Videotape Don Delillo Analysis

In a writing piece, close reading of the text is crucial for understanding what it is the author is trying to imply. In the short story “Videotape,” by Don DeLillo, a little girl is in the back of a car filming a man in the car behind her. As she is filming, the man is shot out of nowhere and the girl caught the whole thing on tape. The video is being watched by a man in his living room who is pleading for his wife to come watch the film with him. DeLillo uses literary techniques such as imagery, point of view, mood, and repetition to suggest humanity has become so desensitized to murder, it begins to intrigue us. The imagery DeLillo uses in this piece supports the argument that humans have become insensitive to tragedy. After the man is shot, DeLillo says; “You don’t see the blood, which is probably trickling behind his ear and down the back of his neck” (DeLillo 62). By the way this is written, it almost seems as if …show more content…
DeLillo continues to say “It shows” or “It is” at the beginning of multiple paragraphs. This makes the piece very easy for the reader to understand what is happening, the clarity of the words DeLillo uses makes the buildup of suspense that much greater. If he were to use confusing, long-winded phrases he would lose the reader and the suspense all together. DeLillo speaks of a gunman before the reader knows that the man is shot. This causes the reader to pay more attention and become more intrigued to what is about to happen in the story. He says “Here it comes…Now here is where he gets hit” (DeLillo 61). The reader is waiting impatiently for something big to finally happen and then it all happens at once, the man is shot and DeLillo finally gives the reader some information about the Texas Highway killer. The suspense that was built up for this scene, made the impact on the reader that much more