White Noise 2/2

            Death takes many shapes and forms in White Noise. It is even postulated that death is white noise itself, which I accept as the true definition. White Noise establishes something else about death though, in the second half; death is a positive thing. Jack and Babette disagree with this opinion and cannot get over their fear of death, but hearing the positive opinion of death definitely helps Jack.

            Jack and Babette discuss their intolerable paranoia of death and assert it as loud. “‘What if death is nothing but sound?’ ‘Electrical noise.’ ‘You hear it forever. Sound all around. How awful.’ ‘Uniform, white.’ ‘Sometimes it sweeps over me,’ she said. ‘Sometimes it insinuates itself into my mind, little by little…” (198-199) Their death is like their routine lives, boring and slightly terrifying.

Death =

            Winnie takes a different approach with death. Winnie believes that people need death, that death makes life precious. “I don’t know what your personal involvement is with this substance, … but I think it’s a mistake to lose one’s sense of death, even one’s fear of death. Isn’t death the boundary we need? Doesn’t it give a precious texture to life, a sense of definition? You have to ask yourself whether anything you do in this life would have beauty and meaning without the knowledge you carry a final line, a border or limit.” (228-229) Winnie gives new perspective to Jack, and Murray only reinforces this positive perspective.

Winnie's Personal Philosophy, Maybe?

            Murray shares Winnie’s belief that death brings a certain preciousness to life. “‘Doesn’t our knowledge of death make life more precious?’ ‘What good is a preciousness based on fear and anxiety? It’s an anxious quivering thing.’” (284) Murray relinquishes Jack’s fear of death by convincing him to fight to survive, become a killer instead of a dier.

            Jack accomplishes just this as he attempts the murder of his wife’s adulterer, but soon reaches a higher level of sophistication as he saves the man’s life. Jack has learned his lesson about life; death.

There is a fine line between Life and Death. Sometimes that line is blurred. Jack accomplishes this fuzzy perspective. Way to go, Jack.