An Interpretation Of Existentialism In White Noise

Being one of the representatives of the postmodern American writers, Don Delillo gained public attention immediately after publishing his eighth novel White Noise. Meanwhile he was awarded the National Book Award for his "breakout book"—White Noise. White Noise is generally recognized as the classic of the postmodernism. Through the author’s acute observation of the contemporary American society, White Noise depicts the life of the postmodern American people who is surrounded by the flood of consumerism, technology as well as mass media and points out the embarrassment, perplexity and helplessness of postmodern American people. This thesis analyzes the absurd world and human beings’absurd behaviors in White Noise as well as mankind’s unremitting efforts to get rid of their absurd living environment by applying the theory of existentialism and then point out the main idea of existential thought lies in White Noise. Mankind should break out of the restrictions of the world to seek for the very meaning of life.This thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its main contents are as follows:The first part is introduction, which makes a brief summary of Don Delillo’s major works, literary criticism, the current research and study conducted on White Noise as well as the research direction and significance of this paper.The second part is the main body, which is made up of four chapters:Chapter One introduces the theoretical basis of the thesis, existentialism. In addition, the influence of the theory of existentialism on the author will be analyzed. White Noise is Don Delillo’s most successful novel, which earns him the reputation of the most outstanding postmodern writers in contemporary America. The concrete meaning of white noise could be understood as mankind’s cry to relieve their fear of death in a subtle way and the profound impact of mass media cast upon people’s mind. Though the plot of White Noise is merely a plain description of the daily activities of the Gladneys, it encompasses serious and profound meaning in general, that is, though the world is absurd, mankind should endeavor to break out of the restrictions to find the real meaning of life.Chapter Two analyzes one of the important ideas of existentialism, the absurdity of the world. This chapter is made up of two parts. The first part introduces an absurd world manipulated by science and technology. In such a world, people are besieged by such social problems as postmodern waste, consumer culture, supermarket culture and so on, gradually becoming numb and indifferent. The second part presents human beings’ absurd behaviors under the impact of modern technology. Human beings succumb to the sophisticated technology and behave ridiculously. People become restless and anxious, losing their spiritual independence step by step.Chapter Three lays its focus on the protagonists’experience in an absurd world. As the main male and female characters of the novel, Jack and Babette have their own psychological problems and they experience quite an absurd world in the novel. They resort to different measures to get rid of their spiritual confusion. However, after a series of ridiculous activities, both of them come to realize that no matter how hard they try to get rid of the impact and pressure imposed by diversified social problems, the efforts made by them all end up with no result.Chapter Four introduces another important idea of existentialism, freedom of choice. This chapter analyzes the free choice and attempts made by human beings to rescue themselves. The characters in White Noise would like to rescue themselves by resorting to mass media and religion. Mankind takes mass media as the authoritative voice in their daily life in the hope of building their self-image and gaining self-confidence. In addition, human beings turn to religion to seek for consolation and salvation. However, in postmodern era, religion exists on the superficial level and can only push them even nearer darkness and hollowness.The last part is the conclusion, which makes a summary to the previous chapters and points out the purpose of the thesis. Through the existentialist interpretation of White Noise, this thesis aims to reveal the impact of consumer culture and media culture on mankind and to awaken postmodern people who is besieged by an absurd world to let them not puzzled by diversified social problems. Instead, mankind should make unremitting effort and choices to break out of the restrictions of the objective world and seek for the very meaning of life and rediscover the beauty of life.