Mode: Postmodern Literature Two Examples Term Paper

The second half, entitled "Airborne Toxic Event, however, serves the role of criticizing the reality of American society and the result of its obsession with consumerism. In the second half, a chemical spill releases a mysterious airborne toxic event over Jack's home area, requiring everyone to evacuate. This event forces Jack to confront his own mortality and society's general fear of death and how it attempts to prevent death through chemical cures which in fact may ultimately cause death. In the book, Jack actually buys Dylar, a drug that promises to cure the fear of death.

Even the title White Noise is symbolic of the distortion of the truth and the end of the American Dream.It summarizes the novel's message that such obsessions as consumerism, media saturation, faux intellectualism, conspiracies have all led to the disintegration of American society by making it impossible for an individual to discover their own identity.

Both novels are sharp criticisms of the disillusionment of society's sense of reality. Instead of the reality of the American Dream so vibrant during the 1960s, today that reality has been distorted to such a point that a majority of us believe the real dream is to consume as much as possible.

Bibliography

Bartes, Roland. The Death of the Author. 1977.

DeLillo, Don. White Noise. New York: Penguin Group, 1986.

Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas,.....