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Chapter 29
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in White Noise, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fear, Death, and Control
Uncertainty and Authority
Consumer Culture and Identity
Plots and History
Summary
Analysis
In the middle of the night, Jack wakes Babette up and tells her that she must tell him about Mr. Gray. She refuses yet again, saying that Jack will surely succumb to his ingrained male impulse to kill Mr. Gray. She argues that men are subject to a “homicidal rage” that is in simply embedded in their nature. Later the next day, Jack tracks down Winnie Richards and tells her what Dylar does. In his conversation with her, they come to the conclusion that “fear is self-awareness raised to a higher level,” and that life wouldn’t be the same without it. Winnie also suggests that Dylar is merely a placebo.
If fear is self-awareness raised to a higher level, then Jack appears perfectly content to remain in ontological darkness. The problem, however, is that he harbors a cognitive dissonance wherein he recognizes the importance of fear—its ability to define life in the most beautiful ways—while wanting to banish it forever from his mind.
Themes
