Sarcasm and Displacement of the Supermarkets in White Noise

Throughout the novel White Noise, Don DeLillo uses dark and biting humor and subtle displacement to contrast the harsh reality of his characters lives. The sarcasm exists in the idea that the supermarkets help the characters cope with the world around them. The displacement that DeLillo implies is the disillusion and disconnection of characters to each other. The disconnectedness of Jack, his family, and Wilder help set the unique theme and understanding of the novel throughout the supermarket scenes. The humor also sets the tone for the novel, allowing the readers to understand and engage in topics such as adultery, death and Nazism. From cover to cover, DeLillo uses irony and displacement, through the supermarket, to juxtapose the anxieties that surround his characters.

Television, drugs, relationships, tabloids and supermarkets are icons of postmodern life that help subdue the reality around Jack and his friends and family. All these aspects offer a sense of control and immorality in a world full of fears and chaos. Of these, supermarkets are inevitably essential to understanding the novel as a whole.

DeLillo uses all of these random aspects of everyday l

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(309) DeLillo pokes fun at society through his supermarket scenes. DeLillo uses young Wilder to establish the role that society has on people. If everyone is the exact same nothing would drive you to be different because your world is comfortable and reliable. ” (164) Wilder isn’t attracted to these items for any specific reason, like his mother, father and Murray are, he only sees them as objects because of his young age of four. Wilder does not conform to this notion. He is a young child growing up without television and without the influences and desires the media brings. The humor that DeLillo uses, I felt, is crucial because it allowed him to speak more openly about drugs, Nazism and family relationships that are so screwy in this novel. When it is all turned around it places them in panic. While in Jacks cart, Wilder reaches for items whose “shape and radiance excited his system of sensory analysis. People are influenced and trained to act a certain way due to television. ife, especially supermarkets to poke fun at the complexity of the Gladney family life. I think that DeLillo uses Wilder to serve as a neutral disposition to the other characters whether they realize it or not at the supermarket. ” This sudden change has set the shoppers in panic. The supermarket serves as the insight into the world of the characters. In Blacksmith, the town where the book occurs, the people are influenced by the media through news, commercials and shows.

Approximate Word count = 1309
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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