Old Age vs. Youth in White Noise

The first section of Don DeLillo’s White Noise repeatedly juxtaposes descriptions of youth and old age, associating youth with understanding of culture and old age with disorientation.   One direct comparison occurs in terms of posture.  Babette teaches a class on correct posture to “old folks” twice a week to help them “improve their posture” (DeLillo 27).  In contrast, Jack describes the positions of the students in the library as “various kinds of ungainly posture,” to the point that they are “fetal, splayed, knock-kneed, arched, square-knotted, sometimes almost upside-down” (DeLillo 41).  Jack says however, that in their ridiculous, sprawled posture, the students are speaking the “language of economic class…in one of its allowable outward forms” (DeLillo 41).  He is implying that the young students are in tune with the wordless language of their culture and express themselves through their posture.  In contrast, then, the older population – which strives for a rigid, upright posture – is implied to be out of tune with their culture and unable to adequately express themselves. Murray explains to Jack that this is because “people get brain fade” as they age and “[forget] how to listen and look as children” (DeLillo 67).  Indeed, as Jack gets progressively closer to old age, he realizes that “more and more [he] hears languages that [he] can not identify much less understand” (DeLillo 40), further proving that in the world of White Noise the youth understand cultural expression better than the adults. 

The feeling of cultural disorientation the elderly develop can be a both hindrance and an asset, however.  When the elderly Treadwell couple gets lost at the mall, for example, they don’t ask for help because “the vastness and strangeness of the place…made them feel helpless and adrift” (DeLillo 59).  In this instance their distance from contemporary culture was life threatening.  Yet, Jack notices that in their cultural confusion, “the elderly seem exempt from the fever of eating” that seems to grip the younger generation (DeLillo 14).  While the younger people are “obese” and sloppy – “baggy-pantsed, short-legged, [and] waddling” (DeLillo 14) – the elderly are “slim and healthy looking” with “the women carefully groomed” and “the men purposeful and well-dressed” (DeLillo 14).  Clearly, the aged population has distanced itself from the undesirable effects of the Blacksmith consumeristic culture – overeating and sloppiness – as well as from the more positive effects of being able to function and communicate in the world around them.  As the novel continues on into the Airborne Toxic Event, I am interested to see who will survive the disaster better: the culturally-aware youth, or the more culturally-immune elderly.