to find that all their effortsare destined for death. As a result, people suffer from serious spiritual crisis and seemto understand that no one can escape death: their whole life is a death fable.DeLillo’s terrific description of death in White Noise acts as a wake-up call on thespiritually lost people and forces them to think deeply about their present livingcondition so as to break the society’s control of their mind.Based on the intensive reading of White Noise, this paper studies postmodernAmerican people’s spiritual crisis through Jean Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra andsimulation. In White Noise, Don DeLillo’s penetrating analysis of people’s collectivestate of mind shows their spiritual crisis in the postmodern American society wherehuman identities are increasingly encroached, leading to an all-pervasive fear ofdeath, and ultimately to severe spiritual crisis. DeLillo’s critical description ofcontemporary consumer society reflects his deep concern about human being’sideology and their living situations. However, DeLillo did not offer the public any route out of their spiritual crisis.Maybe he just deliberately left an open ending as a warning that unless human couldbreak the constraint of simulacra manipulation, the American society wouldgradually head towards death; or perhaps the only route lies in human’s finalacceptance of death.