earticle

영어

The purpose of this paper is to identify DeLillo’s consciousness of environmental crisis by analyzing White Noise with an emphasis on the major characters’s paranoia of death. The novel consists of three parts as follows: “Waves and Radiation,” “The Airborne Toxic Event” and “Dylarama.” First, in Part 1 DeLillo shows us the post-modern environment full of multiple environment risks caused by waves and radiation. The protagonist Jack and his wife Babette are obsessed by the paranoia of death because of multiple environmental risks. Second, in Part II the chemical toxic event becomes the most crucial of risks that drives Jack to the fear of death. Jack’s concern about death is transformed into the simulation of computer data. Third, in Part III Dylar is an experimental drug derived from another chemical substance which lessens the fears of death. So Babette has obtained the drug to suppress the fear of death. Nevertheless, she suffers from the loss of memory because of the side effects of this pill. In view of above results, I insist that the novel is an excellent environmental text in post-modern society in that various environmental risks revealed in White Noise create a moral climate that contributes to solving environmental problems.