Contradictions between Human Civilization and Natural...

White Noise is a celebrated post-modernist novel by Don DeLillo. The background setting is a small town called Blacksmith and the College-on-the-Hill which is located in the town. The novel depicts Jack’s family’s and the townspeople’s day-to-day life and their performance in a cataclysmic event, vividly showing the life in a modern society. The relationship between man and nature is one of the focuses of the novel. â€Å"Simply defined, ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment†¦ecocriticism takes an earth-centered approach to literary studies.† (Glotfeltyz). The natural environment that the characters in White Noise inhabit has been seriously ruined. The contradictions between human civilization and natural environment are revealed in many aspects in the novel. Deterioration of natural environment is the most direct consequence of nature’s absence. Man has abandoned a pastoral life and turned the world into an ugly and unpleasant place. In White Noise proofs can be found everywhere. City is changing the environment and climate in which man lives. â€Å"The heat of air, traffic and people. The heat of food and sex. The heat of tall buildings. The heat that floats out of the subways and the tunnels. It’s always fifteen degrees hotter in the cities. Heat rises from the sidewalks and falls from the poisoned sky. The buses breathe heat. Heat emanates from crowds of shoppers and office workers. The entire infrastructure is based on