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Allusions
Key Examples in White Noise
Chapter 18
Explanation and Analysis—Transcendental Meditation:
In Chapter 18, at the airport in Iron City to pick up his daughter Bee, Jack asks a stranger about the story of a flight that had nearly crashed before landing safely. A passenger recounts how the pilot spoke with shocking calmness while the situation in the flight became ever more dire; this contradiction creates situational irony:
This is American two-one-three to the cockpit voice recorder. Now we know what it’s like. It is worse than we’d ever imagined. They didn’t prepare us for this at the death simulator in Denver. Our fear is pure, so totally stripped of distractions and pressures as to be a form of transcendental meditation. In less than three minutes we will touch down, so to speak. They will find our bodies in some smoking field, strewn about in the grisly attitudes of death. I love you, Lance.
Related Themes:
Chapter 33
Explanation and Analysis—A Natural Thing:
In Chapter 33, Jack unexpectedly finds Vernon Dickey, Babette's father, sitting in the backyard near the freeway. After some conversation about Vernon's obvious poor health, the old man gives a monologue in which he tells his daughter all the reasons why she doesn't need to worry about him. He has no fear of death whatsoever, which makes him a foil to Jack and Babette:
Unlock with LitCharts A+People my age limp. A limp is a natural thing at a certain age. Forget the cough. It’s healthy to cough. You move the stuff around. The stuff can’t harm you as long as it doesn’t settle in one spot and stay there for years. So the cough’s all right. [...] Forget the mind completely. The mind goes before the body. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. So don’t worry about the mind. The mind is all right. Worry about the car. The steering’s all awry. The brakes were recalled three times. The hood shoots up on pothole terrain.
Related Themes:
