White Noise - Don DeLillo

While reading Don DeLillo’s White Noise the one facet of the narrative which struck me in particular was the role that Jack and Babette’s children play in their lives, especially Heinrich.  We have already discussed in class how Jack chose Heinrich’s name to emphasize the strong hegemonic masculinity of old Germany, and how this and other instances in the novel point to Jack’s masculine insecurity and his attempts to regain a dominant role through the creation of his professorial persona J.A.K. Gladney.  But the elements of Heinrich’s character that most interest me are his many opinionated yet philosophical lectures which he bestows upon his father.

Heinrich’s elaborate game of chess with an imprisoned murderer via the postal service might seem odd at first, but it proves a peculiar level of maturity for someone who has just entered adolescence.  When questioned regarding his chess partner’s murder(s), he answers calmly that he murdered “six people” (44).  He then goes on to philosophize on the psychology underlying his actions.  Heinrich asks, “How do you know whether something is really what you want to do or just some kind of nerve impulse in the brain?” (45).  He calls into question the entire history of human thought, going much deeper than his father will.

Perhaps the most stirring lecture that Heinrich gives to his father is when they are driving through the rain and he questions his father’s blind acceptance of the fact that it is raining.  He explains, “There’s no past, present or future outside our own mind” (23).  He continues, “What good is my truth?  My truth means nothing” (23).  Heinrich hypothesizes that the only “reality” which exists is that within our own minds, and that this “truth” cannot be trusted for it is of our own invention.  He challenges his father, “You see the sun moving across the sky.  But is it the sun moving across the sky or is the earth turning?” (24).  Jack dismisses Heinrich’s analogy.  Although Jack is fascinated by his son, he fails to take his musings seriously.  He feels an intense connection to his son, but he does not treat him as an equal.  Jack emotes, “I find I love him with animal desperation, a need to take him under my coat and crush him to my chest, keep him there, protect him” (25).  What he fails to realize is that Heinrich is the one protecting him.

The irony present within the relationship between Jack and Heinrich is that Heinrich is a much better lecturer than his father.  Jack’s ridiculous professorial style is displayed in his lecture battle with Murray.  Jack emphasizes the mediocrity of instruction himself when he exclaims, “It’s amazing how many people are teachers these days…There is a teacher for every person.  Everyone I know is either a teacher or a student.  What do you think it means?” (55).  I think it means that there is whole lot of “teaching” going on and not a whole lot of doing.  Heinrich is able to grasp this concept much better than his father, and this is why we receive such insecure and contradictory narration from Jack.

Heinrich warns his father, “Whatever relaxes you is dangerous.  If you don’t know that, I might as well be talking to the wall” (101).  He cannot fathom his father’s inability to comprehend that which he views as very basic.  Further irony is derived from the fact that Jack gives Heinrich his name in the hopes that he would become a strong and powerful man (much like Hitler), but Jack’s expertise of Hitler Studies (ridiculous in and of itself) is undermined by the fact that he does not even know German.  He christens his son in order to draw upon a strong and masculine Germanic history of which he cannot speak.  I believe that with this construction of their father/son relationship DeLillo is questioning both the ideals of masculinity and academia (which go hand-in-hand).  I look forward to where his narrative will take us, and how instruction and the role of children are valued.