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A Critical Analysis Of Videotape By Don Dilillo

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Videotape critical analysis
“Maybe the victims a chump, a sort of silent-movie dupe, classically unlucky” – Videotape. For years television and film have become more and more graphic, depicting gore to children that would have alarmed adults not long ago, especially in the news. This leads to distorting the lines between real life and fiction. In the short story Don DiLillo’s “Videotape” he explores the way that media twists real lives and circumstance into entertainment, and how desensitization of views has become a real problem in today’s society. Many children are being exposed to violence and gore at a young age, making the idea of real life misfortunes seem surreal, as demonstrated in Video Kid. For example, words like crude, blunt and stark are used to describe what Video Kid is filming. This is because the incident is not just some actor on a screen, but a …show more content…

Janet, the narrator’s wife, states that “[…] that’s why they’re out there, to provide our entertainment”. This is the twist that has been taken to heart by many of the media outlets now days, reporting more tragic, more terrifying pieces to their viewers. Not only that, but different mediums, such as magazines, have been known to make up or hyperbolize stories just to sell copies. Furthermore, the narrator often expresses how he is unable to look away from the video; he is subconsciously forced to re-watch the incident. This expresses how the media twist its news, into stories, with plots and characters, forcing you to feel how they want you to feel. They make you empathize with the victims, hate the villains and idolize the heroes that they want you to idolize. Their perspective becomes their viewers’ perspective, creating an army of followers. Thus, DiLillo describes how the media can no longer be trusted to report news, only create

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