The Fight For The First Place: Jack Gladney Versus The TV
The Fight for the First Place: Jack Gladney Versus the TV
First published in 1985, Don DeLillo’s White Noise is a postmodern critique describing a journey through contemporary America. The main protagonist of the novel is Jack Gladney, who is a chairman of the department of Hitler studies that he invented; however, he essentially is a fake and has to daily conceal the fact that he does not know German tongue, when his colleagues know at least some. The second, and less evident, protagonist of the story is the TV set. DeLillo’s references to television never cease to exist throughout the novel, underlining the importance and grip television began to have over people’s lives. TV fakeness Thus, the TV set’s status of importance, influence, and deceit is equivalent to that of Jack Gladney’s.
From the moment of its invention, television dominated Americans’ lives: families changed and adapted their daily schedules around their favorite television programs, including moving from dinner tables in front of the television, and even sleeping with the TV on. In White Noise, the TV set is personified and becomes its own character with its own voice, “The TV said…;” what the television said is completely irrelevant (as are many conversations between the …show more content…
I went in and turned off the set. She was asleep in a drift of blankets…” (249). According to Robert Liebert et al., in their book The Early Window: Effects of Television on Children and Youth, the average child spends more time watching television during his first 15 years, than going to school. Not surprisingly, this glamorous and narcotic effect of the television can be noticed more in children, and affect their still developing psyche. When Jack Gladney watches his daughter Steffie, he hears her
First published in 1985, Don DeLillo’s White Noise is a postmodern critique describing a journey through contemporary America. The main protagonist of the novel is Jack Gladney, who is a chairman of the department of Hitler studies that he invented; however, he essentially is a fake and has to daily conceal the fact that he does not know German tongue, when his colleagues know at least some. The second, and less evident, protagonist of the story is the TV set. DeLillo’s references to television never cease to exist throughout the novel, underlining the importance and grip television began to have over people’s lives. TV fakeness Thus, the TV set’s status of importance, influence, and deceit is equivalent to that of Jack Gladney’s.
From the moment of its invention, television dominated Americans’ lives: families changed and adapted their daily schedules around their favorite television programs, including moving from dinner tables in front of the television, and even sleeping with the TV on. In White Noise, the TV set is personified and becomes its own character with its own voice, “The TV said…;” what the television said is completely irrelevant (as are many conversations between the …show more content…
I went in and turned off the set. She was asleep in a drift of blankets…” (249). According to Robert Liebert et al., in their book The Early Window: Effects of Television on Children and Youth, the average child spends more time watching television during his first 15 years, than going to school. Not surprisingly, this glamorous and narcotic effect of the television can be noticed more in children, and affect their still developing psyche. When Jack Gladney watches his daughter Steffie, he hears her