Sarcasm and Displacement of the Supermarkets in White Noise Throughout the novel White Noise, Don DeLillo uses dark and biting humor and subtle displacement to contrast the harsh reality of his characters lives. The sarcasm exists in the idea that the supermarkets help the characters cope with the world around them. The displacement that DeLillo implies is the disillusion and disconnection of characters to each other. The disconnectedness of Jack, his family, and Wilder help …showed first 75 words of 1318 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1318 total…each other. The characters have many things in common, like their families or their professions, but are also disconnected and different from each other and the supermarket helps bring such differences to the reader’s attention. This contradiction is a big part of the understanding of the novel through the supermarket scenes. It helps show that no matter how alike society is, there is always someone who breaks out of the box and is different.