I see a parallel in the way in which the sunsets and shopping sprees in White Noise seem to bring people/families together temporarily, absorbing whoever is watching/consuming, distracting them from their fears of death and freeing them from their everyday worries. People gather in crowds on the overpass to watch the sunsets, just as they do at the mall to go shopping. Jack describes the purpose of crowds as people wanting to gather to “keep out death…to break off from the crowd is to risk death as an individual” (73).
An excerpt from Ch.40 :
“We go to the overpass all the time. Babette, Wilder and I. We take a thermos of iced tea, park the car, watch the setting sun. We find little to say to each other. More cars arrive…People walk up the incline and onto the overpass, carrying fruit and nuts, cool drinks, mainly the middle-aged, the elderly…but younger couples also, arm in arm at the rail…Some people are scared by the sunsets, some determined to be elated, but most of us don’t know how to feel, are ready to go either way…The sunsets linger and so do we…There are people walking dogs, there are kids on bikes, a man with a camera and long lens, waiting for his moment. It is not until some time after dark has fallen, the insects screaming in the heat, that we slowly begin to disperse, shyly, politely, car after car, restored to our separate and defensible selves” (325).
People gather to watch the sunsets together, an ominous and sublime event. While they are there watching, the people seem unified within their families and even as a town, but as soon as the sunset is over, they all leave alone as “separate and defensible selves.” It seems as if the people come to watch the sunsets together because they feel safe from dying and from dying alone, but the sunsets can only provide temporary relief which is why they keep going back.
An excerpt from Ch.17:
“A band played live Muzak. Voices rose ten stories from the gardens and promenades, a roar that echoed and swirled through the vast gallery, mixing with the noises from the tiers, with shuffling feet and chiming bells, the hum of escalators, the sound of people eating, the human buzz of some vivid and happy transaction.
We drove home in silence. We went to our respective rooms wishing to be alone” (84).
This is Jack’s description of the mall as he is leaving after his family’s shopping spree. The mall seems ominous as well, almost supernatural with a life of its own. During the Gladney family shopping spree, there exists the illusion of the family being unified, shopping together, but when it’s all over, the Gladneys leave and return to their normal lives not as a family but as separate individuals, not even speaking to each other, wishing to be alone. But it seems like shopping provides everyone a temporary relief or diversion from the constant fear of death they all suffer from…as long as they stay together, shopping amongst the crowd of people in the mall, they feel protected from their fear of dying alone.