white noise :: essays research papers

The substitution conflict between Jack and Babette Gladney is basically thestruggle for control and likewise the struggle for who is more afraid of death. Jack Gladney throughout the whole unexampled tries to think that he humps his wifeBabette he tries to control her thoughts by aspect she is supposed to act acertain way. Jack wants to be the peerless afraid of death and at the same time wantsto get unloosen of his fear.In the story Jack confronts Babette intimately the medicine she is taking, he wantsto know what it is and wherefore she is taking it. He tells her that if she doesnttell him the reasons that Denise will. Jack is actually understanding and tells herto take her time sexual intercourse him. Babette tells him that Gray Research wasconducting humankindexperiments on fear and indeed decided not to conduct them on humans but oncomputers. She told Jack how she made a cud with Mr. Gray and in exchange tocontinue with the experiment with Dylar (the drug) she wou ld give him her body. jack reaction to this was not the kind youd expect when your wife is tellingyou she cheated on you. He was mostly calm, stayed laying in bed, and evenoffered Babette roughly Jell-O with banana slices that Steffie had made.Jack went on asking why Babette call for this drug and what its purpose was. Hewanted to know why they couldnt test on creatures. 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 starting 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,Dont t ell me this, this is terrible.Jacks reaction to Babettes fear seems misplaced. He is more upset that shecould maybe 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 major power be her weight or height that is her problem.