Author and activist, Bryant H. Mc Gill, once said, “The folly of endless consumerism sends us on a wild goose-chase for happiness through materialism.” In Don DeLillo’s novel, White Noise, characters Jack Gladney and Babette, often seek comfort and security in the supermarket. For them it is an escape from their ever-present fear of death. Through triptychs and sight imagery, DeLillo highlights how consumerism is used as a tool to ward-off and protect against death.
Frequently, DeLillo uses triptychs, or groups of threes, to disrupt Jack’s thoughts on death and emphasize consumerism’s role in protecting against death. The recurring question, “Who will die first” (100), often haunts Jack. When Jack thinks about Babette’s want to die first, DeLillo interrupts Jack’s thought with “MasterCard, Visa, American Express” (100). This group of three stands alone, bringing emphasis to them. The repeating, almost chanting structure, of the list of credit cards seem to bring tranquility to Jack, as his mind races with the thought of death. By writing a standalone triptych,…show more content… DeLillo states, “The supermarket shelves have been rearranged. It happened one day without warning. There is agitation and panic in the aisles, dismay in the faces of older shoppers” (325). Instead of creating tranquility and protecting against death, the newly arranged shelves frighten and confuse shoppers. Just like death this happened without warning, causing alarm in the shoppers. Not even the safe haven of the supermarket can protect the shoppers, or Jack, from death. Instead the supermarket is “where [they] wait together, regardless of age, [their] carts stocked with brightly colored goods” (326). It is a consumer purgatory where shoppers spend in hopes to prolong life, when in actuality it only devalues their quality of life. Instead of making a difference, the shoppers are lulled into the store for mindless
