Tom Wolfe in his article, "Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast" declares a change for the future of fiction. He detests the current styles which he regards as "an avant-garde position out beyond realism." His call is for realism that scrutinizes society and its workings in large places and major events. He calls this style New Journalism because its realistic form mimics a reporter collecting information for a large series of stories on a particular subject. Consequently, Wolfe would seriously be at ends with the type of fiction embraced by Don DeLillo in White Noise. DeLillo does make a critique on modern society, but with fictional places and on a much lesser scale. Although it is not New Journalism, DeLillo's style of fiction is a much better approach to dissecting modern society. He closes in on specific issues and ideas and explores them through his well defined characters.

Each of the characters focus on a different aspect of society. One benefit to this is that although the characters are all uniquely different, they all interact so well together. Jack, the father, and his son Heinrich are always arguing in opposition with the other on most issues. They even debate whether or not it is raining, yet they are still very close. DeLillo shows how differences can be maintained and how they can even be the fabric of communication. Wisely, DeLillo uses a family to demonstrate these clashing personalities. It is improbable that a broken family would interact well, but DeLillo is not critiquing the modern family as much as he is exploring societies interactions.

The first messenger of the novel is the main character, J. A. K. Gladney, a simple professor who has been married four times. He appears on the surface to be a mild and somewhat content man, but he hides a deep fear; death. It is this innate fear that controls his life. He surrounds his life with death by studying Hitler, musing about death, and encountering death. Jack experiences his own slow demise by encountering a toxic cloud. At this point he says, "This was a death made in a laboratory, defined and measurable. . ."(127). DeLillo uses this point to show that we are creating our own deaths. Later Jack takes part in a more physical death by actually shooting a man. This act in itself was uncharacteristic of the man, but death was his life and he had to explore it through each end. A progression made by researching Hitler, becoming infected with death, and finally by bringing possible death to someone else. Although this all seems quite morbid, DeLillo uses this character to show that beneath every mild manner guy on the street, there is something lurking deep inside them. It always seems like it is the "quiet and nice neighbor" who ends up being a serial killer. Jack is the everyday Joe in society who sees everything as a dead end and therefore looks toward the very end.

This leads to the next major character in the book which is not a person, but a concept: Death. Death takes on many different forms in this novel. It is a fear, a poisonous cloud, most harmful substances or beings, and death on a literary basis. DeLillo uses death as a messenger on the destructive nature of society. The noxious cloud is the most profound example. It is a substance that is man made, the waste product of some activity, and yet there is no concrete explanation as to how harmful it is. DeLillo demonstrates this irony through a government worker who declares to Jack after his exposure, "Actual skin and orifice contact. This is Nyodene D. A whole new generation of toxic waste. What we call state of the art. One part per million can send a rat into a permanent state." (139) How vague, yet frightening? The foreboding of death surrounds all of the characters, but each respond to it differently. The extreme is represented by Jack and Babette who let its fear over-power their lives. There is also Heinrich and his friend Orest who don't fear death, but want to try and dodge it. Then there is Wilder, the infant, who is at the most peace in the world because he has not learned about death yet. DeLillo realizes that one's observation of death changes, mirroring the progression through life.

The advances in death are also paired with another abstract character under which the book is titled. White noise is everywhere in the novel. It is the TV that is always on, the radio ("The radio said: "Excesses of salt, phosphorous, magnesium.""(236)), and all of the other commercial distractions. DeLillo reminds the reader that throughout society, despite our problems, we are always encountering some sort of background noise. Eventually some of this disturbance is going to filter through and have some sort of effect. Examples of this are rampant throughout the novel. In one scene, Baba is telling Jack that she heard, "Surgeons use high-frequency tapes of mouse cries to destroy tumors in the human body. Do you believe that ?" (Jack:) "Yes."(236) Throughout the novel, DeLillo adds his own white noise to demonstrate that it is something that we can never escape, even by reading mere fiction. The largest proponent for and against white noise in the novel is Jack's friend Murray. He lives a simple life eating generic foods and living in near poverty, yet embraces television and subsurface pop culture. This hypocrisy is a perfect example of the lives most people, especially "intellectuals" lead.

Society is complicated, and those who play the roles of people in society are even more complex. DeLillo brings the reader to this realization through the characters in his novel. His characters may be mere ideas, abstract thoughts, or actual people, but the messages they relay are very relevant to the modern world. Wolfe's essay calls for concrete social narratives, yet when broken down, they do the same thing DeLillo has done. Wolfe's novels have been noted as being prophetic which can easily be said about some of DeLillo's work. White Noise takes commercialism and explores it to the extreme. It cries out that all of the background that filters through our lives only adds to the complexity of them. Yet, a message is relayed through this quagmire of information; death is always looming. It can hide in a myriad of forms, but only becomes real as one grows older and approaches its grasp. DeLillo has not failed in bringing good quality realism, in fact, he takes fiction and realism to a new level.