Paula Geyh writes that “the term [postmodernism] is used by so many people in such disparate ways, that it seems to mean or describe almost everything – and as a result, some would say critiques of postmodernism mean nothing” (1-2). Although the postmodern perspective is indeed difficult to pin down, its voice is clear in the novel White Noise. The postmodern perspective is illustrated in the novel White Noise by Don DeLillo. In many ways, the novel is a depiction of the "traditional", symbolized by the protagonist Jack Gladney, struggling against the "postmodern", or almost everyone and everything else in his world. Geyh continues: “Don DeLillo’s novels…are remarkable for their ability to depict the often harrowing ‘realities’ of the postmodern world” (13). For Jack, these realities include family struggles, strange drugs, and an "airborne toxic event" in his hometown. As the title indicates, White Noise therefore seems to be less interested in events or people (the signal) than in the space that separates them (the white noise). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay While Jack is uncomfortable navigating the postmodern environment of SIMUVAC teams and Dylar pills, his fourteen-year-old son Heinrich seems to thrive there. Heinrich is happy to play mail chess with a convicted felon from the state penitentiary or support a friend in his training efforts to lock up with venomous snakes. Instead of being lost in the postmodern world like Jack or afraid of it like Babette, Heinrich seems to be an embodiment of Lyotard's notion of the postmodern in that he is not "governed by pre-established rules...and cannot be judged according to a determining judgment… These rules and categories are what… [he] seeks” (1423). Although Delillo fills his novel with creative, concrete images of postmodern concepts, one of the most deliberate is "the most photographed barn in the world." During Jack and fellow Professor Murray's visit from College-on-the-Hill, Murray comments that tourists are "taking pictures after taking pictures" (13). He states, “Once you see the signs for the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn” (12). According to Lee Spinks, “two modern theories of meaning – structuralism and post-structuralism… have had a profound influence on Lyotard’s view of the ‘postmodern’” (4). This simulacrum crowded with tourists where the signifier takes precedence over the signified is an example of Lyotard's postmodernism and reflects his important links with structuralism. Laura Barrett writes that “the disconnect between signifier and signified [is] clearly demonstrated in the conversations between the narrator, Jack Gladney, and his son, Heinrich” (97). Structuralism notes this detachment between the two parts of the sign as well as the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign. According to Saussure, the signifier “has no natural link with the signified” (789). Throughout White Noise, Delillo writes amusing scenes where Heinrich and Jack bicker, often Heinrich deliberately frustrating his father. Several times during these conversations, Heinrich reveals the structuralist theories behind his postmodern mentality. For example, in the “Is it raining?” » dialogue between Jack and Heinrich in chapter 6, Heinrich repeatedly asks Jack for a clearer definition of "rain", then of "here and now". It's more than a juvenile, semantic play on words to annoy his father. Heinrich represents the structuralist perspective explained by Saussure in the sense that “… signs therefore function not by their valueintrinsic but by their relative position” (792). Heinrich wants to know where here is, who is asking and even what the rain is? Delillo writes: “What if someone held a gun to your head? …A man in a trench coat and sunglasses. He holds a gun to your head and says, “Is it raining or not?” All you have to do is tell the truth and I'll put my gun away...'""What truth does he want? Does he want the truth about someone traveling at near light speed in another galaxy? Does he want the truth about someone orbiting a neutron star...?" "He's holding the gun to your head. He wants your truth." "What good is my truth? My truth means nothing. What if that guy with the gun was from a planet in a completely different solar system? What we call rain, he calls soap. What we call apples, he calls rain. So what am I supposed to tell him? » “His name is Frank J. Smalley and he's from St. Louis. » “He wants to know if it's raining now, at this very moment. . ““Is there such a thing now? “Now” comes and goes as soon as you say it. How can I say it's raining now if your so-called "now" becomes "then" as soon as I say it? answer the question?" "If you want to talk about this specific location while you're in a vehicle that's visibly moving, then I think that's the problem with this discussion" (23-24). At the end of this discussion, the reader may feel confused as to whether Heinrich should be grabbed by the shoulders and shaken for such an antagonistic attitude or applauded for his wit. There is no denying the ingenuity of his arguments, and it is not lacking. not a beat in his comic timing, especially with the last line He also doesn't leave any assumed detail unchallenged. This refusal to be captive to the laws of casual conversation is Heinrich's postmodern side, while his tool. – linguistic argumentation – reveals the structuralist influence on his views. In this way, Heinrich asks his father to carefully articulate what he wants to say outside of his own individual perspective rather than agreeing to casual conversation. on the weather, Heinrich wants to examine Jack's use of a "boilerplate" comment and dismantle it to reveal what is actually being communicated. Saussure comments on this formal approach to conversation: “any means of expression used in society is based, in principle, on collective behavior… or convention. Polite expressions, for example, although often imbued with a certain natural expressiveness… are nevertheless fixed by rules” (788). However, as a representation of the postmodern, the character of Heinrich cannot be judged by these rules nor expected to operate within them. Geyh calls this conversation "an allegory of theoretical postmodernism and a dialogical enactment of many of its central questions, particularly those of 'truth' and 'reality' (14)." In other words, Delillo illustrates this fundamental principle of postmodernism in a simple conversation about rain, without a lengthy theoretical explanation. Geyh continues: “Before [Heinrich] even arrives at school, he addresses the limits of our sensory apparatus and the way it mediates our perception of reality, the paradoxes of the theory of relativity, the arbitrariness of the sign and the indeterminacy of meaning” (15) These questions recur throughout White Noise. For example, in Chapter 21, Heinrich relays to Jack the news that the “swelling black cloud” has been transformed into an “airborne toxic event” (Delillo 117). He seems to ironically rejoice in the fact that this new label scares his family because he knows that a new sentence really doesn't change anything.However, this new signifier to represent the immobile signified radically affects the way it is perceived by the whole family. Later, in Chapter 30, during a discussion with Steffie and Babette, the concept of relativity theory resurfaces. Heinrich sums it up brilliantly by noting that “the whole point of Sir Albert Einstein…is how can the sun rise if you are standing on the sun” (Delillo 233). According to Saussure's theories, a linguistic community dictates which signified a specific signifier is associated with. Outside of this linguistic community, a signifier may connote a completely different concept or may not exist at all. Henri estil expands this linguistic concept by asking his mother-in-law and his sister to understand that it is not enough to take into account a simple immediate personal perspective. Again using a structuralist device to display his postmodern attitude, Heinrich refuses to let them assume that everyone is Frank J. Smalley from St. Louis. Another major example of Heinrich demonstrating structuralist influence on postmodernism can be found in chapter 21: “A dog is 'A rat too,' says Denise. “A rat is vermin,” said Babette. “A cockroach is vermin,” Steffie said. "A cockroach is an insect. You count the legs, that's how you know." “It’s also a vermin.” “Does a cockroach get cancer, no,” Denise said. “This must mean that a rat is more like a human than a cockroach, even though they are both vermin, since a rat and a human can get cancer, but a cockroach cannot.” “In other words,” Heinrich “She says that two things that are mammals have more in common than two things that are just vermin” (Delillo 124-5). This conversation shows Heinrich's structuralist belief that things can only be understood through comparison. Linguistic relationships being arbitrary, a signifier cannot be defined outside of language. Saussure says: “A term acquires its value only because it is opposed to everything that precedes or follows it” (794). This inability to meaningfully classify a "rat" or a "cockroach" without relating to another arbitrary signifier supports Saussure's proposition that human understanding exists only in and through language. Saussure writes: “Our thought – apart from its expression in words – is only a shapeless and indistinct mass… Without language, thought is a vague and unexplored nebula” (789). In Heinrich's final statement in this conversation, he reiterates Denise's sentiment that the "mammalian nature" connection connects two elements more closely than simply sharing the "vermin" parallel. The absurdity of this idea in light of structuralism is that neither label has any real meaning, so trying to linguistically compare the strength of the relationships they represent is unreasonable. In discussing postmodernism, Lyotard addresses this “impotence of the faculty of presentation” (1422). It seems that Heinrich may sense this futility in the conversation and, therefore, rather than waste his intelligence and wit on the subject, he simply backs down by reiterating what Denise has already asserted. Lyotard writes that “the emphasis can also be placed on the… jubilation which results from the invention of new rules of the game” (1422). It is clear that, as Delillo's representation of the postmodern, Heinrich enjoys the semantic games he plays with his family. He may not be a postmodernist painter or writer, but in his adolescent way, he lives out his postmodernist beliefs in his linguistic battles with Jack and their family. Geyh writes: "DeLillo's talent for describing..