The Confusing Distortion of Imitations and Originals in DeLillo's White Noise and Morrison's Beloved

One intriguing aspect of the late twentieth-century American novel is the strong emphasis on the imitation, often more so than on the original.  In Don DeLillo’s White Noise and in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, there is a particularly pronounced postmodern confusion between what is original and what is imitation, and this indistinctness creates chaos for the characters as they struggle to understand who their authority figures are. 

In White Noise, for instance, the Blacksmith SIMUVAC crew is in charge of simulating evacuation in case of a real emergency.  When there is a real emergency, though, in the form of the “black billowing cloud” (DeLillo 115), SIMUVAC “use[s] the real event in order to rehearse the simulation” (DeLillo 139).  This blurs the lines between what is real and what is simulation, because as long as the SIMUVAC people are actually evacuating people from a dangerous situation, they are not performing a simulation, but rather executing the actual evacuation.  By naming the evacuation as a rehearsal for the upcoming simulation, however, SIMUVAC privileges the simulation over the authentic emergency, creating a disorienting tension between the SIMUVAC team and the actual evacuation team as the primary authority figures.

            A similarly disorienting blurring of the real and the imitation occurs in Beloved, but on a more personal level, between Sethe and Beloved.  As Beloved spends more time with Sethe, Beloved becomes more and more like Sethe, imitating the way she talks, laughs, walks, gestures, and sighs (Morrison 241).  This imitation becomes so intense that it becomes “difficult for Denver to tell who [is] who” between the women (Morrison 241).  These similarities are not troubling as long as it remains clear that Sethe is the mother – the original face and personality – and Beloved is the imitation.  As soon as Sethe becomes compliant to Beloved, however, and allows Beloved to bully her into submission whenever she tries to assert herself (Morrison 242), the clear distinction between Sethe’s original actions and Beloved’s imitative ones becomes muddled.  It is at this point that the fusion of the two women’s identities becomes chaotic and upsetting because no one in 124 knows who holds authority in the house anymore.  Denver becomes confused and upset to see the mother who has been her primary authority figure her whole life serving the young woman Beloved (Morrison 242), but although she is familiar and comfortable with having Sethe as her main boss, she soon acknowledges that Sethe is no longer a responsible mother.  At the same time, though, Denver refuses to behave as a subordinate to “a girl not much older than herself” (Morrison 242), so she rejects taking orders from Beloved, either.  As a result, with Sethe and Beloved locked in an indistinct relationship in which neither is entirely leader nor entirely follower, Denver becomes disoriented and unsure of who to turn to for guidance.  

            In both White Noise and Beloved, the confusing inversions and distortions of originals and imitations leave characters disoriented and unsure of whom to turn to for guidance.