The Loud Noise
Postmodern is defined as certain tendencies in post World War II Literature. Similar to modernist, the postmodernist concept relies heavy on fragmentation, paradox, and questionable narrators. It coincides with meta narrative and little narrative being characterized by the rise of industry, technology, urbanization, and the belief of no absolute truth. In this context, the stance of the characters in White Noise, moral ambivalence as well as discussing the characters moral choices in relation with man’s “death fear”, and the artificial relief provided by the never ending technological process which are slightly referred to as moral ambivalence. ‘Death fear’ and the ‘ technological process are conveyed as the extension of man’s pursing a concrete life in today’s world where man faces various unexpected problems he is unable to deal with, since they don’t fit the patterns of the rationalist order and reason. Don Delillo uses his own narrative technique and expresses with a specific sense of humor, mans disappointment of being left helpless and alone despite the “Grand Narratives of the Era”.
Even early as Chapter six Jack infers, “Mans guilt in history and in the tides of his own blood has been complicated by technology, the daily sleeping falsehearted death. At the beginning of Chapter 6, Jack considers his son’s premature hair loss and wonders if he or Heinrich’s mother might be responsible for their son’s thinning hair, by having unwittingly consumed toxic foods or raising the boy in the proximity of industrial waste. Jack begins with a specific, particular observation but soon brings the problem of Heinrich’s thinning hair into a wider, universal context. Heinrich’s relatively insignificant hair loss illustrates the novel’s greater concern with the way technology has unwittingly changed fundamental aspects of life. Jack’s individual genes might be responsible for Heinrich’s balding, but, given the pervasiveness of chemicals in the modern world, it’s impossible to determine who or what, exactly, is at fault. Man’s culpability is no longer obvious in many situations, since to some degree technology has begun to operate outside of man’s control. Technology has not only blurred the lines between what we are and are not accountable for, but it has also eroded away, like Heinrich’s hairline, some essential part of our lives. This passage sets the stage for the airborne toxic event and for Jack’s eventual confrontation with his own technologically induced death, Nyodene D. This passage represents a few of several themes that represent ‘post-modernism’, underground conspiracies, and the role of technology expansion in it.

Additionally another theme streaming in Post-Modernism and throughout the text besides death is consumerism, and media saturation which is ever-present towards the end of chapter ten. Jack says, “The system was invisible, which makes it all the more impressive, all the more disquieting to deal with but we were in accord, at least for now. The networks, circuits, streams, and the harmonies.” At the close of Chapter 10, Jack goes to an ATM and finds that the bank computer corroborates his personal accounting. For Jack, this represents a significant victory, arrived at by hard work and good fortune. The vast, complicated network of technology that underlies everything from the supermarket scanners to the ATM machines has, to some degree, validated Jack and his sense of personal identity. The data have told him that he is indeed who he thinks he is. The value Jack places on such a seemingly small thing reflects both the importance of numbers and technology in defining identity, as well as Jack’s deep-seated insecurity about what that identity is. He seeks confirmation wherever he can, and if the ATM can confer a temporary sense of security, then he is all the happier and stronger for it. However, the quote also hints that this accord won’t always be the case, and that at some point in the future, the networks and the technology they represent will turn against Jack.
Don DeLillo has published thirteen novels since 1971, along with several plays and numerous stories. I believe he is one of the most distinctive and interesting American writers of our day (not to mention that he can be very funny). His sentences are utterly his own. That’s why this is a definitive postmodern novel.

Works Cited
Don Delillo, White Noise
Class Notation
http://www.perival.com/delillo/ddbiblio.html.