Characters
He is the protagonist and narrator, a professor of Hitler Studies.
Who is Jack Gladney?
Jack feels calmest when surrounded by this familiar, brightly light place
What is the supermarket?
Jack and Babette share this most fundamental fear
What is the fear of death
Jack's children often repeat information they've heard from this source, blurring the line between truth and fiction.
What are media broadcasts?
The clouds form when a train derails and releases this chemical substance.
What is Nyodene D?
Jack's wife who struggles with the fear of death and family anxieties.
Who is Babette Gladney?
Murray calls this shopping space the “last refuge of culture”
What is the supermarket?
Murray tells Jack that being near disasters makes people feel this way
What is more alive or more aware of life? ( ch. 21-22)
The Gladney home is filled with the background noise of this medium.
What is television
The event forces the Gladneys to leave their home and take shelter in this temporary location.
What is the evacuation camp/boy scout barracks?
The Gladneys’ youngest child who becomes fascinated with TV and consumer culture.
Who is Wilder Gladney?
The Gladneys often buy things they don't need, showing how consumerism distracts them from this.
What is death?
Babaette reads this book aloud to the elderly as a volunteer, symbolizing the human attempt to manage fear.
What is “The Theory of Forgetting and Mourning”?
Murray calls television this kind of “deathless” phenomenon.
What is a form of immortality or cultural afterlife?
Jack first learns he's been exposed to Nyodene D during this kind of medical check.
What is a computer or medical simulation (SIMUVAC test)?
This character is one of Jack’s children, often seen dealing with the ordinary chaos of family life.
Who is Heinrich?
The supermarket's repetitive order mirrors this pattern in modern life
What is routine or predictability?
Heinrich often tries to comfort himself by doing this during the toxic event, showing his control needs.
What is citing facts or arguing about scientific details?
Jack and his family learn about the toxic cloud from this kind of news source
What is the radio?
The official name for the toxic cloud changes several times, ending with this dramatic title.
What is “The Airborne Toxic Event”
This character is Jack's colleague and a source of humor and absurdity.
Who is Murray Jay Siskind?
Jack describes supermarket shopping as a kind of ritual that offers this emotional illusion.
What is safety or control? (ch. 6)
Jack begins to realize his own vulnerability when this happens during the SIMUVAC examination.
What is being told he has been exposed to/may have a lethal dose?
This constant background sound represents all the noise from the TV, radio, and everyday life.
What is White Noise?
Ironically, this emergency response organization uses real disasters as a practice exercise.
What is a SIMUVAC?