Rhetoric Study

Rhetorically, Part One of the book is the most striking. It is the embodiment of Jack's quote at the end of chapter 6, "All plots tend to move deathward. This is the nature of plots." Taking this to heart, Jack attempts to live a life without a plot. His actions are haphazard and do not have a final goal. DeLillo successfully represents this concept through his meandering style.
In the excerpt from Chapter 8, DeLillo discusses Denise, Murray, Heinrich, Babette, Wilder, and Steffie in fragmented detail. He skips from incredible detail on one character to a completely related detail about the activities of another. In discussion, none of the characters listen to one another so they skip from topic to topic without communicating.
In this passage, DeLillo relates technology to death several times. He states that the compactor machine made a sound of eerie feeling. He also connects the radio to unfounded advice. Throughout the passage, he emphasizes sounds. The chaos of children moving in and out of the kitchen, the clanging and humming of various appliances, and the constant, meaningless noise that makes up the background of lives are featured. This seemingly random style and extreme detail about technology and noises brings the reader closer to the idea that plots and technology make up the "white noise" of a technology-influenced world and will eventually lead to death.
Chapter 8:

"At home Denise placed a moist bag of garbage in the kitchen compactor. She started up the machine. The ram stroked downward with a dreadful wrenching sound, full of eerie feeling. Children walked in and out of the kitchen, water dripped in the sink, the washing machine heaved in the entranceway. Murray seemed engrossed in the incidental mesh. Whining metal, exploding bottles, plastic smashed flat. Denise listened carefully, making sure the mangling din contained the correct sonic elements, which meant the machine was operating properly.

"Heinrich said to someone on the phone, 'Animals commit incest all the time. So how unnatural can it be?'

"Babette came in from running, her outfit soaked through Murray walked across the kitchen to shake her hand. She fell into a chair, scanned the room for Wilder. I watched Denise make a mental comparison between her mother's running clothes and the wet bag she'd dumped in the compactor. I could see it in her eyes, a sardonic connection. It was these secondary levels of life, these extrasensory flashes and floating nuances of being, these pockets of rapport forming unexpectedly, that made me believe we were a magic act, adults and children together, sharing unaccountable things.

"'We have to boil our water,' Steffie said.

"'Why?'

"'It said on the radio.'

"'They're always saying boil your water,' Babette said. 'It's the new thing, like turn your wheel in the direction of the skid. Here comes Wilder now. I guess we can eat.'

"The small child moved in a swaying gait, great head wagging, and his mother made faces of delight, happy and outlandish masks, watching him approach.

"'Neutrinos go right through the earth,' Heinrich said into the telephone.

"'Yes, yes, yes,' said Babette."