In Tom Wolfe's "Stalking Of the Billion Footed Beast" he calls for America's fiction writers to stay away from metaficiton and take a step in the direction of reality, or his concept of reality. He sees the modern fiction novel headed in a downward spiral, further and further away from realism. He views these new novels as no longer including a "metropolis or any other rich slices of contemporary life." Rather he sees these new novels as taking on a bizarre, implausible twist, straying far from reality. He seems to think of these new authors as young intellectuals using the novel as a game, a playing field of sorts, providing readers with nothing more than a mixed-up, fragmented story containing little that pertains to reality. This new style of writing, such as Don DeLillo's White Noise, is simply a new way of portraying things. And as reality today becomes more mixed up and fragmented, is perhaps more indicative of contemporary life. Though White Noise consists of smaller, much more fragmented, and often bizarre circumstances, it is following the way in which reality is trending.

Contemporary life has become increasingly bizarre and seemingly unreal. DeLillo portrays this on a personal level presenting Jack Gladney in his small college town with a modest life as a professor, husband, and father. In exception to this Jack is no ordinary professor, he is a professor of Hitler studies, his sole focus being the life of Hitler and the atrocities he committed. This brings us to an unusual twist in reality. In addition the family seems to have a peculiar preoccupation with shopping. Shopping is a serious family affair for Jack and Babette. It is a strange materialistic ritual which becomes a theme throughout the novel. DeLillo is very much in tune with reality, he is portraying the strange quirks of a seemingly normal American family.

DeLillo emphasizes technology by having the television make many interjections throughout the novel. There are times when the television has actual dialogue. It almost becomes a character because of its constant presence. Babette has allotted a certain time every night where the whole family watches television. She does this in attempt to make it a family event which will in turn discourage the children from watching it, thus reducing it's "eerie diseased brain-sucking power." DeLillo incorporates these bizarre interludes with the television to demonstrate the connection he has observed between advanced technology and contemporary fear.

DeLillo delves deeper into the Gladney family, revealing more of their unusual, yet telling life experiences. Wilder, their youngest, and the only child who is the product of both Jack and Babette, is only a baby, yet his presence plays a major role in the novel. He is the focus of many of Jack and Babette's conversations about their own mortality. Babette believes in the distorted notion that as long as there are children in the house that need taking care of, she could not be allowed to die. She tells Jack she never wants Wilder to change. At one point Jack tells Babette he thinks Wilder, who only has a few words in his vocabulary, is talking less than ever. Babette replies, "there's enough talk, I don't want him to talk." In her mind Wilder is her security, his helplessness insures her existence.

DeLillo address the big issues of life, just in smaller more peculiar ways. He addresses death and fear by making it the obsession of his two main characters. Jack doesn't go a day without thinking about or discussing death, his profession revolves around it. And Babette is not only afraid of death, she is consumed by it. She has a condition which goes beyond fear. She is driven to seek medical help for these morbid thoughts which are taking over her life. This leads her down a destructive path of lying and adultery which eventually results in attempted murder.

During the novel there was a crisis in which a lethal black chemical cloud invades the surrounding area and Jack and his family are all the sudden in the middle of "an airborne toxic event." After this literally destructive event, a private corporation comes into the town to do a simulation of a "massive spill." It is a full fledged simulation of an all purpose leak or spill. The people of the town, including Jack's daughter, are participating in the simulation. There are even men in space-like suits that say "Simuvac," who are running the operation. The people of the town are simply simulating reality, they are simulating what could conceivably happen.

The simulation is an ironic part of DeLillo's book because it is much like what he is doing. He is simulating reality, what could happen. He is not doing this by including a "metropolis or any other rich slices of contemporary life," but what he is doing is representing reality on a smaller scale, just as the people of the town are simulating a huge disaster on a smaller scale. The simuvac disaster was not reality it was only a simulation, however it is a possibility that everything under the category of the all purpose spill which includes infinite disasters, oil spills, gas leaks etc., could happen. DeLillo has shown throughout the novel that the possibilities for reality are infinite. White Noise has bizarre twists and seems implausible at times, however these things accurately depict contemporary life.