Strategies for Confronting Death

            During Chapter 37 of White Noise, Murray and Jack have an interesting conversation about the inevitability of death and the coping mechanisms we can employ.  This is somewhat related to Jack’s enduring crisis of masculinity that we encounter throughout the novel, as he sees his fear as a weak quality, but this discussion has a more universal relevance.  Murray correctly identifies Jack’s coping device as his attachment to Hitler, “On one level you wanted to conceal yourself in Hitler and his works.  On another level you wanted to use him to grow in significance and strength (274).”  Murray contends that Jack’s overwhelming fear of death compelled him to latch on to Hitler, but he pushes the concept further by stating that major progress in engineering, the arts, and civilization itself can be attributed to individuals’ fear of death and their attempts to manage it.  Furthermore, he identifies another means of managing death:  murder.  While these are the only options they openly discuss here (also religion), the book presents several other alternatives to coping with death.  Orest, for example, chooses to let go of his attachment to life (which Murray had said was impossible) by risking his life amidst venomous snakes.  Jack seems to envy the teenager of his sheer bravery, or maybe Jack envies his indifference to risk and his inability to calculate it.  Jack also embodies another solution to this fear when he attempts to save the man he almost killed.  He sees himself as being noble, possibly even self-sacrificial despite the fact that he had almost killed this man, and he approaches the hospital remarking, “My humanity soared (300).”  Jack tries this seemingly virtuous deed as a way of devoting himself to a metaphysics that is beyond himself, of submerging himself in some undying principles.  It is a shallow attempt from the start, however, and his conversation with the nuns further disillusions him of this course.  Aside from consumerism, one other means of coping with death emerges from this text.  This is exemplified by Heinrich, who seeks to conquer the white noise through knowledge and, presumably, prepare himself for death.  DeLillo does not push this option to its full potential, although maybe it is more accurately personified by Murray, but it is important to note that this is the option ignored by a college professor.