Death and Dying in DeLillo's White NoiseAmong other things, Don DeLillo seems completely preoccupied with death and the arduous task of living with the knowledge of death in his novel White Noise. The acceptance of our finite and fragile existence over time is certainly not a phenomenon exclusive to a single civilization or historical era. Rather than discussing the inevitable mortality that connects all of humanity with broad, generalized traits, DeLillo is concerned with the particular (peculiar?) cultural and psychological mechanisms of the late 20th century that attempt to define, reformulate, or obscure the relationship between the self and death. Technology, he claims, has fostered a material culture of consumption, of insatiable appetites that both confirms and allows us to temporarily escape awareness of our mortality. "We have accepted to be part of a collective perception... To become a crowd is to keep death away. To free oneself from the crowd is to risk death as an individual, to face death alone" (12.73). Whether the dominant system is desirable or reprehensible, there seems to be an almost primordial need for structure of some kind. The human impulse to order, to “break things down,…to separate and classify,” as Babette says, is integral to the creation of an identity (192). Jack Gladney is, therefore, ironically a critic and a victim of this same dilemma. Technology distances Jack from death as well as life. The scientific method on which the technology is based begins with a fundamental assumption of objectivity. Remote observation is necessary to draw legitimate conclusions, to build knowledge of an "invisible... impressive... disturbing" truth (46). Jack's mind is attuned, sensitive... middle of paper... elf of past products and possessions that recall his previous or alternate identities. This residue of past lives drags him down and makes "escape impossible" (294). Jack seems unable or unwilling to distinguish himself from consumer culture, presenting the reader with the supermarket checkout line as a compelling metaphor for life and hope. "Here we don't die, we shop...This is the language of waves and radiation, or the way the dead speak to the living. And this is where we wait together, regardless of age, with our carts loaded with goods " (38.326). It seems to have found its demographic niche in the cosmic marketing scheme (50). Jack is therefore capable of criticism, but he is no less susceptible to the convenient fantasies and personal disappointments that surround us. Works Cited DeLillo, Don. White noise. New York: Penguin Books, 1985.