Jack Gladney is the narrator and principal character of White Noise . Jack suffers from two linked fears: the fear of his own death, and the fear that he will be exposed as an essentially incompetent, insignificant man. As the chairman of Hitler studies at the College-on-the-Hill, Jack shrouds himself in the distinguished, stately trappings of ...
Jack Gladney teaches Hitler studies at the College-on-the-Hill. He is married to his fourth wife Babette, who reads tabloids to the blind and teaches posture classes to senior citizens. Together, they have four children, and a quirky extended family.
White Noise describes an academic year in the life of its narrator, Jack Gladney, a college professor in a small American town. The novel itself can be hard to follow, since Jack spends much of his time detailing seemingly inconsequential conversations, and several events in the novel have no direct impact on the action of the story.
Heinrich says that the burning chemical in the air is Nyodene Derivative, or Nyodene D., a toxic substance that causes lumps in rats. The radio has already listed nausea, skin irritation, and sweaty palms as potential symptoms of exposure.
Jack doesn't like the thought of dying because he's, y'know, human. So just imagine how he feels when he finds out he's been exposed to toxic cancer-causing gas. When Jack finds out that he's exposed himself to Nyodene D., he becomes obsessed with the fact that this chemical will eventually kill him.
Dylar is a fictional psychoactive drug that appears in Don DeLillo's novel White Noise. Dylar is intended to remove the fear of death. However, the drug does not work properly and extended use sometimes results in insanity. Extended users interpret spoken words and metaphor as actual actions and events.Sep 27, 2011
Jack describes the surging crowds who gathered on the occasion of Hitler's death. He argues that the crowds gathered not so much to honor Hitler, but simply to be a crowd. Losing one's individual identity in a crowd, Jack says, is a way of forming a shield against death. After this extended passage, the lecture ends.
Wilder. Babette's six-year-old son, and the youngest child in the family. Wilder never speaks in the novel, and periodically Jack worries about the boy's slow linguistic development. Nevertheless, in his wordlessness, he remains an essential source of comfort for both Jack and Babette.
White noise is also the name given to death itself, as Jack and Babette theorize that being dead is akin to being enveloped by an eternal buzz, uniform and toneless.
After undergoing a series of tests, the firm finally said the drug, Dylar, was too dangerous for human testing. Babette, however, made a private arrangement with the project manager—whom she refers to as “Mr. Gray”—and slept with him in order to obtain the drug.
Long before he actually appears in the text, we know of Willie Mink as Mr. Gray, the corrupt project manager behind the drug Dylar. Mink has been carrying on an affair with Babette, who believes Dylar can alleviate her overwhelming fear of dying.
Wilder is three years old, but he hasn't quite gotten the hang of talking yet.
True white noise is the hissy fizzing sound of all the frequencies that humans can hear being fired off randomly and at the same intensity. In recent years, numerous apps and devices have been developed that use it – or other “relaxing” sounds such as the hum of a fan or crashing waves – to help people fall asleep.Oct 18, 2020
White Noise begins in the suburb town of Blacksmith. Jack spends much time at his job at the college, 'The-College-On-The-Hill. ' The town of Blacksmith is a college town.
A simple example of white noise is a nonexistent radio station (static).
Babette evades both Denise’s and Jack’s inquiries, so Jack takes a pill to Winnie Richards, a scientist at College-on-the-Hill. After analyzing the pill, Winnie tells Jack that the drug is an incredibly advanced kind of psychopharmaceutical. Jack finally confronts Babette about the pills.
In return, Jack confesses to Babette about his fatal Nyodene D. exposure. His fear of death now greater than ever, Jack goes in search of Babette’s remaining Dylar pills, only to find that Denise has thrown them all away. Jack begins to have problems sleeping.
In tears, she tells him that Dylar is an experimental, unlicensed drug, which she believes can cure her of her obsessive fear of dying. In order to get samples of the drug, Babette admits to having had an affair with the Dylar project manager, a man she refers to only as Mr. Gray.
In an attempt to make it look like a suicide, Jack places the gun in Mink’s hand, only to be shot in the wrist by Mink a moment later. Overcome by a sense of humanity, Jack drives Mink to the nearest hospital—which is run by atheist German nuns—and saves his life. Jack returns home and watches the children sleep.
While at the evacuation camp, Jack learns that he’s been exposed to Nyodene D., a lethal chemical. The technician tells Jack that the chemical lasts thirty years in the human body and that in fifteen years they’ll be able to give him a more definitive answer about his chances for survival.
White Noise. White Noise describes an academic year in the life of its narrator, Jack Gladney, a college professor in a small American town. The novel itself can be hard to follow, since Jack spends much of his time detailing seemingly inconsequential conversations, and several events in the novel have no direct impact on the action of the story.
To his great shame, Jack can’t speak German, so when a Hitler conference gets scheduled at the College-on-the-Hill, Jack secretly begins taking German lessons.
The narrator of the novel, Jack Gladney, recites a litany of observations about the arrival of new students on the college campus where he teaches at the beginning of the fall semester. He focuses on the many items they bring, from blankets to stereos to computers to snacks. Jack muses that he's watched this ritual take place every fall for 21 years. He notes how similar and self-congratulatory (and wealthy: the husbands suggest "massive insurance coverage") all the parents seem to be.
The setting of White Noise is representative of many small college towns in the United States in the late 20th century. The school's name, the College-on-the-Hill, deliberately evokes the image of the "city on a hill," a phrase from the biblical gospels that became the Puritan metaphor for an ideal city.