Summary Of The Dead By Margaret Delillo

In the basic college town of Blacksmith, Jack and his wife Babette live a seemingly normal middle class life. Throughout the first half of the book, DeLillo focuses on character development, and he has the characters talk about modern American media and how it is impacting our culture. DeLillo’s tone throughout this novel is observant and introspective, he dives deep into questions people frequently have including: death, family, identity, and modern consumerism. At the halfway point in the book an airborne toxic event takes place--this phenomenon accentuates Jack's fear of death, especially when he is notified that toxic chemicals from the explosion could kill him. He explains to himself that “I've got death inside me. It's just a question of whether or not I can outlive it” (Delillo 161). After his fear of death is

He has Jack's good friend Murray discuss how the downpour of media floods our mind in order to suppress our inner feelings. He has this conversation take place in a supermarket where both of the characters are bombarded with numerous options that are thrown at the modern consumer. With this consumerism theme taken place, we get to see how it affects Jack’s persona. He dresses a certain way at work to give off an authoritative vibe, but he ends up saying that “I am the false character that follows the name around"(16). Jacks insecurities about the way he looks and dresses shows the reader that this character is soft on the inside and has a lot of fear in his heart. We are also given an insight into how Jack copes with his insecurities: after an insensitive comment is made about the way he looks, Jack responds by going into a shopping spree to ease his mind. This is an excellent example of what DeLillo thinks about modern culture, he believes that people tend to run from their problems and turn to consumerist habits instead of addressing their problems head