white noise :: essays research papers

The central conflict between jackass and Babette Gladney is basically thestruggle for control and similarly the struggle for who is more afraid of expiry. Jack Gladney throughout the whole novel tries to think that he knows his wifeBabette he tries to control her thoughts by saying she is supposed to act acertain way. Jack wants to be the one afraid of death and at the same fourth dimension wantsto get rid of his fear.In the point Jack confronts Babette about the medicine she is taking, he wantsto know what it is and why she is taking it. He tells her that if she doesnttell him the reasons that Denise will. Jack is very understanding and tells herto take her time telling him. Babette tells him that Gray Research wasconducting humanexperiments on fear and then decided not to conduct them on humans but oncomputers. She told Jack how she made a deal with Mr. Gray and in exchange tocontinue with the experiment with Dylar (the drug) she would give him her body.Jacks reaction to thi s was not the kind youd run when your wife is tellingyou she cheated on you. He was mostly calm, stayed laying in bed, and evenoffered Babette some Jell-O with banana slices that Steffie had made.Jack went on asking why Babette needed this drug and what its purpose was. Hewanted to know why they couldnt test on wolfs. Babette answered,Thats just the point. No animal has this condition. This is a human condition.Animals fear many things, Mr. Gray said. But their brains arent sophisticatedenough to accommodate this particular state of mind.(195)Jack then was scratch line to realize what Babette was getting at. This is when theemotion kicks in for him. Now he feels all the emotions he was supposed to feelwhen she told him he cheated on him. He states, My body went cold. I felthollow inside. (195) He was waiting for her answer. She tells him, Im afraidto die..I think about it all the time. It wont go away.(195) He responds with, get int tell me this, this is terrible.Jacks reaction t o Babettes fear seems misplaced. He is more upset that shecould possibly be more afraid of death than him than he seemed to be about hersleeping with Mr. Gray. He goes on trying to tell Babette that maybe she isntsure that she is afraid of death, death is so vague. He tries to tell her thatit might be her weight or height that is her problem.