DeLillo's Plotting

One thing I found interesting about this narrative is DeLillo’s usage of plot and structure. The novel is driven by Jack Gladney’s fear of death. In one of his Hitler lectures, Jack tells his students, “All plots tend to move deathward. This is the nature of plots” (26).  Although at the time Jack doesn’t understand what this means or why he even said it, it foreshadows the structure of the plot for the rest of the novel. Jack’s fear of death leads him to resist the emergence of plot in his life. Because he believes that all plots lead to the death of the individual involved, he does not want to enter into any plots that would eventually lead to his death.

                Plot is mentioned numerous times throughout the novel. Every time Jack mentions plot, it is a reminder to the reader as to where the story is headed. The beginning section of the novel, “Waves and Radiation,” there is little to no plot introduced. This portion is dedicated to the introduction of the characters and the world in which they live. The second section, “The Airborne Toxic Event,” has the beginnings of plot development. In this section, Jack is exposed to Nyodene D. and he finds himself with a sort of expiration date. Once death is introduced, the aspects of plot quickly unfold. In the third section, “Dylarama,” mystery, infidelity, and a gun are introduced. These factors lead to Jack’s plotting to uncover the secrets surrounding his wife’s pill usage and result in him hunting down the man dispensing these pills and attempting to murder him. When on his hunt for Mink, Jack repeats to himself the actions he is going to take regarding this murder: “wait for an unguarded moment, blast him in the gut three times for maximum efficiency of pain, take his Dylar, get off at the river road, shut the garage door, walk home in the rain and the fog” (293). Jack is planning the events of this plot and these events literally move deathward, but not for himself.