《白噪音》一向以其獨有的詼諧以及對資本主義社會精闢的洞察，擄獲讀者的心。然而，它開放式的結局卻持續地對讀者發出詮釋上的挑戰。最主要的問題在於，讀者必須決定，在同歷主人公之生活與恐懼後，是否還能在結局找到救贖的可能。作為敘述者與故事人物，傑克同時表顯了這兩種角色的張力：作為敘述者，他在某種程度上也是作者的代言人，引領讀者一窺資本主義社會之荒誕，另一方面，我們也可以將他當作當代人的原型，在他身上發掘與我們相似或差異的部分，進而反思自身生存的困境與出路。問題在於，當這作者的代言人似乎也不能自外於苟且之因循時，讀者是否仍能從文本裡求索一個替代的選擇，在資本主義全球化的今天，使本身存在的問題獲得解答？
本論文第一章便整理出以往評論建構《白噪音》所隱含的希望及其困難，提出以拉崗精神分析的主體理論，來重新探討個人與社會的關係，避免陷入主體完全被大他者構成，因而無法自由的陷阱，合法化文本裡社會批判的地位，卻也同時承認大他者影響的全面性。論文第二章即從困擾主角的身分認同切入，對照出整個社會無法消彌的缺漏；傑克的教授、丈夫與父親身分，讓他與讀者有機會看出人生存基本且必要的幻想，是如何與資本主義掛勾，甚且被利用來產生更多的剩餘價值。當角色們似乎只能被迫不斷地沉溺在痛苦的快感中時，傑克對死亡的恐懼使他暫時地脫離被動享受的惡性循環，他暴力的行為實際上反映資本主義社會保證幸福的失敗。論文第三章接續對死亡的討論，在小說的後半段裡，實化的恐懼讓傑克對往常所習慣的意識型態產生了一點距離，對新世紀宗教所應許的不滅狀態、對大學作為不可動搖的權威、對醫療科技對生命的管理產生了懷疑與不信任。在這一點上，傑克本可體現主體顛覆現存體系的可能。但對傑克蓄意謀殺與結局的記載深入探討後可發現，他實際上又重回到所習慣的享受規律中，甚且越發與被批判的資本主義社會相契合。本章分析了傑克心理的轉折，以及傑克道德淪喪的原因，乃是因為對真相的否認與對所熟悉快感不能分離所致。至此，讀者似已不能將希望置於主角身上。然而，結尾的模糊性和對死亡的定位卻也可以是作者最終的訊息。正如傑克面對的是不可知的超市出口，死亡也將不斷質疑資本主業社會的未來。在這期間，讀者仍須持續生活、面對挑戰。一個開放的結局其實間接突顯了小說的寫實性，也賦予讀者應有的自由，去對自己的生存困境做出最適合的解答。

For the readers of White Noise, the first issue he or she has to deal with is the relationship between the society and the individual. But DeLillo was never straightforward in Jack’s narrative. From time to time, the reader is asked to judge by themselves about the authorial intention and the narrator’s attitude toward the characters’ suffering. As both the narrator and a character, Jack Gladney typifies the tension of locating the hope of resistance in a seemingly hopeless situation. As the narrator, Jack’s attitude toward the corrupting force of the society would seem to vacillate among indifference and affirmation. Yet, his indifference would appear to be sarcastic or even accusatory if one remembers that he or she is reading one of DeLillo’s novels. The interpretive deadlock, then, can be summarized into the following question: if DeLillo intended to posit the possibility of resistance through the process of writing and reading, how can it be realized in the protagonist with whom the reader is invited to identify? Numerous approaches are adopted by the critics, and yet the enigmatic ending of the novel continues to challenge the results of their efforts. With ease, Jack Gladney returns to his normal routine after he nearly kills a man, but it is indicated that he is never the same person as exhibited in the previous chapters.
To determine the nature of transformation and its implication for the existence of hope, this thesis sets out to dissect the important elements in the last chapter. As the novel ends in Jack’s shopping, the chapter two of this thesis traces the influence of capitalism on the characters. It is found that the characters’ enjoyment of the consumerism is correlative with a fundamental imperfection in their sense of self. In narrating the stories about him, Jack Gladney cannot hide his anxiety for failing to be a good professor, husband and father. From a Lacanian perspective, the disjointedness reveals the failure of the system to provide all his needs. Still, Jack and others are spurred to immerse harder in the ever-revolutionizing mode of enjoyment, endlessly deferring from confronting the void inherent in all their pursuits.
Before Jack returns to shop for the last time in the novel, however, he is infected by toxic substance that causes him to eye the capitalist system with suspicion. During the outbreak of the disaster, the New Age belief system, painful enjoyment and environmental crisis are associated with the oppressive force of capitalist development. They all reappear in the end of the novel, yet they are no longer threats for Jack; instead, he finds them enjoyable. In the chapter three of this thesis, my analysis recounts how the characters’ reluctance to depart from their routine of enjoyment contributes to their intentional disavowals of the injuries the system brings to them. In Jack’s case, the biopolitical control that results in the elevation of the status of medical science and enjoyment causes him to resubmit himself more violently to the system. He becomes a killer and enjoys seeing himself as such who seems to contribute to all the subjects in the capitalist society. It is after such sad transformation that the final chapter begins, suddenly deflating the emotional turbulences accumulated throughout the previous chapters. The enigmatic vacuum is still accompanied by signs of Jack’s transformation. However, the omnipresence of death in the chapter seems to weaken the certainty for a pessimistic future of suffering in the capitalist system. Waiting before the checking out point, Jack is in fact facing to the end of vicious circle symbolically. The unfathomable death corresponds with the impossibility the reader encounters when interpreting the text. As the readers cannot determine what will happen after the terminal, they are actually freed from chopping the text for constructing hopes that will be contradicted by the remaining paragraphs at one point or another, while they have to put down the novel and go on living with the similar situations the novel portrays. Herein resides the hope: externalizing the deadlock of life for the reader, the end of White Noise testifies the ongoing procession of human history that cannot be anticipated beforehand.

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

Chapter 2: The Fluctuation of Subversion 36

Chapter 3: The Reign of Perversion 84

Chapter 4: Conclusion 126

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