The Theme Of Mortality And Death In Don Delillo's White Noise

Mortality is the characteristic of being able to die. The concept of mortality has caused various opinions concerning death to form for centuries. In Don Delillo’s White Noise, the themes of mortality and death are shown through the perspective of a man named Jack Gladney, the chairman of Hitler studies at a college. In White Noise, the theme of mortality develops as the story and plot progress. During the early parts of White Noise, mortality and death is portrayed as something that cannot be controlled. While answering a question about the plot to kill Adolf Hitler, Jack states that “All plots tend to move deathward. This is the nature of plots” (26). This shows that plots have a natural tendency to result in the loss of lives, despite …show more content…
incident, the theme of mortality develops into something that is overwhelming rather than uncontrollable. After being examined for his Nyodene D. exposure, Jack states that “Death has entered. It is inside you. You are said to be dying and yet are separate from the dying, can ponder it at your leisure...It makes you feel like a stranger in your own dying” (137). This shows that the idea that he is going to die makes him feel like a completely different person. Jack also states “I wanted my academic gown and dark glasses” (137), after his Nyodene D. exposure examination. When Jack goes to work, he wears an academic gown, dark glasses, and calls himself J.A.K. Gladney in order to seem like a person of “dignity, significance, and prestige” (17), but Jack sees himself as the “false character that follows the name around” (17). This indicates that Jack cannot face the idea of going to die, so he feels that he must play a false bravado in order to face his own mortality. After Jack tells Murray about his examination, Murray says that death “is growing in prestige and dimension... We know it intimately. But it continues to grow, to acquire breadth and scope, new outlets, new passages, and means. The more we learn, the more it grows... Every advance in knowledge and technique is matched by a new kind of death, a new strain. Death adapts, like a viral agent” (145). This indicates that death is overwhelming by nature as one it evolves and adapts with human …show more content…
While discussing mortality with Jack, Murray says “You could put your faith in technology. It got you here, it can get you out... It creates an appetite for immortality on one hand. It threatens universal extinction on the other” (272). Murray further portrays the idea of a controllable mortality when he says technology is “what we invented to conceal the terrible secret of our decaying bodies. But it’s also life, isn’t it? It prolongs life, it provides new organs for those that wear out” (272). This shows that death itself can be avoided with the use of technology. Another example is when Murray says “I believe, Jack, there are two kinds of people in the world. Killers and diers. Most of us are diers... We lie down and die. But think what it’s like to be a killer... If he dies, you cannot. To kill him is to gain life-credit. The more people you kill, the more credit you store up” (277). Murray also states that “The killer, in theory, attempts to defeat his own death by killing others. He buys time, he buys life... Be the killer for a change. Let someone else be the dier. Let him replace you, theoretically, in that role. You can’t die if he does. He dies, you live” (277). This shows that by theoretically being a “killer,” mortality and death can be controlled. Contrasting to Murray’s theory of “The more people you kill, the