Broadcasted Reality; Brought to You by White Noise

 9 November 2017

Broadcasted Reality; Brought to You by White Noise 

Television is constantly impacting the lives of individuals, and society as a whole. Television is similar to white noise, always there and affecting people, but rarely noticed for what it is doing. The symbol of television is particularly prevalent in the novel, White Noise. In White Noise, characters interact with television in nearly every chapter, and the book itself is set up as a television show.  Television represents a blending of reality and artificiality. DeLillo shows this through the interactions characters have with the Television and their desperate need for televised acknowledgment. The characters react to television as though it is a separate reality, and thus television represents a blurred contrast between what is real and what is fiction.

DeLillo depicts the displacement between reality and fiction based on television through Babbete’s appearance on television. The Gladneys respond to seeing Babbette on television as though Babbette is actually on the television. They are so entranced with the reality of the Television they react as though Babbette is in a different dimension. Television acts as a separate reality, and the Gladneys can’t comprehend that television is part of their world. Jack questioned her presence on the screen, “What did it mean? What was she doing there, in black and white, framed in formal borders?”(50). He had difficulty comprehending how Babbette was on television. 

After a careful analysis of the situation, Jack still had difficulty comprehending the separation between the reality within the television and the reality in his own life. Jack cannot connect the Babbete in the television to the Babbette in his life. He indicates this by saying, “That’s her alright, the face, ... but her appearance on the screen made me think of her as some distant figure from the past”(50).  Even after the other Gladneys came to their senses, Wilder was still being affected by the television. The small boy remained at the television set, "within inches of the dark screen, crying softly, uncertain, in low heaves and swells," as Murray took notes (51). Wilder believed that since the television was shut off, his mother was gone. Through Wilder’s response, the television depicts a blurred contrast between the reality of his mother being okay and far away and the artificiality of his mother being gone because the television image of her was shut off. 

Steffy Gladney has trouble differentiating true people and fictitious, televised ones as well. Through her responses to the behaviors of television characters,  the television represents Steffy’s misunderstanding of who is real. Jack Gladney described her as “[becoming] upset every time something shameful or humiliating seemed about to happen to someone on the screen.”(13) Steffy felt such deep empathy for these characters because she was unable to see them as fictitious. For her, what happened on the television was real. Television has caused the Gladney’s to have lost their ability to differentiate between television and reality.

This loss of senses is pointed out by Murray. As an outsider to the Gladney family, Murray is able to observe and analyze the Gladneys’ relationship with their television. Murray acknowledges how television has warped the mind to constantly soak up consumerism and false news as though everything said was a reality. Murray says that television is “like something we know in a dreamlike and preconscious way”(28). Murray is describing how people view television similarly to how they view dreams. People often find it difficult to be aware that dreams are not real. 

Murray says that television affects people through waves and radiation, numbing the senses to realism. He teaches his students to be aware of what television represents and says that “television is a problem only if you’ve forgotten how to look and listen”(50). By this, Murray means that to prevent the merging of televised reality and the reality a person is living in, one must be aware of how the television affects you and what television represents. In all of Murray’s interactions with television, Murray indicates how television is a representation of false reality and its emergence with the truth. Ironically, his students are still affected by television, despite their rejection. Murray says his students are “ashamed of their television past. They want to talk about movies" (28). Even those who disown television, are still absorbed by the waves and radiation of pictures on a screen. 

During the airborne toxic event, there is a man complaining about the lack of media coverage. He is almost implying that if the event is not televised, it is not important; not real. By saying, “Are they telling us it was insignificant, it was piddling?”(74), the man is pointing out that events are only seen as significant if they are televised. The man also shows how everything really is thought to be televised. He questions whether or not the airborne toxic event is seen as real by saying, “Don't they know it's real? Shouldn't the streets be crawling with cameramen and soundmen and reporters?”(74) The man unwittingly describes how reality and fiction are blended through the images on a screen. television signifies how things that are broadcasted are the only things seen as true and important, the reality of a situation is lost as a result.  

It seems as though no one can escape what television represents, a muddling of the ideas of reality and artificiality. The reactions to television show how the characters see a blurry line separating reality and artificiality. Babbette’s television appearance shows how the Gladneys see the television as a separate dimension, and that the reality of her existence is within the television. Mr. Gray’s existence shows how television is seen as a separate reality. The symbol of television is even acknowledged through Murray’s speech to Jack. television causes people to become immune to the idea of death. By seeing death as both fact and fiction through the same medium, people are led to feel the same way towards both types of death. The reaction of the characters to television shows that television represents a distortion of the perception of reality and fiction.