In keeping with the Post Modernist tradition (oxymoron?) of including multiple perspectives on the same issue, I will focus on two books whose authors’ outwardly imposed identities are very different, whose goals appear for the most part unaligned, and whose techniques vary drastically. Morrison (Beloved) and DeLillo (White Noise) cite different reasons for their characters' and society's compromise of identity, but both of their works caution humanity against proceeding un-self-examined.

    In White Noise, language is devoid of meaning. Advertisement jingles run continuously through Jack’s sub-conscious. His children mumble brand names in their sleep. Every historical figure has been reduced from significance to a name and a commodity; Hitler sells. There is continual bombardment by white noise--meaningless background that, however uninformative, ties into a larger system from which humans cannot escape: "‘It is a corporate tie-in,’ Babette said in summary. ‘The sunscreen, the marketing, the fear, the disease. You can’t have one without the other’" (264). According to DeLillo, technology is what makes White Noise possible. Humans created technology to remove the only inevitability in life: death. People put tremendous amounts of faith into technology, taking medical test after test in the hope of honing in on the exact date of their death (since no medicine cures the inevitable). Does this reliance upon, faith in, flocking to technology relieve the fear of death? No. Would it, if it could provide us with exact dates of our death? According to Jack, it would not. Yet we exist in white noise, and only feel content if our vague sense of ourselves matches up with the identity the system tells us we are. Jack describes the "God" humans have created after the versateller printout of his account balance corresponded to his calculations: "Waves of relief and gratitude flowed over me...The system was invisible, which made it all the more impressive, all the more disquieting to deal with. But we were in accord, at least for now. The networks, the circuits, the streams, the harmonies" (46). DeLillo describes the paradox: technology both gives us life (helping cure disease, etc.) and takes life away (Airborne Toxic Event). And technology is what we turn to in order to alleviate our fear of death (Dylar). In every sense, humans have made technology into a God. DeLillo constructs a world in which everything is devoid of meaning, including God (even nuns admit they don’t have faith). We turn to technology to interpret our world infallably, yet technology is uninterpretable. The more we rely on technology, the more we lose our own identity: "In a crisis the true facts are whatever other people say they are. No one’s knowledge is less secure than your own" (120). The ultimate measure for identity loss is not fear of death, which sets all humans apart from animals regardless of technology, but the fear of dying alone. Individuality, in fact identity in anything less than a consumer group, as Murray points out, is frightening: "Crowds came to form a shield against their own dying. To become a crowd is to keep out death. To break off from the crowd is to risk death as an individual, to face dying alone. Crowds came for this reason above all others. They were there to be a crowd" (73). DeLillo concludes the book in a consumer culture’s most basic environment (and also a Post Modernist’s, whose forefather was Ginsberg): the supermarket, where white noise invades from all the fringes, brightly colored objects line the isles, and everyone waits together to die together. Rather a grim picture, but written in an amusing tone, DeLillo characterizes his view of human action as if the weather mass (unpredictable, uncontrollable) represents death: "Whipped into a frenzy, they hurried to the supermarket to stock up before the weather mass moved in...Hoarders in a war. Greedy, guilty" (167-168).

    Beloved shows how the past is implicit in the present. In order for Sethe to plan a future, she must define who she is now. And in order for her to define who she is now, she must deal with the infanticide she committed in the past. But her history is not fully accessible to her because it carries a communal weight; she shares her experience with all African slaves, many of whom died on the ships coming to America, leaving their perspectives unknowable. Morrison argues explicitly that Sethe’s captivity was directly responsible for her loss of identity. Because slave owners separated mothers and children at will, slaves were denied any familial identity. Since the slaves did not own themsleves, they could not love (because they didn’t own their hearts, the organ capable of loving others) even once they were freed. Several of the freed slaves in Beloved confuse the right to love with ownership, Beloved embodying the ensuing consumption. Only after Sethe has confronted her most shameful actions from her past is she able to accept Paul D.’s offer to plan a future together. Morrison is asking America to follow Sethe’s example, and confront its past. Implying slavery in America as it relates to American culture, Morrison writes: "Although she has claim, she is not claimed" (274). It is time to examine our identity.
 
 

    Post Modernism does not define itself, in creating its own identity, as a movement disconnected from preceding ideas. Its very name implies that the roots of its teaching are planted in Modernism. Whereas Modernism only incorporated the future into the present, Post Modernism also incorporates the past into the future, pointing out that the present is dependent upon the past, and that the future is created by the present’s interpretation of history.

    That our interpretations of history are colored by our cultural identity is not a realization unique to Post Modernism. Many minority and female writers are questioning text book, or traditional descriptions of historical incidences because they are contextualized from only one viewpoint, and people are becoming increasingly aware that perspective--identity--alters perception.

    Post Modernist architecture collects styles from different historical periods and combines them into one building. Is the columnal allusian to the Roman Empire a symbol devoid of meaning because it has been implemented out of context? Or can a column erected in down town Los Angeles in the 20th century conjure an historical time period from before Christ? Since the past has already happened, and we can no longer experience it first hand, we must rely on some form of its representation if we want to include it in our present identity. This desire to base identity on history poses several problems. No account can be complete, but an account that includes multiple perspectives at least admits its own and every other attempt’s shortcomings. But of course even a Post Modernist compilation of multiple perspectives inevitably leaves out a lot. In some cases the historical event itself resulted in a loss of identity e.g. the millions of Africans who died captive on boats bound for America. Post Modernist literature uses several unique writing techniques in an attempt to recapture lost perspectives, among them are multiple first person narrations, inclusion of the supernatural, and  re-telling in non-chronological order.

    Morrison brings her novel to a conclusion by giving each main character in the story an opportunity to tell a brief story from His/Her own perspective.

    His/Her: The Post Modernist idea that disestablishes traditional dualism could theoretically be carried to the extreme where a new word would need to be invented to characterize people who are neither male nor female, male or female, but both male and female (transsexual and transvestite don’t count).

    Beloved describes life on a slave ship   in poetic prose   referring to Sethe's face   a dead face on top of her   the image of all slaves who died on the boat crossing to america    who died when their souls were captured in Africa   she refers to a hot thing   hot thing hell   hot thing womb  hot thing joining of mother and daughter   symbolic of joining of history and present    symbolic of fulfilling identity

    Beloved has another chapter  in this chapter  pronouns are confused. words and what they represent.  are merged   this is morrison's attempt to get us out of language  the author who is limited by language calls attention to mechanical limitations language places on every sentence in her novel  most language has punctuation to make it understandable   the above paragraph shows how morrison wrote the chapter from beloved's point of view an absence of punctuation contributes to an absence of definitiveness  it is uncomfortable to read difficult to understand  a simple period makes all the difference  a simple declaration instead of leaving interpretation open makes life easier  this is the lesson of post modernism  easier is not necessarily better   it rarely is (.)