In the story "Videotape" by Dan DeLillo, a young girl losses innocence at an unexpected time. The narrator uses repetition to draw us into the story as if we are apart of it, almost creating a sense that we are losing our own innocence at the same time as the young girl videotaping. In addition to the repetition, the use of present tense throughout the whole thing creates a sense that this story keeps going on and everyone is there to witness it. The calm and informal way this story is presented makes it easier for the audience to relate to the young girl's situation.  All the elements used by the author such as repetition, verbal tense and story tone contribute to this bigger theme at hand of the young girl losing her innocence as we are there to experience it with her. 

With the repetition of "you" DeLillo tells the story in second person, which isn't a common point of view for a narrative. Doing so makes it seem like we, the readers, are apart of the story and are witnesses to this terrible crime. This use also forces us to relate more closely to the examples being presented, " ...you know about holidays and family celebrations and how somebody shows up with a camcorder" (DeLillo 54), which almost all of us can relate too, even if today we capture video on cellphones. The narrator wants us to become one with this story, so we can understand how the young child felt capturing this moment. It is captivating, but truly disturbing. " You don't usually call your wife over to the TV set" (DeLillo 54), this shows how we have to be sucked into this because of its elements of suspense. We experience the girl's loss of innocence right along with her. 

Unusual words such as "jolt" and jostle" are used a lot throughout this narration as well. These words stand out and match the unusual, unexpected situation. " The tape has this jostled sort of noneventness that marks the family product" (DeLillo 52), jostled is good because it describes the event as completely random and unplanned, so the videotape reflects not only that, but also the random trauma the young girl faces. " Now here is where he gets it. You see him jolted, sort of wireshocked" (DeLillo 54), jolted is used to explain the awkwardness of this moment, no one was expecting something like this to happens, so when it does everyone it just shaken by the event. Jolting is also used to explain the young girl video taping, "Here it comes, all right. He is shot, headshot, and the camera reacts, the child reacts-there is a jolting movement but she keeps on taping" (DeLillo 54). We see from this that the young girl suddenly jolts when she sees what was happening and it causes her body to immediately pull away from what she was seeing.

The story is also written in present tense. This video doesn't end, it keeps going, and someone could play it again and again as if it had meant to be filmed; "This is a crime designed for random taping and immediate playing" (DeLillo 54). This murder keeps going on when the video is played, it doesn't have to be something of the past.  "He is shot, headshot, and the camera reacts, the child reacts...there is a jolting movement, but she keeps taping" (DeLillo 54), live narration of the video is being told to us as if we are the people video taping it. The young girl can't seem to be able to stop taping this moment, even though it is gruesome. Her loss of innocence is inevitable because the situation draws in any human beings attention. 

The tone of the piece is important; the way it is delivered to us is very cold and distant. This situation is the least bit from serene and the way the narrator tells it makes it seems like he wants his readers to be distanced from the actual horrors. "It is instructional, watching a man shot dead as he drives along on a sunny day" (DeLillo 55), this is a very casual way of approaching a horrific death, but it seems like the narrator doesn't want to get too involved into the true horrors, so he stays distant with his blatant descriptions.  Also the cold and standoffish tone makes it seem like the narrator has no remorse for the young girl seeing what she did, " She wandered into it. The girl lost and wandered clear-eyed into a horror" (DeLillo 54). 

Loss of innocence is a common theme in literature; in this narrative it comes from witnessing the murder. The young girl cannot take back what she saw through the camera lens, and is therefore not an innocent, naive child anymore. Repetition flows throughout the story, and words such as "you", "jostle", and "jolt" are used multiple times in every paragraph to grasp the reader and throw them into the place of the young girl video taping this horrifying event.  Also, the present tense makes the story an ongoing event, something that can be replayed again and again because it was caught on tape. Lastly, the tone of this piece was important the story because it presents it in a casual way, which distances the audience from the actual horrors. All of these help convey this theme of loss of innocence, which affects every single person at some point in their lifetime. 


