Great American Novels

The book White Noise, by Don DeLillo, is set in the United States in the 1980s. One of the most prime times for the influx in consumerism; people were captivated by televisions, cars, clothing, etc. DeLillo makes this theme of consumerism evident by the very beginning of the novel as he describes every possession that kids bring to the college where the main character, Jack, works as a professor in Hitler Studies. DeLillo also notes in depth the physical appearance and style of Jack’s wife, Babette, adding to the consumerism cloud that is held over the first part of the novel. DeLillo wrote White Noise as a satire and wrote in length about the elements of consumerism. As for the characters, Jack does not take a step back to see how engrossed he is in the materialistic world until he has a run-in with death after a toxic cloud composed of biohazard waste ascends onto his town and he is exposed the matter. Scientists and professionals give Jack a life expectancy of around 30 years to live; so, now Jack almost has a timer going on his life that finally brings him to realize there are things to experience in life outside of the materialistic world.

Jack’s experience with his own mortality is very similar to the crisis currently gripping the American economy. I’ve been messing around with day trading while I don’t have school to fill my hours, and noticed some interesting parallels between its Icarus esque fall from its previous highs and Jack’s experience in the book White Noise. People’s faith in not only the economy, but their employment, has been eroded by what for all intents and purposes can be described as a national disaster, and in an economy that operates on debt and faith, that is crippling. The American consumer has gone through an experience similar to Jack financially. They’ve been made aware that quarantine and job loss are not just potential eventualities, but instead a reality that could strike at any moment. Because of this, instead of say, taking on debt and buying a boat, and thereby keeping the money flowing and the capitalist machine churning, those people will instead save money in case of future hardship. This is bad for an economy that depends on flow, and is similar to Jack’s brush with mortality and the changes in lifestyle he brought about afterwards.

One of the main themes of White Noise is the idea that consumerism is bad. Specifically the brand of American, use up and discard consumerism that was developing in the 80’s when the book was published. Over the course of the book the main character, Jack :), initially lives deep within the throes of this brand of consumerism, until after his brush with his own mortality when he begins to cast off the excess needs thrust upon him by his society. This is a realization that I think we all need to come to at some point in our lives, that much of what modern society is based around, instead of being the parts of life that are meaningful and important, are instead excess fluff that distracts us from what really matter. White Noise obscuring the true meaning our lives could take on, if only we let them. It is important to remember especially in times such as these when much of the American economy is hamstrung by stay at home orders, that much of what really matters in life, isn’t available in a store catalogue.

In both novels No Country for Old Men and The Road, McCarthy chooses incredibly unique ways on how he tells the story, and the personalities of each character. Time is something McCarthy alters in a different way to compel his readers and make the story more interesting. With No Country for Old Men, the story is told by Ed Tom Bell, the county sheriff, who reminisces how justice was different in the past, and how he challenges with catching the advanced “new criminal” Chigurh. Ed Tom Bell fights with the reality that he doesn’t have the means to catch this criminal, because Chigurh is into new crimes and thinking that Ed Tom Bell has never had to deal with before. The story is told in a unique way with many flashbacks and going back and forth between different past, present, future times. 

As with The Road, McCarthy also chooses to alter time in a different way while writing this story. The father and son are stuck in a post-apocalyptic world when they still have their memories of before this ever happened. Time is very much slowed down in this story to make it seem as the two main characters are really struggling with keeping their humanity and something to live for. And the father often reminisces about past times with his wife, and past times him as a child when everything was different. He remembers his old house, and his father, which are all gone now, and he is only left with his son. 

Both novels have events that stand out immensely. In No Country for Old Men, it is the coin toss. Chigurh walks into the gas station and has a talk with the owner of the store. He is very intimidating and dark in a way. He asks the owner to pick heads or tails in a coin toss, which would ultimately determine if Chigurh would kill him or not. Chigurh strongly believes in fate and that whatever the coin landed on was what the owner deserved and what was destined to be, because the owner had gotten to this point. This point in the story really shows who Chigurh is as a criminal and the way he thinks about life and how he has chosen to live it. McCarthy made this scene to make the readers question what they believe in, and how they are going to live their life. 

In The Road, the event that stands out the most, in my opinion, is when the father is about to die and tells the boy to “carry the fire.” The father wants the boy to take everything he learned from his father, and carry that with him throughout the rest of his life, and to spread good wherever he goes. McCarthy also wrote this part of the novel to make the readers stop and think about what they are spreading out into the world, and what they are living for.

McCarthy has such rich and deeper meanings in his novels that can be depicted throughout both novels. He tells the novels in such an easy, but complex way that it is so easy to feel as if you yourself are in the novel. He chooses unique writing styles to make his novels his own. In The Road, it is not having any chapters, and just letting the novel flow in its own way, and for the readers to not be interrupted with a number on the next page. In No Country for Old Men, it was the soliloquies. The soliloquies were a unique way to follow Ed Tom Bell and his life. It broke down his different beliefs of how the justice system has changed, and how he doesn’t think he is skilled enough to catch Chigurh. It was almost like a mini journal of Ed Tom Bells’ thoughts, and how he felt as a sheriff. 

In conclusion, McCarthy uses his words in a way that is unique from any other author. He takes real-life problems or themes people deal with every day and make them into story plots and characters. McCarthy isn’t afraid to write in a different way and go out of the writing norm. Which I believe makes him a great American author.

An increasing number of books are being banned (or threatening to be) in our public school systems today. Books like to Kill a Mockingbird and 1984 are (being) removed from school curriculums in order to not “offend” students. (Even Fahrenheit 451, a book about the dangers of banning books, is in some districts in danger of being banned.) In my opinion, this is absolutely ridiculous, and not even that, it’s incredibly dangerous. More often than not, the reasons that school boards want to ban these books are the exact reason the books were written in the first place.

For example, to Kill a Mockingbird has numerous racial slurs in the text. To remove these lines or the book itself removes the purpose of the book, to teach what was once done to other humans and why it should never happen again. 1984 is a book where the government has complete control over everyones life, and people think that the government should ban this book? Books, no matter how offensive or morally repugnant to one side of the isle should never be banned from the classroom, or from the nation as a whole.

Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”- Orwell

Within “The Good Earth,” there are many apparent themes that give us insight into lessons we should take away about life. One of these themes is mans relationship to the earth. Humans were created to inhabit the earth, to build it up and make it their own but over the centuries, we have neglected our purpose for our own selfish desires. Today, our world faces adversity after adversity such as climate change, air pollution, our oceans becoming trash lands, and much more. We look to the land to provide us with the necessary resources and supplies but we lack the contribution of giving back to the earth. Our relationship to the earth is two-sided- it provides us with nourishment and we must take care of it to the best of our abilities. But today, we struggle more than ever with this. Trash fills our oceans, killing all the sea life, toxic chemicals fill our air which is decreasing bird populations, and unknowingly kills millions of people every year.

In “The Good Earth”, Wang Lungs connection to the land is connected to his identity and his worth ethic. He harvests and cares of it himself, with no help from laborers. By him taking care of his own land with his own hands, this causes a stronger bond between him and the ground. In contrast to Wang Lung, the Hwang family, a local wealthy family that is held high on a pedestal, has laborers who take care of their land, they have absolutely no connection. Wang Lung, although a poor farmer, in the beginning, he created his wealth by means of his land that he looked over and harvested. During the famine when Wang Lung and his family had no food to eat, they literally ate the dirt off this ground, just another symbol of what it provides. As Wang Lung grows older and starts to enter into more of the city life, he misses his land and returns often to visit it but the connection between him and his land is not the same and continues to grow weaker and weaker. Continually, his uncle asked to buy his land, even when Wang Lungs family was on the brink of starvation, he refused to give it up to anyone. At one point, he even considered selling his own daughter in order to have money to pay for the land. His undying love for his land caused him to do crazy things sometimes. Wang Lung’s identity is tied into this land, and he believes that it is a piece of wealth that nobody can take away from him no matter how hard they try. As political events began to take a turn and people began to riot against the wealthy, Wang Lung paid no attention to this and never felt that desperation to riot against the wealthy because his land was his wealth. Once Wang Lung hires his own workers to take care of the field and he starts to hang out at the Tea house, eventually falling head over heels in love with Lotus the prostitute, his connection to the land begins to wither.

The final act of Wang Lungs sons looking at him and telling him they won’t sell the land but eventually do undermines everything that Wang Lung worked for. This land gave him his wealth over time, and it was tied in with his identity. The title of this book says it all- this earth that we live on is in fact so good. It provides us with life and without it we wouldn’t be able to live and evolve.

I understand that this does not fit the usual parameters for a Great American Novels blogpost, but as I near the end of high school, I want to take the time and keyboard taps to chronicle the best novels I’ve been required to read in high school English or Literature classes. For reference, I was in the following classes each year: In freshman year I was in Honors English 9 with Mrs. Brew, in Sophomore year I was in Honors English 10, in junior year I was in AP Language and Composition (talk about a stupid class with one of the worst teachers I’ve ever had 😤), and in the first semester of my senior year I was in science fiction literature. Alright, now for the rankings.

Honorable Mention: Catch 22– I wanted to include a novel that I read in this class (Great American Novels) and the best one I read was Catch 22. Narratively, Catch 22 is scattered, there is no real linear plot, events in the story are not depicted in chronological order in the book. This aspect actually improves the quality of the book, as events that have already transpired can be used as big reveals even though events which have taken place afterwards have been portrayed already. The author Joseph Heller also makes the central character, Captain Yossarian, suprisingly likable in spite of his lazy, perverted, and “cowardly” nature, and makes characters whom he wants the reader to rightfully hate corrupt, cruel, and importantly unlikeable. The novel serves as a critique of war, specifically corrupt war leadership, callous war profiteering, and the pointlessness of waging war. For anyone who read Slaughterhouse-Five I’d compare Catch 22 to that, except better.

5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – which I read in freshman year. Spoilers Ahead. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime revolves around the experience of Christopher Boone, an autistic British 15-year-old who excels at maths (haha, I’m British now, what’s a toothbrush?) who discover’s his neighbor’s poodle Wellington dead, impaled by a pitchfork. Christopher decides to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington, which accidentally leads to major revelations about his father and thought to be diseased mother. The novel is written from Christopher’s perspective and is interesting due to a unique syntactical portrayal of Christopher’s autism. The reveals in this novel shock the reader, and it is incredibly moving to see how they rock Christopher’s world as well. I would give an example but I do not want to further spoil a book which I would definitely recommend reading.

4. Maus– read in Honors English 10. Maus’s premise was just plain interesting to start out with. It is a graphic novel depicting a Jew’s journey through the Holocaust, but via the illustrated nature of the story, the Jews are portrayed as mice, the Germans are cats, Polish non-Jews are pigs, and other nationalities are other animals. My older sister read Maus six years before I did, and I remember doing a fair amount of reading through the graphic novel when I was only in fourth grade. The novel definitely approaches and discusses adult themes, so I would not recommend that. I’d say Holocaust narratives are almost always interesting in general due to the immense tragedy depicted (morbid I know), which most people are not able to experience, thankfully. Maus’s quirks and style slightly elevate it above its fellows, such as Ellie Wiesel’s Night which I have also read. It feels wrong to rank Holocaust narratives so I’ll leave it at that.

Alright I’ve written a lot here, and it is getting late, so I am going to write a part two to discuss my top three novels. Thanks for reading.

It takes very little to govern good people. Very little. And bad people cant be governed at all. Or if they could I never heard of it.

This is a quote from one of Officer Ed Tom Bell’s soliloquies from near the beginning of the novel. Throughout, one of the recurring themes is Ed Tom’s attempt to understand the mind of Chigurh, and on a greater level, criminals like him. However, he constantly falls short, thus the title, in a literal sense. 

In this passage, Bell seems to be almost reconciling with the idea that certain people are predestined to be criminals, and they are incapable of living a lawful life. 

I want to take a brief look at this idea, and how it is used within the United States today. Whether or not this is true has a tremendous impact on how we treat criminals in the criminal justice system. Are there certain people who are unable to live peacefully within a system, as Bell states in this quote? Throughout the entirety of the novel, Chigurh never even considers whether or not what he’s doing is lawful, or even good. It seems like he perfectly fits the mold of that type of criminal, which is most likely influencing Ed Tom’s thoughts. Despite living by a philosophy of taking control of one’s life, Chigurh repeatedly chooses to murder, to steal, and to commit many other crimes. As it stands today, nearly half of US states have the death penalty, while many more all over the country are sentenced to life in prison. Are these criminals destined for a life behind bars? It seems like Ed Tom would say yes.

Jack London’s The Call of The Wild, and John Steinback’s The Grapes of Wrath are widely considered to be some of the greatest American novels. Even though they have their differences, they still have a lot in common.

Even though both books take places in different times and even different countries, they still have plot similarities. Both plots revolve around travel and journeys for similar reasons. Both books revolve around traveling as a way to find money. The Call of The Wild taking place with travelers using sled dogs to travel to find gold. The Grapes of Wrath taking place in the Great Depression, where a family tries to find work in California.

There are also certain similarities in the type of characters. Just like in The Call of The Wild, some of the owners, Buck, the protagonist experiences are good, yet he experiences abusive ones as well. Similar to the flaws that some of the characters show in The Grapes of Wrath. The book shows corrupt car salesmen and farmers trying to prevent unionization in California as awful human beings. Yet, people like Jim Casy are still shown in the book. People who are willing to help others even at risk of their own.

Even though these two books are considered “Great” in their own regard. They still have similarities that have caused them to be regarded as classics for more than 90 years.

Alright, so I’m 60 pages into White Noise by Don DeLillo, and unlike for other books I’ve read recently in literature classes, I have not done any outside research on this book. I have no idea what the main point of the book is and no idea where the plot is going. Anyways, I would like to make a conjecture as to why the novel is titled White Noise.

So far, White Noise has frequently chronicled the interactions of its main characters with all facets of American culture, from Babette’s excessive buying and wasting of health food and use of chewing gum to quit cigarettes, to the frequent television sounds referenced during scenes in the Gladney home. Murray’s character is even devoted to the study of American culture itself. I think that the title White Noise is meant to portray American culture as white noise. It surrounds us without us noticing and does not provide any real value to our lives. The absurd portrayal of the American environments department and its members also lends credibility to my interpretation. The novel seems like a critique on American culture in general.

These are just my guesses after 60 pages of reading. The current situation that the Gladneys find themselves in with a deadly accidental chemical spill near their home might change things.