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Fear of Death in the Consumer Society

Author: ZhongZuo
Tutor: LiJin
School: Capital Normal University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: Consumer society fear of death technology religion medical care
CLC: I712.074
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2013
Downloads: 11
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Abstract


As one of the most influential novelists of contemporary American literature, Don Delillo is distinguished for his style and themes. Published in1985, White Noise won the National Book Award in1986. Set in American consumer society in the1980s, White Noise tells a story of a university professor Jack Gladney’s life of fearing about death. Known as "American’s Book of Death", White Noise is a book which collects Don Delillo’s thoughts about Death. This thesis examines the fear of death in White Noise from the perspective of Jean Baudrillard’s theory of consumer society and then reveals the disadvantages of the consumer society.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One introduces the literary value and the existing research on White Noise. The overseas and domestic critics have studied the characteristics of the consumer society and the protagonist’s resisting of his fear of death in White Noise.Chapter Two introduces the theoretical foundation of the thesis. A general introduction to Jean Baudrillard’s theory on the consumer society is given and the fear of death in White Noise’s consumer society is displayed.Chapter Three mainly researches Jack Gladney’s fear of death in the aspects of his domestic, academic and cultural life. Everything in the consumer society can be reduced to the objects for consumption, such as, marriages, academic researches and events.Chapter Four studies the measures taken by Jack Gladney to escape his fear of death. He tends to find solutions from technology, religion and doctors. However, science is a double-edged sword. While it brings people modern conveniences, it also endangers human’s existence. People’s religious faith is replaced by a shopping mania. Modern medical care can do nothing beneficial for people’s health; the traditional doctor-patient relationship has been reduced to a practice based on profit. Chapter Five concludes on the disadvantages of the consumer society by summarizing Jack Gladney’s behaviors of the fear of death and his measures in escaping his fear of death in the consumer society. The negative effects of science and technology have threatened people’s life security. Supermarkets and mass media have dominated people’s daily life. Individuals suffer from spiritual emptiness beneath material affluence. The variation of the doctor-patient relationship frightened people a lot. Don Delillo does not provide a solution to the crisis in the postmodern consumer society. Instead he suggests that both the writer and the readers need to make efforts to find a solution. However, the process of solution-seeking does stimulate people to explore various possibilities in reality.

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